Monday 1 May 2017

Year Ticks Galore

This morning after the rain had eased a little, I went up to Robertstown to try and find the Tawny Owl chicks Martin had found the previous evening. I went to what I thought was the correct area where he had described to me but could not find the birds. I gave Martin a call but it seemed I had walked a little too far. He also said that he would join me in a few minutes. I still hadn't found them when he arrived, they had certainly moved from the previous evening. We did however hear some Blackbirds alarming and walked that way and we had a quick glimpse of an adult Tawny Owl flying through the trees. Martin then happened to look up and an owlet was just above us. Embarrassed to say that was my first Owl of the year.

I said to Martin do you fancy staying out for a short while, he agreed so we drove up to a site near Ystradfellte where we have found Pied Flycatcher, Wood Warbler and Redstart in the past. All three were observed quite quickly all year ticks for me. Also fantastic views of a dipper swimming underwater in the crystal clear waters of the river.

Later in the afternoon I thought lets go out again. Just I was leaving Mike phoned and said that he was going up to Rhaslas, I said hold on I'll come with you.

At first glance we could not see any waders but then 4 Dunlin flew across the water and landed on the rocky shore. Mike scoped them and found there was already another 4 there. Two Curlew then flew in and the weather also decided to change to it's default rain and wind. We just got back to the car before it became too bad.

We thought the weather was now ideal for a trip to Llangorse to see if any terns had been blown in. We eventually arrived there after Mike had got us lost. I did forgive him when we saw 3 Common Terns, 2 Arctic Terns and best of all 3 Black Terns. There was also one Common Sandpiper, Curlew and literally hundreds of Sand Martins. An Oystercatcher flew in which was Mike's first of the year. A really pleasant evening in some nice sunlight although the weather changed again just as we were leaving.

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