Hey! Whitey!

The near mythical ghost Coot of Ynysyfro Reservoirs/Tredegar House lake.  Ynysyfro's unicorn.  Brings a tear to the eye.  In other, not unrelated, news,... Ynysyfro was a bit shit again this week.

Grey skies, grey water, grey mud

One of two Jack Snipe seen between Collister and West Pill this morning. I've blogged about it before (click here) but finding them on the deck is still one of my favourite games. Other waders present included a single Golden Plover and three Turnstone, both loosely associating with a large wheeling mass of Dunlin.

Having failed to bag a Skylark, despite a prolonged lung-busting chase, this female Merlin briefly harassed a passing flockette of Dunlin. The desultory pursuit didn't come to much, pretty sure she was just lashing out in frustration due to the lack of lark for lunch.

PS. The adult Mediterranean Gull is still doing well at the Lyne Road McDonald's thanks to their clients' inability to put litter in a bin. Are gulls the highest form of life that can survive on McDonald's food?

 

Look up

Hanging from the topmost cable of one of the lines of pylons above Uskmouth Lagoons. It appears this 1st-winter Blackwit had managed to get its lower mandible caught between the two intertwined wires. Presumably/hopefully died on impact. Not a great look for a nature reserve,... or National Grid.

Dear Iceland, we owe you a Black-tailed Godwit.

Ooge great finches

An abortive trip to Staines for the 'Horned Lark' ended, after negative news and a slight detour, at Wishmoor Bottom. The Parrot Crossbills performed well enough, even managed a few recordings (albeit complete with 'twitch ambience'). The following morning, a brief stop on the way back produced three Hawfinch at Eversley GPs. A new one for the former patch. Eversley is, ironically enough, a place at which I've seen a vagrant inland Shorelark (1998! Second[?] record for Berks at the time). 

People often ask me how I get such great photographs, well, in this case, I just set the camera to 'crayon' and blazed away until I got a good shot.

Devon spuggie

Had a day out for the putative Italian Sparrow at East Budleigh. Saw the bird a couple of times, grabbed a photo or two, looks like an Italian, just need the bird to give up a feather and the DNA to support the plumage now.

The supporting cast, one of a handful of Cirl Bunting showing rather well in the Devon sunshine.

Wintering Sylvia.

Whitethroat between Collister and West Pill, 12th November 2017. The first November record for Gwent, the previous latest being 30th October 1986.   

Thought I had something good when this flicked out of the saltmarsh and disappeared into a bramble. A wintering Whitethroat isn't bad but it might have been something better.  An apparently damaged left wing seemed to explain its tardiness. Looked like and adult male (TF5 tipped pure white, TF6 edged and tipped pure white, TFs broad/rounded; no moult contrast in GCs; grey visible at base of crown feathers [when viewed from behind and feathers slightly raised]; pure grey on lores, around eye and at rear margin of ear-coverts; grey on LCs; pure white throat; yellowish-brown iris).

Yellow-browed free zone

Goldcrest, Redwick.

Another in an ongoing series of searches of perfectly serviceable Yellow-browed Warbler habitat; another dose of Blackcap, Chiffchaff and Goldcrests; another blank in the way of anything better. Yellow-browed would do, Pallas' or Hume's would be much appreciated. 

Patch tick Snow Bunting

Rock,... rock,... blob.

Having been unable to relocate it after DW's find on the 22nd it was nice to get a second go a week later.  Looked like a 1st-winter male, as did the last one I saw in the county (for more on that bird see the very first Gwent Birding blog post ever). My first on the patch,... which is nice. 

Pigeonageddon

The first flock just post-dawn, like a wisp of smoke in the distance. But it was not a wisp of smoke,... oh no,... it was not.

They just kept coming. Relentless. Flocks overlapping flocks overlapping flocks all the way to the horizon. A psychologically damaging number of pigeons. Is there a cognitive therapy for post-traumatic pigeon disorder? Nurse!

Quack, quack, quack

A quacky duck at Uskmouth Country Park.