Tuesday 9 April 2013

Return of the Manx

An afternoon out took us to Borth in the hope to catch up with some spring migrants. Our hopes were rewarded but with an exciting show of seabirds instead of the expected passerines. Manx shearwater were gliding effortlessly up and down along the returning tide, accompanied by a couple of fishing gannets. Auks (probably both razorbill and guillemot, we didn't have the scope to confirm) were bobbing up and down with the gentle waves and numerous (20+) great crested grebe had gathered together close in to shore. The long-staying long-tailed duck fished very close in right behind the surf and revealed a very different plumage to what we saw last time. Right behind it we spotted a red throated diver which quickly took off for a short flight (photo montage below). Just as we were heading off, three sandwich tern appeared and filled the air with their distinctive calls and a peregrine approached us from out at sea. Inland we had a flock of 300+ golden plover, about a dozen wheatear, a sparrowhawk, buzzard, red kite, a female reed bunting and three pair of stonechat.






This morning at home our breakfast was interrupted by a loud bang coming from the front window. Turned out a male blackbird had flown into it and completely stunned itself. We quickly put a towel into a shoe box and offered the bird a save place for recovery. Meanwhile I went into the garden and dug out three earth worms which we placed on the patio for him once he was strong enough to be released from our care. Unfortunately, he was still a bit dozed then and watched helplessly as another male blackbird came in and grabbed his snack. Nonetheless, a few minutes later our bird was able to fly across the garden into the rhododendron. Also, this morning whilst pottering about in the gardening I woke up both a hibernating toad and palmate newt. They were quickly relocated and hopefully went back into hibernation. Redwing and fieldfare still accompany us in large numbers at home and out in the field.

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