The countdown has begun

Corvo is starting to come to a nice simmer with American Redstart and Bobolink in the last few days, another week of work and I'm off to join the party. Olof, currently on Corvo for a first (marathon) season, is blogging daily here; Peter and Simon are closing in fast (having completed their chumfest) and their adventures can be followed here. Official news is probably best garnered from Staffan et al. here. The usual mix of profanity, misinformation and downright lies will, of course, be brought to you on this very blog,... just as soon as I get out there. With luck I'll be able to Twitter on the hoof, imagine that, a live text feed from the WP land of milk and honey/ham and cheese/wicker and man (delete as appropriate).

In the meantime, something for the über natural historians amongst you, a little poser. Can you identify the subject of the piccy below? The prize for the supplier of the first correct answer is to be revered like a god wherever you go, rose petals shall be scattered before your every step and a fanfare of golden trumpets shall sound as you awake each new morn. Failing that, you might get a "Well done sir!" or, at the very worst, a "How the f**k did you know that?!"

Big blue wobbly thing where mermaids live

Just back from a few days with the lovely people at Marinelife on the 'Pride of Bilbao'.

In addition to the downright freakery of the ferry inhabiting primates, true ocean-dwelling stuff included: 50+ Bottle-nosed, 40+ Short-beaked Common and 60+ Striped Dolphin (tart's tick, yay!), 20+ Harbour Porpoise, 5 Fin Whale (including one of the, as yet undescribed, sub-species quasimodoensis, see pic), 30+ Pilot Whale (assumed Long-finned), 2 Sperm Whale, 1 Basking Shark and a tonne of tuna. Unfortunately, I didn't connect with Cuvier's Beaked Whale although a few were reported and both Minke Whale and Ocean Sunfish snuck past too. The only beaked whale I got onto remained stubbornly unspecified, it was either Northern Bottlenose or Cuvier's but the undemonstrative little bastard didn't show enough to shimmy onto the list (do beaked whales shimmy? We may never know).

Nothing outrageous on the seabird front but approximate totals included: 80 Great, 30 Sooty and 1 Med Shear, 20 Stormies, 60 Great and 1 Arctic Skua plus 4 Sabine's Gull. Mid-bay migrants included 1 Kestrel, 3 Turnstone, 2 Bar-tailed Godwit, 5 Swallow, 5 alba wags, 300 Meadow Pipit, 4-5 Chiffchaff, 1 Starling and a Clouded Yellow. On the hill behind Santurtzi Turtle Dove, Hoopoe, Sardinian Warbler, Red-backed Shrike and Serin were knocking around with a good number of chats, flycatchers, etc. (plus helice Clouded Yellow, Adonis Blue, Wall Lizard sp. and Autumn Lady's Tresses); and the port was peppered with, assumed though not grilled, 'Cantabrican' Yellow-legged Gull (only saw 1 Med Gull though but at least 10 were later seen just outside Portsmouth).

A rather pristine 1st-cal year Bonxie, there were also plenty of tatty, mid post-breeding moult, adults around.

A shy (I assume that's why he is hiding his face) dark/melanistic Short-beaked Common Dolphin, apparently none too rare in the bay.

Road to nowhere

Carbon dioxide emissions are predicted to fall by 2.6% this year as a direct result of the global economic nose-dive. This is good news in spite of, rather than thanks to, governments' actions. Had it been possible, the grey-suited, shiny-shoed 'elites' from Brasília to Beijing would have avoided this reduction in greenhouse gases in favour of economic activity, a fact that rather flags up a fundamental problem - the hegemony of the Finance Ministers. When do you suppose the second most important job in government will be the Minister for the Environment? At what point will policies have to pass an assessment of climate change/biodiversity impact, as opposed to leap through an economic hoop, before being trumpeted in the manifesto/leaked to the media/announced on YouTube? And, while I'm at it, when will Ed Milliband's job be more about fighting climate change and less about securing energy supplies; and Hilary Benn's more about reversing biodiversity loss as opposed to sucking up to farmers and fishermen?

The nihilist within is sustained by the fact that he doesn't have kids but instead has lovingly nurtured a twisted enjoyment of watching humans suffer. The optimist within is lying in a hospital bed surrounded by grey-faced doctors whilst a figure with a scythe stands in the corner looking at his watch.

Just short of good and evil

A goodish day but still lacking in real quality. Seven warbler species in the reeds and scrub at Uskmouth/Farmfield this morning included: 1 Grasshopper, 2 Sedge, about 20 Reed and 1 Willow. Additional, earthbound, migrants included 2 Whinchat and 3 Stonechat flicking about in the sunflower field whilst, overhead, movement consisted of a trickle of Skylarks, hirundines, Mipits, Yellow and Grey Wags.

Où est l'oiseau rare?

A quick squizz at Goldcliff Pools this afternoon produced 2 Little Stint and 2 Ruff amongst other bits and bobs. Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs all over the shop at Uskmouth and still a few Reed Warblers knocking about, but nothing too exciting. The hirundine roost wasn't particularly impressive either. There must be something slightly better lurking out there.

Sinner!?

Has the proportion of 'in-betweeny' carbo/sinensis cormorants in the UK increased beyond the 10% as per Newson (2000)? During those idle moments, when my attention is drawn to the lovely little fellas, I seem to come across a fair few which I'd suggest are best left unassigned (see below).

Given the vagaries of field observation, the drawing of little white lines on photographs and the holding of one's protractor up to a shiny-shiny Apple screen, at circa 78° this bird is very close, or quite possibly within, the 66-75° overlap zone. Presumably this individual is either at the bottom end of the range of sinensis, a hybrid, or possibly, an immature bird with an, as yet, incompletely developed pouch. Well that's cleared that up then.

PS. Obviously none of the above refers to birds seen in Gwent, that would imply something of ornithological interest occurring within the county, a ridiculous assertion at the best of times.

Predictable?

Couldn't help myself, got to Goldcliff pre-dawn and set about looking for the latest in this autumn's amazing run of megas*. Unfortunately, no flicker. Slightly more surprising, I was the only person down there; surely, however unlikely, the potential risk of missing a mega outweighs the, much much greater likelihood, that it would be a wasted morning. That said, I had to make do with 1 Redstart and 1-2 Reed Warblers in the hedgerows and 3 Wigeon, 3 Spotted Redshank, 1 Green Sandpiper, 4 Greenshank and 30 Snipe on the pools,... should have stayed in bed.

* So far Glossy Ibis, Little Whimbrel, Northern Flicker and Greenish Warbler have all been reported in, or within spitting distance of, Gwent this autumn, amazing huh? It's better than Fairly Vile round here.

Optimism dies

Another day, another visit to the NWR, a late afternoon/evening raid on Uskmouth/Farmfield this time. Still good numbers of Chiffchaff in the scrub plus a few Blackcap and Reed Warblers and a solitary Sedge Warbler. Several hundred Swallows, a fair number of House Martins and a few Sand Martin were overhead and a good proportion roosted; the Starling roost is also slowly building. None of the above attracted much in the way of raptor action though, just one Hobby made an unsuccessful pass at dusk, temporarily putting the hirundines off coming in.

So the weekend produced nothing really exciting, it would appear my, rather atypical, optimism was unfounded. Back to the tried and tested bitter, cynical and twisted outlook methinks.

A lot of effort for nuffin'

Another morning's ringing at Uskmouth; Blackcap and Chiffchaff were pretty dominant but a few Reed and one Sedge also rocked up in the nets. The Blackcaps included a partially albino bird with P1-3 on the left wing completely white and a partially white tip to P4. Movement overhead was pretty disappointing, only one Tree Pipit and a handful of Grey Wagtails made looking up worthwhile. I did hear a couple of snatches (yes, I said snatches) of Lesser Whitethroat song coming from the vague direction of Farmfield Lane, I'm assuming it was the real thing and not an MP3-toting 'birder'.

I'll be having lunch out of the office today dear

High tide at Goldcliff, home for a late lunch, then back out for an evening at Farmfield Lane. Wow! What a non-stop, whirly-gig, rollercoaster of a life I live. The high tide at Goldcliff would have been better but, not long after my arrival, a 1st-year female Peregrine decided to scare seven shades of merde out of the waders. This resulted in most of the small stuff doing a bunk before I'd had the pleasure of going through them. My own fault for turning up late and nattering on the first platform. After pottering around for a few hours I did manage to 'recover' 3 Spotted Redshank and 6 Greenshank but the remaining interest had to be provided by non-waders, the best of which were 2 Whinchat, 20 Yellow Wagtails, 4 Wheatear and 2 Rock Pipit. Apart from more of the common migrants, Farmfield was pretty quiet although a couple each of Little and Tawny Owl piped up at dusk.

PS. Too knackered right now but, if I don't remember, please remind me to tell you about the most blatant extra-marital fumblage that occurred at Goldcliff this lunchtime.

[Edit: forgot to mention 4 Avocets and, probably 'bird' of the day, a Clouded Yellow at Goldcliff]