Into the wilderness

You know God doesn't exist? Yeah? We all agree on that? Good. Well, if he did (which he doesn't) and he decided to forsake somewhere (which he won't, because, remember, he doesn't exist) it would be Garnlydan Reservoir. Hats off to the chap who summoned the fortitude to go birding there this afternoon, let's face it, if anyone deserved to find a Gwent rare today it was him. Handily, the Wryneck in all its streaky loveliness, was easy to relocate (location marked 'X' on the sketch map below or details on the GOS sightings page here), less handily about half an hour after we arrived so did a thousand year storm. The bird, quite understandably, took cover in the lone bush on the banking of the reservoir; the two birders, less understandably, stood in the raging gale and horizontal precipitation like a pair of prize plums. Finally, the penny dropped that this was but the first of a likely 960 hours of rain, and we squelched our way back to the cars with a nice Gwent year-tick, moist underwear (mostly caused by weather ingress) and incipient bouts of pneumonia to show for our trip into the uplands.

The star bolts for cover, presumably mistaking the nearby Hawthorn for Gopher Wood.

Map showing location of Wryneck (click to see larger version).

[NB. Gopher Wood?! WTF was/is Gopher Wood? I mean, beyond just one of the more obvious transliteration errors in the Bibble.]