April fools....?

A trip with Tony (to the coast again), but this time to to some bird watching as well as ringing!! One of the first birds we heard/saw was a Cuckoo!!

We couldn't believe it, it was the beginning April and one had already turned up, so much for not arriving until May. Maybe this was going to be a great start to a great days birding? It was, the next bird we saw was a Great Grey Shrike, this was going to be some day! After spending a few hours at the Cross Inn Forest we headed to the coast, where our good fortune continued, several Wheatears were present on the cliff tops, one of which was trapped and ringed, but star of the show here was a Black Redstart which wasn't shy at all (there was a very showy Dunnock too).

We then headed up the coast where our first stop was Aberaeron, we were greeted by a very smart flock of Golden Plovers (and a lone Turnstone).

A bit further up the coast we ringed a brood of Dippers, then got to our next location - Llanrhystud. Here we saw good numbers of White Wagtails a handful of Wheatears and second summer Med Gull. On the way home we decided to go the mountain route where the star bird for this leg of the journey was a Merlin which decided to have a pop at a Wheatear right in front of the car!!

Off to the coast again....!

A quick visit to the coast (Aberystwyth) again today, with the main target to try and get some more pics of the Purple Sandpipers, before they head off north for breeding!

I was in luck a couple of them were feeding on the rocks below the old college, so with a bit of careful tip toeintg over the wet rocks I managed a couple of pics before they went and fed a bit furter out!

This Shag in the harbour was also a nice find too!

Also got to ring my first grey herons today, what ugly little b****rs!!

White-fronted Geese @ Dolydd Hafren

Many years ago White-fronted Geese used to build up to as many as 400 strong in the fields along the monts/shrops boarder, nowadays due to increased farming there natural wintering habitats have all but disappeared along with the Geese, so to hear that 3 had turned at one of my now 'local' site, I was keen to go and see them!

When I got to the reserve, the 3 birds were showing distantly but well enough to clearly see what they were.



Other birds of interest included, 4 Little Ringed Plovers, 2 Redshank, 2 Common Sandpipers, 1 Lapwing, 2 Oystercatchers, 40+ Curlew, 13 Goosanders, 2 Cormorants, 80+ Fieldfares, and a handful of each Swallow and Sand Martin.

Green with envy...

With a lot of Green Woodpecker activity going on in Nantmel lately, myself and Tony decided to try and catch one. We knew where they had been calling from so just had to set up a net and hope for the best! The first site we tried wasn't very successful, so after a short while we deiced to try another place - where they had bred some years ago.

With in a short while of setting up the net the female had thrown herself into it, and it seemed only a few moments later that the male was in the net as well!!

What a catch, and what made this more amazing was the fact that these two Green Woodpeckers are possibly the first ringed in wales since 2006!!

Owls about that.....

This evenings 'task' was to try and catch a Little Owl. Little Owls were very common in wales some years ago, but are now only hanging on in a few small pockets around the country. Fortunately Tony knew of a pair that were on the welsh coast, so off we set to see if they were still around. We arrived at some old farm buildings (a classic place for Little Owls), we the set up the net, and waited (and waited). Nothing was happening, Tony reckoned we were too close to the net, so we disapeared out of site for a few minutes, went back to check the net. Not one but two Little Owls trapped in the net, what a result!!





This one had found somthing tastie on Tony's and, probably a bit of left over Mac Donalds!!!

Swan or two...

With the winters catch coming to an end myself and tony wanted to finish on a high. We knew of a place where a small handful of Whooper Swans gathered most years, so after a poor catch wader dazzling we decided to give it a go as we had nothing really to lose.

After a long trek we reached our destination, we got out of the car, had a quick shine of the torch and we couldn't believe our luck, a small family Group of Whooper on a smallish lake. We went down to the waters edge, on opposite side of the lake and tried to usher them down to a shallow part of the lake where one of us could wade in and grab a Swan. After some very clever noise distraction from me and what seemed like an age of time we had ushered the swans to place where Tony could reach them, I could believe my eyes Tony had manged to grab one of the juveniles.








We had a half hearted attempt to try and catch another, but these guys were on to us now and weren't playing ball, be we weren't complaining.

Not satisfied with one we went back the next night to try our luck again, this time with a canoe. To our delight the swans were still there! I managed to draw the short straw and had to get in the canoe, hard enough to do in the day time let alone at night! It couldn't have worked out better within in a short while the swans were in a prime location and tony pounced! I couldn't believe it, he'd managed to catch an adult.

Amid all the excitement I had forgotten where I was and managed to capsize the canoe (quite a scary thing being stuck under the water in the dark and freezing cold!!), after what seemed like an age, I managed to get out and somehow drag myself and the canoe to the edge. It was at this point Tony looked up and asked what I was doing, great!! We tried again to catch another but once again they were on to us, but we weren't going to complain with the catch.

Who's a pretty boy then....?

A visit to the lake at luinch time today proved to be very rewarding, not only was it very sunny the birds were showing very well too. Mr Mandarin was strutting his stuff,



and so were the Grebes.