It's getting otter......

As the deadline approaches for the surveys I've been working on, leisure birding has had to take a back seat whilst I stomp about the uplands of Wales, fighting off sunburn, horse flies and trenchfoot. However, there's still bits and pieces to report from the odd afternoons I've managed to meet up with Steffi and enjoy the beauty of the Ceredigion countryside - and now that Steffi has a break before she begins her Masters, she has been heading off into the wilds with the trusty camera whenever able. Butterflies and dragonflies have been on our radar these last few days, and we managed to meet up yesterday at Cors Fochno, a lowland raised peat bog just outside Borth. Before I arrived Steffi had picked up 4 grasshopper warblers, a green sandpiper, families of whitethroats, sedge warblers, linnets and willow warblers, along with large heath butterflies (photo), small red damselfly (photo), black darter (photo) and black tailed skimmer. She also had an incredibly close encounter with a young fox, who seemed oblivious to her presence.

  

  

 Meanwhile I had the pleasure of watching the astonishing wildlife spectacle that is the gathering of manx shearwaters in Cardigan Bay - if  you happen to time it right, as I did, then nothing quite prepares you for the sheer gob smacking event that unfolds before your eyes as thousands and thousands of shearwaters wheel around in great swirling clouds close into shore, with hundreds of gannets mixed in amongst them. With a calm blue sea, early morning sunshine and an empty beach, I sat and took in this brilliant sight which easily ranks as the one of the greatest natural wonders in this country.
Just to make our day really memorable, not long after we met up we decided to cross over the Leri and check the reedbeds - we didn't make it that far. As we were crossing the Leri, Steffi looked down and saw a movement on the mudbank, and there right in front of (and slightly below) us was this cracking otter enjoying a fish supper! Having views like this right in the middle of the day doesn't happen often, so we happily spent the next 40 minutes watching this beauty eating, cleaning and hunting before it headed up out of the river and came up right by us before heading over the embankment and into a reed filled ditch. Not too shabby.

  

Back home, a male whitethroat has this week claimed the gnarly tree at the bottom of the garden as his own, and has been singing his little head off day in, day out. Hoping for a bit of late breeding? Maybe the arrival of this cracking spell of summer weather has given him the urge.....