A day off work on Friday gave me the perfect excuse to go and track down another long staying local rarity. Yes I probably should have been doing chores instead but who can resist a Long-tailed Duck, especially one which has chosen to take up residence on a body of Read more…
There’s no better way to kick start a new birding year than with a lifer. And what if that lifer could be a species which you’d never expected to see in Britain? Well, that would be just dandy! So it was that we found ourselves at a freezing Ynyslas on Read more…
Firstly let me start with a heartfelt Merry Christmas to all readers and followers of this blog, the fact that anyone finds our little corner of the internet a continuing source of wonderment after almost ten years in the game. We spent yesterday doing all things traditional which meant opening Read more…
The last weekend in November was significant for two very good reasons. Firstly it was cold, seriously cold, hopefully heralding the start of winter proper after a month of seeming indecision which saw weather conditions range from wet and mild to even wetter and milder. About time too as December Read more…
One thing that’s been on my to do list for several years now has been to go and watch Salmon leaping. It’s an annual phenomenon occurring each autumn as fish head back upstream to spawn and requires a few key ingredients. The first, a river, is in no short supply Read more…
We were back on the hunt for a Portuguese man-of-war come Sunday, our efforts refocussed on Cefn Sidan. The thinking went, rightly or wrongly, that with these creatures moving in from the south-west perhaps a beach facing in that general direction might prove more productive than we’d found Whiteford the Read more…
My plan for today was a simple one. After last weekend’s rain blighted forty eight hours I wanted nothing more than to get outside and escape, to forget the day job and immerse myself completely in whatever delights mother nature had to offer. Destination wise I didn’t really care but Read more…
Don’t you just love those cold, crisp autumnal days when the air is so clear that everything in the landscape seems that much more alive? If only Sunday had been such a day. Instead we were faced with mild and humid conditions, probably my least favourite of all the weathers, Read more…
It was an anxious wait for the gates to open at WWT’s Penclacwydd reserve on Saturday morning. Why? Blame our latest star arrival, a juvenile Red-necked Phalarope which dropped in on Thursday carrying the distinct air of yet another rarity which wouldn’t be hanging around for the weekend. Having made Read more…
After a few days of fairly terrible weather it was good to get back out yesterday evening in frankly glorious conditions. Of course things would have been even better had a certain Phalarope been there to greet me but alas all I could do was look in its vague general Read more…