Pop goes the local local patch

Grey Phalarope at Ynysyfro,... down a toilet roll,... through a fence.

Stopped off at Ynysyfro hoping for a Black Tern,... found a Grey Phal.  It dibbled about at doughnut distance, about as close as it could be, still found a way to take a truly awful photo though.  Should you wish to emulate the above masterpiece you will need: a naff camera (ideally with a mushy jpeg engine that is more than a touch over-zealous on the noise reduction side of things); a toilet roll; a fence; the patience of a saint; one red sock; one blue sock; and,...Years. Of. Practice. 

It turns out this is the third Grey Phal to grace the reservoirs.  Gutted it wasn't an Ynysyfro first.

Trees, logs, wood, etc.

Up and down to Scotland during three of the last four weeks.  As an aficionado of alien forestry and the M6, it has been an absolute joy.  Have seen a few raptors,... silver linings and all that.

Given all these trees have been chopped off at the ankles, it seems weird that only one is visibly unhappy. Perhaps all the others just happen to be facing the other way.

PS. Have managed a couple of visits to Ynysyfro where Green and Common Sandpiper pottered about the upper pool, which also hosted a single Teal; and a Kingfisher buzzed about the lower reservoir. 

A moth struggles with mortality

Red-necked Footman Atolmis rubricollis.

Popped downstairs to make a cup of tea.  Heard a teeny-tiny tapping, a teeny-tiny tapping of a Red-necked Footman's foot at the kitchen door.  On opening said door, he begged, in a teeny-tiny voice, begged to be photographed, begged to have his teeny-tiny likeness recorded for posterity.

"Why?" I asked, "Why do you want your teeny-tiny likeness recorded for posterity?" 

He recovered himself a little, stroked an antenna and, in that enigmatic manner for which footmen are famed, quoted Boltanski by way of reply:

"We are all so complicated and then we die.  We are a subject one day, with our vanities, our loves, our worries, and then one day, abruptly, we become nothing but an object, an absolutely disgusting pile of shit.  We pass very quickly from one stage to the next, it's very bizarre.  It will happen to all of us, and fairly soon too."

"But what if,..." I proffered, paraphrasing the aforementioned Frenchman so as not to appear the less well-read in this exchange between man and moth, "... what if I take your photograph, and then you die, and then, at some point in the dim and distant future, no one on earth recognizes you in the photograph?  You will have died twice."

"I'll take the risk, you take the photo,..." quipped the invertebrate, "... and make sure you get my good side."

Valentia semi-uplandia

Common and approachable things that have been close to me whilst I have had my phone in my hand over the last week or so,…

 Cloudberry Rubus chamaemorus growing through a ‘reindeer lichen’ Cladonia sp.

Cloudberry growing through Heather Culluna vulgaris.

Cloudberry growing through moss Sphagnum sp. They do like to grow through stuff.

 Northern Eggar Lasiocampa quercus f. callunae larva.

 

 Garden Tiger Arctia caja larva or ‘woolly bear’.

Two-banded Longhorn Beetle Rhagium bifasciatum, couldn’t fly straight for all the tea in a place where there is a lot of tea, e.g. China,… or a Sainsbury’s distribution centre.

Large Pine Weevil Hylobius abietis, one of the worst/best (depending on human/weevil point of view) pests of commercially important coniferous trees in Europe.

Wood-sorrel Oxalis acetosella a mainstay of the depauperate ground flora usually found in alien forestry.

Sand Spurrey Spergularia rubra on a forestry track.

Saw a bird!

Saw the Greater Yellowlegs at Posbrook Floods today,... which was nice.  

Twilight of the,... err,... everything really

The Borders in the gloaming; the gloaming in the Borders.

In reiver country for much of the last week.  The ranks of alien conifers and denuded hillsides beyond are all but devoid of Black Grouse; atop the ridge the peaty-puddled heathery plateau is free of Hen Harrier; and the carbon dioxide in the sky above is tipping the balance at 400 ppm.

Take a bow everybody,... take a bow.

Rude bunny

A baby rabbit sticking its tongue out at the camera,... as they often do.

Gobble, gobble.

Female Lapwing looking a little bit 'down'.  It must be something to do with those great big eyes (and the tremulous cries) but they always seem to wear their emotions on their sleeve don't they.

Now that we can expect all those Tory promises to come to fruition, especially as those pesky Liberals aren't there to rein in the really loopy right-wingers, I have been through the Tory manifesto to pick out the stuff relevant to the local birder (all direct quotes from the 'little blue book'),...

1. "We will provide fuck-all leadership on climate change, we will do the bare-arse minimum as long as it doesn’t cost us (or our multi-national corporate pals) anything."
2. "We will continue to water down environmental protection measures, you wanna build a housing estate on a SSSI? Crack on! We might even drop all that pesky European legislation. SPAs? SACs? Fuck that foreign guff."
3. "On airport expansion, we say 'More planes, fuck yeah!' We might even build a landing strip in the middle of an estuary! We’re plane bonkers."
4. "We will start all manner of new road building schemes because one motorway from A to B is never enough. The Gwent Levels? We’ll level Gwent alright."
5. "We will fuck over the renewable energy industry because: a. now they want to put turbines in Tory constituencies and we can’t have that; and b. our friends in the oil, coal and gas sector give us bigger cheques."
6. "There will be more tax breaks for North Sea oil and gas. Looking after our ‘friends in the north’."
7. "Fracking? Frack yeah! We're gonna frack under your house. We're gonna frack your water supply. We are fracking mad for it."
8. "Badger, Fox and Hen Harrier culling will be made Olympic events. Tally ho!"

Fortunately, none of the above should unduly worry anyone because they are promising to "look after the economy".  Unfortunately, whilst you might think this will mean you and your family will be better off, it actually means their mates in the multi-national corporations can just get back to harvesting what is left of our natural resources, collective wealth and human capital.  Oops!

So, anyhooooo,... you just run along now, get back in your cage, gorge yourself on the lies, page three girls, celebrity gossip and footy in your paper; run up your credit card bill and pay your mortgage.  Stand aside and, whilst you stare at your shiny new mobile phone, allow the city boys to rape the planet. Feel free to gawp over the 24 hour loop-the-loop news coverage of the spluttering, guttering death of the welfare system.  It'll all be alright, it's not like you or your family will be needing the NHS or an environment anyway because you invested in that magical spaceship you keep in the shed and when it gets really bad you can just pop down the garden and,...

WHOOOOOOOSH!

Well done you. That is some impressive foresight you showed there,... and you are in no way a turkey that just voted for Christmas. 

Gobble.

PS. Two Turnstone, a Barwit, five Blackwit, 360 Dunlin, 10+ Ringed Plover, etc., at Goldcliff.

Foghorn longhorn

Somebody… ah say somebody… knocked.  What’s the big… ah say,… what’s the big idea knocking on my door?!  You’re a moth son,… moths don’t knock on doors!  This boys making more noise than a couple of skeletons on a tin roof.  I’m trying to have my breakfast boy, you’re taking the food right outta my mouth… I don’t go round flitting about lights,… listen to me boy… pay attention when I’m talking to ya,… now you stay away from doors and I’ll stay away from lights.  You're not payin' attention boy!

Nice moth but he’s got more nerve than a bum tooth.  Hey that’s a joke son,… ah say a joke,… don’t ya geddit?

Nematopogon swammerdamella, neither particularly good looking nor rare as 'longhorn' moths go but a great one to know next time you’re playing scrabble.

Bring da rain

Three early mornings at Uskmouth and Goldcliff, one breezy, one moist, one flipping moist.  Apart from a single Grasshopper Warbler, a couple of Cuckoo and a Curlew Sandpiper, very little of note.

The highlight of the weekend thus far was my attempt to drown a group IDCD* punters.  Failed miserably though, they all survived the deluge, some of them even appearing to enjoy the trial by water.  Foiled again.   

[Enter witty caption about weather and ducks.]

* International Dawn Chorus Day, more information at http://www.idcd.info/ 

HUDWIT!!!

An underwing of pure velvety blackness. 

Left home to do a Firecrest survey,... ended up bombing over to Meare Heath for a stonking all-of-the-whole-wide-world tick.  What a flipping beauty, showed really well, performed a couple of flypasts and then plonked itself down more-or-less as close as it could get to the assembled twitch.  What a jolly well-behaved bird.  A half-decent, albeit largely predictable, supporting cast was racked up too: Great White Egret, Bittern, Marsh Harrier, Hobby, Wood Sandpiper,...  

Popped in on Goldcliff on the way home: 10 Barwit [all three godwits on the British list in a day, how terribly satisfying], 3 Blackwit, 3 Spotshank, 2 White Wagtail, etc.  Also distant flight views of two of the plastic Cranes.

PS.  Does anyone know anything about the Little Gull reported from the "Newport Wetlands" this afternoon?  "Newport Wetlands" doesn't really narrow it down much.

Addendum: details on the Little Gull via GOS site "Goldcliff [...] 2nd-summer, flew in and landed on 1st lagoon briefly before flying off north-east".

Stone-curlew

Having vanquished the über bogey that was Pied Flycatcher, I thought it might be a bit much to expect another patch tick this spring.  But no!  Goldcliff produces another wader, albeit a rather odd one.  Flipping Stone-curlew, get in! 
 

 The view throughout the afternoon.  Not great.  It's,... it's in the rushes.

 And then, rather predictably, it came out to play at dusk.

 Ended up coming reasonably close.  Which was handy for the patient few and/or wily types who rocked up late in the day.

Though not doughnut distance,... and it was dark,... hence the gawd awful pics.

By the way, the bird was/is colour-ringed and seems to have been ringed in 2010 at Porton Down on the Wiltshire/Hampshire border.  Thanks to Messrs Rylands and Tomalin for the rapid provision of information. 

"Are they still there?"

Three hours at Goldcliff, all three notable for their distinct lack of proper migrants.  Copious amounts of rain fell but neither LRP, Sand Martin nor Wheatear had bothered to drop in.  A (non-singing) Chiffchaff tried, and failed, to give the impression that nature's twice yearly spectacle was underway but I had to make do with a reasonable array of waders and wintering hangers-on.  The waders included 11 Bar-tailed Godwit, six Ruff, three Knot, three Spotted Redshank, two Greenshank, three Grey Plover and just the one (count 'em) Ringed Plover.  On the winter visitor front, the female Merlin was probably the best.

At Boat Lane the semi-notables included another (non-singing) Chiffchaff, one of Marsh Harriers and a few more Black-tailed Godwits.

Two Pintails managing to maintain their elegant air despite the dreich and the appearance overhead of wingèd death.

NB. The 'they' in the titular enquiry referred to Avocet,... and yes,... yes, they are still there. 

Exalted among the heathen

A lone deciduous Scot surrounded by legions of innumerable coniferous aliens.

[Addendum: Dear Google Adsense, What. Are. You. On. About?!]

Angels of death

A few images of the five Glaucous Gulls and some of their friends that were knocking about Ponta Delgada harbour last week.  Came to bread like your average Aylesbury.  As ever, click on the images for slightly larger versions.

"Big ones, small ones, some as big as your head..."

Lovely bit of photo-bombing by a first-winter 'Azores Gull'.

A different oooooge great big one.

Second-winter angel of death.

One or two birds showed a reasonable amount of head streaking producing a slightly hooded effect,...

... but the general impression of all five individuals was of uniformly pale birds, perhaps they'd spent their winter in a bleaching southerly sun.  Feather mites were apparent on at least a couple of the birds.

Contrasted beautifully with the local volcanic rock, nice little test of the new camera's dynamic range.

Mostly Azores gulls,... mostly

Flight to Lisbon, night in a decent hotel, flight to Terceira, abortive landing attempt at a fog-bound Lajes, flight back to Lisbon, night in Lisbon's answer to the Hotel Earle, another flight to Terceira,...

And so began my latest trip to the Azores.  However, once the stop-starty start had been overcome it was a high-octane, fun-filled, knockabout adventure amidst the beautiful landscapes of Terceira and São Miguel.

High-octane gulling, I assume he was gulling as he was tazzing around within metres of the pontoons in Ponta Delgada harbour.  He probably got some cracking views of Glaucous and Ring-billed Gull.  

The port at Praia da Vitória,... in the dark; moments earlier two Bonaparte's Gull, two Mediterranean Gull and 15 Ring-billed Gull had tucked their bills under their wings and settled down to sleep for the night.

On Terceira, days were largely spent touring such fragrant delights as the tip, the fishing port and the oil refinery quarry in search of a mythical hyphenated larid (think Glaucous-winged, Slaty-backed, Black-tailed,...).  In between times we took time to stare in wonder and awe at 'Azores Gull' (for which read, 'obtain yet more photos and some very poor sound recordings'). 

Gull.  Tip.  Gull tip tip: speak to the manager of the tip and gain a VIP pass and a front row seat at the tipping face,... get in! 

Second-winter 'Azores Gull' on a bollard.  [Dear reader, as per any reference to large white-headed gulls, please remember to add the suffix '-type' in your head after the assumed age class as, a. I can't be bothered to type it every five seconds, and b. neither you, me or anyone else can be 100% sure of this little bleeder's age.  Some of them do weird shit and we shouldn't let them get away with it.]
 

First-winter 'Azores Gull', this one looks a bit fluffy because it is preening in readiness for going out on the town, they don't all look this fluffy.

First-winter 'Azores Gull', the main confusion species here is Laughing Gull, just because a gull is laughing does not mean it's a Laughing Gull.  This one is actually laughing because it had seen a hilarious discussion about a stringy 'Azores Gull' on Facebook.

Second-winter 'Azores Gull'.  There is always a modicum of head-scratching when gull watching, this one is pondering the much overlooked conundrums that Lesser Black-backed Gull can cause. 

An, as yet unidentified, small, presumably first-winter, gull.

Variously aged 'Azores Gulls' all nicely lined up on the quayside.  On this evidence it appears first-winters and adults can appear very fuzzy, an anti-predator strategy p'raps?

Probably an advanced second-winter,... or retarded third-winter,... or downright educationally subnormal fourth-winter,...

A poorly looking fish.  Luckily this Great Black-backed Gull was on hand to attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation,... did not go quite as it should.  I should probably have intervened when the gull started by pulling the patient's guts out through his bunghole,... I knew that wasn't what you're supposed to do.  

 

Sub-adult (third/fourth-winter) 'Azores Gull' with young 'uns looking on. 

The gull roost in the port at Praia da Vitória. 

Ickle Bunting

Arrived at the hide 20 minutes after it had 'done one' (largely due to the fact I got horribly lost in the uncharted wilds of Forest Farm).  Waited two hours,... and then a bit,... and then out it popped into the unforgiving midday sun.
 

When not sheltering in the hazel hurdles-cum-hedge, the wee fella fed directly in front of the olive-clad throng.  Nice find Messers Powell and Gilmore. 

NB.  I should just take this opportunity to bring the readers attention to the borderline subliminal near prediction of this species in last week's post.  Just one county out.  Bugger.  

The end of an era,... *sob*

I seem to remember some bright spark once wanting to rename these Orange-breasted Scrub-chat,... or did I just make that up?

 
Having tired of waiting for Nikon to produce a proper update to the D300 (i.e. something built to be bashed about with an AF-ON button, a decent sized buffer, etc.), I have finally replaced mine with a D810 (which is exactly what Nikon are wanting D300/D300s users to do).  That means three things: 1. there is a slight whiff of melancholia in the air due to the passing of a much-cherished camera; 2. the Robin redbreast pictured above is the last bird to grace my D300’s sensor; and 3. I have a handful of accessories that require a new home, namely,…  

1. Two Nikon EN-EL3e rechargeable lithium-ion batteries for use in Nikon D50, D70/D70s, D80, D90, D100, D200, D300, D300s and D700.  Details of which are available on the Nikon website at http://www.europe-nikon.com/en_GB/product/accessories/slr/slr-power/batteries/battery-en-el3e

2. A Kirk BL-D300 L-bracket for use with Nikon D300 and D300s.  Details available on the Kirk Enterprises website at http://www.kirkphoto.com/L-Bracket_for_Nikon_D300.html

3. Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D300 (second edition) ebook and Thom Hogan’s Nikon D300 To Go (2nd edition) ringbound real physical book (a compact reference companion to the ebook).  Some information on the series (though not this particular book, which is no longer available) at http://www.dslrbodies.com/books/

If anyone is interested in the above drop me a line (leave a comment below, email gwentbirdingblog@gmail.com, DM me on Twitter, attach a missive to a pigeon's leg, put a message in a bottle, etc.)  All are in a used but perfectly serviceable state.  I will willingly swap them for small amounts of money, failing that, I might be open to barter (e.g. beer, wine, cakes, a good egg-laying chicken, a young goat, etc., etc.) 

Doon the patch

A morning on the patch. Water Pipit and Marsh Harrier were the highlights with just enough Water Rails, Stonechats and Cetti's Warblers dotted about to stop me from dozing off. Also a reasonable number of waders on the foreshore with a big flock of Dunlin near the mouth of the Usk.

A half-decent flock of 50 Reed Bunting were knocking about near the seaward end of the floating bridge,... what price a Little?   

I saw the light

Another week north of the border, mostly spent up to my eyeballs in, increasingly excitable, Crossbills.  Singing their little twisty-schnozzled faces off they were.

Woke up in a snow globe this morning, the sun beat off the last of the snow flurries,... and the visibility was incredible.  It was that clear I could see the future.  I saw unspeakable vulgarity, institutionalised mediocrity, infinite tragedy, little souls rising up and joining a doomed army to fight the good fight and wage the unwinnable war.  I also saw a Crossbill with a half decent wingbar and well-marked tertials, inner secondaries and median coverts to boot.

A 'barred Crossbill', not that you can make it out but the median coverts were pale tipped/edged too. Also note the gross under-exposure, chromatic aberration and almost complete lack of anything in focus. Yay for digiscoping.

PS. Yay for the Divine Comedy too.