Plastic pants

Spent the day walking around with my waterproof trousers on backwards. It took me four hours of traipsing seawall and saltmarsh at Peterstone to realise my mishtake, by which time I'd manage to not find the Snow Bunting and avoid the two Black Redstarts both, possibly, the result of the trouser malwearance (actually the lack of Black Redstart might have had something to do with the fact I stopped short of the blockhouse but anyhoo...). I did see at least 10 Water Pipits (eight together at one point) but that was about that. Checked a few fields at the West Usk/Ebbw estuary end of the levels on the way home but, apart from the tip attracting a decent number of gulls in the distance, only Stonechats broke the tedium.

On returning home all thoughts of boredom were banished, Birding World had appeared and Jack threw up (twice), I do not know if the two were related, they may well have been.

A bit flash

And Gosh said, Let there be light: and there was light.
And Gosh saw the light, that it was good: and Gosh divided the light from the darkness with clever use of a Nikon SB900 and a flash extender.

You can never have enough toys,...

The many-named ladybird

The most invasive ladybird on Earth arrived today; unless I'm horribly wrong, the above picture is a Harlequin Ladybird Harmonia axyridis f. succinea looking for somewhere to bed down on a knackered old CD player/radio (for more information see here). In addition to Harlequin, this critter also goes by the name of Asian, Japanese, Multicolored Asian, Halloween, Multivariate, Southern, and Pumpkin Ladybird,... which is nice.

Not quite Little Auk

Went looking for some post-storm feathered flotsam this afternoon. Ynys-y-fro didn't produce, although the number of gulls had jumped; Goldcliff Pools also lacked quality but the 300 or so Shelduck did have another Tadorna hybrid in their midst (see superb, 70mph wind enhanced, video grabs below). Got to Goldcliff Point for the last half hour of decent light, the first bird to appear in the Swarovski was an Arctic Skua (not too bad), then Weekendbirder pulled out a Great Northern Diver heading down channel (not bad at all) and a couple of Kittiwake rounded things off. Not quite Little Auk or Grey Phal but you take what you're given round here.

Seemingly a different bird to those in Breconshire a couple of months back.

There's a storm brewin'

Given this morning's BBC weather map looked liked this...

... I just nipped to Ynys-y-fro, counted the Pochard (all 18 of them) and returned to Castle Gloom to batten down the hatches and refloat last season's ark. Thought listening to the cricket (if Twenty20 qualifies as cricket) might provide a little vicarious respite, but now it's pissing in Jo'burg too.

1-2-3-4-5,...

A couple of Med Gulls were the best of a slightly disappointing haul today. Did stumble over this on my return though. Apparently Big Bird would shit himself if you told him the truth about climate change, bit odd,... I'd have thought Oscar would be a recycling guru by now.

That's it Ernie, get that description off to the county recorder.

Today's post has been brought to you today by the letter M and the number 2. This blog is not a production of the Children's Television Workshop.

In need of a biggy

This weeks tally of half-interesting species continues to grow, today Bewick's Swans, Woodcock, Black Redstart, Chiffchaff, more Bramblings, Crossbill and more Yellowhammers were added to Monday's Whooper Swans, Swallow, Rock Pipits, Water Pipit, Brambling, Yellowhammer and Lapland Bunting. Supporting cast bagged, just need a proper rare to be the star of the show now.

PS. Rest easy, all the above is occurring comfortably beyond the Gwent boundary.

Tardy Swallow

Actually bumped into one or two half-decent birds today and, as hammering everyone's bandwidth is all the rage, I thought I'd spoil you with some moving pictures of a Swallow that might not be moving for much longer.

Go faster forks

Two days flogging the dead horse that is Gwent, and the promise of a week in the field to come, meant I opted for a spin on the bike followed by a day of indoor chores (WRP stuff, Azores stuff, stuff stuff, stuff-stuff-stuff-stuff-stuff, etc.). The ride was basically just wide and fast, or at least, potentially fast, if you don't keep easing back to register Siskin, Bullfinch, Goldcrest, etc., and stopping to check Dipper spots. Lets just say, not exactly an adrenaline-jolt-ball-shrinker but then you don't have a cat's chance of bagging Goshawk, Crossbill or Brambling on some tight-arsed, super techy downhill or a balls-out, rip-roaring airborne speedfest on which, by the time you have worked out what "screaming road gap", "corkscrew", "dropaway" and "tabletop" actually mean, you have used your face as a brake and your abiding memories of the day out are restricted to the rhythmic throb of air ambulance rotors.

The view from the handle-bars, magic red forks showing well, knackered hydraulic disks showing (and working) very poorly indeed; oak, beech, birch and larch,... now where are those Crossbills?

Tits, feck, arse and tits

This morning's attempt on Collister Pill was totally buggered by one of the local farmers shuffling his herd, I didn't even get to the saltmarsh and narrowly avoided having several mobile tonnes of beef put a new slant on my paintwork. Magor Marsh held all the usual but nothing more, and Redwick/Porton didn't exactly get the heart pumping either. Should have stayed in bed.

Another mediocre image of a dirt common bird,... because there just aren't enough on the internet already.