Three Wet Days in Wales: 25th-27th June

Decision taken to go for the gull-billed tern near Llanelli, I set off early, planning to head north to Abersoch for the night. I reached the WWT National Wetlands Centre early afternoon and spent some time in the British Steel hide. No sign of the tern. To get to my mother-in-law's I couldn't stay forever so I eventually gave up hope of seeing the bird. Perhaps it was out on the estuary somewhere. Were its movements tide-dependent?

I took some photos of captive birds in the collection, including an eclipse red-crested pochard and a Barrow's goldeneye pair. Don't suppose I'll ever see one of those in the wild! Also saw some orchids - see Orchid 2012 posting.

Red-crested Pochard Barrow's Goldeneye The next day, weather still horrible, I went to the Glaslyn Osprey Project viewpoint to see the ospreys. You couldn't see the tree the nest is in! Too misty. I hung around and eventually a partial clearance enabled me to see two chicks. One was clapping its wings energetically to build up flight strength. An adult was seen flying from the nest. Apparently there are 3 female youngsters this year, doing well in spite of the weather.

I visited some of my favourite places but saw little of interest. A few sandwich terns. It was what you might call a 'coot, moorhen and shelduck' kind of day. And the gull-billed tern was showing well from a railway bridge in Loughor a mile or so east of the Wetlands Centre. Repeated sightings on the pager!!

Persistent like the song thrush I don't give up easily. So at 5.18am on the Wednesday [27/6] I set off from Abersoch back to Loughor. I arrived at about 9.10am and parked north of the railway bridge at Loughor to explore on foot. In the rain. The Wetlands Centre wouldn't be open until 10am so I might as well have a look here. As I approached the road bridge which overlooks the railway line and parts of the estuary beyond, I saw a man with a scope on the bridge. You can tell somehow if a birder is looking in hope or looking at. He was definitely looking at. I hurried along.

'Any sign?' I asked hopefully.

'Yes, it's there with those gulls.'

I rapidly started lowering tripod legs and setting up my scope.

'They're off!' the friendly welshman said. Panic. Surely I'm not going to miss this bird, this lifer, by a few seconds?

With the naked eye I saw the birds settle back.

'Behind two gulls, preening,' the man said.

'Got it. Great views in the scope. In the rain. Who cares! 381 - 19 to go!

I couldn't photograph the bird, but this Senegal stamp shows a gull-billed tern! Gelochelidon nilotica formerly Sterna nilotica.

I watched the bird for about twenty minutes. You certainly wouldn't confuse it with a sandwich tern. This full adult was unmistakable, its black cap tapering down the back of its head like a pigtail. The beefy black bill and a sort of dirty grey colour. Big-winged tern too.

And so I decided to head home at a more leisurely, contented pace. I called at Slimbridge for a break. Photographed a few more captive birds, including two very approachable Bewick's swans not able to fly north.

Bewick's Swan Bewick's Swan

In the Observatory [= posh word for posh hide!] a huge chart displays Bewick's swan bill patterns from the 1960s. With the big lens on I could only photograph a small section.

Blog bit Again there were lots of marsh orchids to see. Caribbean flamingoes are so photogenic, I can't resist them!

Caribbean Flamingo I had to stand on a funny angle to take this one so I've straightened it up in Photoshop, which is why the corners are clipped!

Ok. All the rest of the photos are wild birds.

A tufted duck was escorting a very large number of chicks [15]. I wonder if they were all hers?

Tufted Ducklings By the Holden Tower I saw an entrance to the Summer Pathway. I had not been before when this was open. Down to the River Severn to the Midpoint Hide it said. I walked in the sunshine. It rained on my summer waistcoat on the way back! The hide is unique: an old Commer van with steering wheel intact but with hide-type windows on one side.

Midpoint hide Whilst I was there a little egret came towards me quite unaware of me at first. I fired the shutter as it came nearer. Sequence below.

Little Egret Little Egret Little Egret Little Egret Little Egret Little Egret

I walked back. On one of the pools a pair of lesser black-backed gulls were resting.

Lesser Black-backed Gull His mate [or friend] was on an adjacent post. You can see the rain falling.

Lesser Black-backed Gull To my right I thought I could see a small wader just beyond a fence behind some weeds.

Green Sandpiper Can you see him? I'll zoom in. It's a green sandpiper.

Green Sandpiper Happy birding everyone!

240 UK; 381 life list.

An album of my photographs of...

Orchids 2012

N.B. Some sections from earlier posts have been pasted here to bring all the orchid stuff together. Future orchid sightings will be mentioned in blog postings but photos will only appear here.

1. Cultivated hardy outdoor orchids

Established clump of common spotted orchids growing in our garden in shade.

23.06.12

We also have a large established clump of a dactylorhiza cultivar which is quite impressive:

The white glare on the flowers is rainwater. 23.06.12

2. Wild british orchids

Greatham Creek, Cleveland 14.06.12

The first orchids I found this year were near Greathem Creek. See also posting for June 14th 2012

Northern Marsh Orchid Northern Marsh Orchid Some plants are unspotted as in photo 1. Others have fine spots. However I believe from the flower colour and location that these are Northern Marsh Orchids. All photos 14.06.12.

RSPB Bempton Cliffs  18.06.12

A few days later I went to RSPB Bempton Cliffs near Flamborough specifically to look for northern marsh orchids as the warden had mentioned on their recent sightings page that the orchids were in flower. I asked where and was very pleasantly surprised by the trouble people went to. Not only did I see the northern marsh orchids, but also a very tall bee orchid, a couple of common spotted and lots and lots of northern marsh orchids. If you want to see you have to ask nicely...

Bee Orchid

Bee Orchid: Bempton

Common Spotted Orchids

Common Spotted Orchid Common Spotted Orchid

Northern Marsh Orchids

Northern Marsh Orchid Northern Marsh Orchid Northern Marsh Orchid

All photos June 18th 2012.

National Wetlands Centre WWT, Llanelli 25.06.12

Southern Marsh Orchids

Llanelli SMO Llanelli SMO

Llanelli SMO These were tall plants with stout stems. I was thrilled to see them when I had been disappointed by the non-appearance of the gull-billed tern. But more of that in the normal birding blog!

Slimbridge WWT, 27.06.12

More southern marsh orchids showing the stout stems again and colour range. Flowers just starting to fade.

Slimbridge SMO Slimbridge SMO

Slimbridge SMO

Bempton Cliffs RSPB 30th June 2012

Went back really to try for Alpine Swift [see posting for 30.06.12] but couldn't avoid photographing the orchids again.

Common Spotted Orchids

CSO Flam CSO Flam

CSO Flam Northern Marsh Orchid

NMO Flam

East Chevington NWT 7th July 2012

Quite a lot of Common Spotted Orchids were seen along the footpath to the north pool and by the car park area. Apparently butterfly orchids have been seen at this site so will have to target them next year perhaps!

Common Spotted Orchid. East Chevington Common Spotted Orchid. East Chevington

Hauxley NWT 7th July 2012

Near the reception building Northern Marsh Orchids and Common Spotted Orchids were seen in a wonderful pair of wild flower meadows.

Common Spotted Orchid. High Hauxley Common Spotted Orchid. High Hauxley Pity I wasn't a bit more careful with the gardening! Northern Marsh Orchid below.

Northern Marsh Orchid. High Hauxley

Bishop Middleham Quarry DWT 7th July 2012

Heath Spotted Orchid Dactylorhiza maculata v leucantha - as far as I can tell. Heath Spotted is very closely related to Common Spotted, often overlooked and they all can hybridize. The plants are unaware that mankind has compartmentalised them into a set of species. Not to mention the lumpers [who are trying to sensibly limit the nimber of species] and the splitters [who want see more species so try, obviously to split slightly differing plants in to separate species...]

Nonetheless, a lovely plant.

Heath Spotted Orchid Dactylorhiza maculata v leucantha. BMQ Common Spotted BMQ

A small Common Spotted Orchid.

Common Spotted BMQ A few photos of Dark Red Helleborine - very rare and running late: they were fully open a week earlier last year. The plant for which Bishop Middleham is most famous.

Dark Red Helleborine BMQ Dark Red Helleborine BMQ Next, Common or Chalk Fragrant Orchid.

Common or Chalk Fragrant Orchid BMQ Common or Chalk Fragrant Orchid BMQ

Also not full open yet.

Common or Chalk Fragrant Orchid BMQ Well, more or less open. Below is a particularly smart Pyramidal Orchid.

Pyramidal Orchid BMQ I've included the next photo as it shows two species growing very closely together.

Common or Chalk Fragrant & Northern MarshOrchid BMQ Fragrant Orchid on the left, Northern Marsh on the right.

This is probably Heath Spotted Orchid.

Heath Spotted Orchid BMQ And this could be Heath or Common Spotted - or a hybrid, although hybrids are, apparently, often very robust and stout stemmed. the more I look the more I think Common Spotted!

Common Spotted BMQ It took us a long time but eventually we began to find some bee orchids.

Bee Orchid BMQ Bee Orchid BMQ

Our only failure was to find Common Twayblade - here's one from Bishop Middleham 2011.

Wharram Quarry NWT 12th July 2012

The orchids were wonderful this year, presumably thanks to the amount of rainfall this spring. It is amazing what the declaration of a  national drought can achieve in an orchid field!

I would estimate I saw about 60 bee orchids, up to 400 or more pyramidal orchids and thousands of common spotted. There follows a selection of photos which need little commentary. Some show just how many orchids there were in some places. For butterfly photos etc. from the same visit see the blog posting for 11-12.07.12.

Common spotted orchids

Common Spotted / Heath SpottedOrchid WQ Common Spotted. WQ Common Spotted Orchid WQ

Common Spotted Orchids plus 1 pyramidal. WQ Note the lonely pyramidal orchid towards the top right of the picture. This photo was taken quite near the entrance to the reserve. The pyramidals tend to be towards the south end of the quarry.

Bee orchidsBee Orchid WQ

Bee Orchid WQ Bee Orchid WQ

Bee Orchid WQ Pyramidal Orchids

Pyramidal Orchid WQ

Pyramidal Orchid WQ

Wykeham Forest Raptor Watchpoint 12 July 2012

My final call that day was at the raptor watchpoint; I saw a buzzard, a lizard and a ringlet butterfly. I was surprised to find common spotted orchids alongside the dark path through the conifers leading to the viewpoint.

Common Spotted Orchid. Wykeham Forest raptor watchpoint Common Spotted Orchid. Wykeham Forest raptor watchpoint If these are not as sharp as some photos I was struggling for light, shooting at 1/25th of a second.

Cod Beck reservoir, near Osmotherley Wednesday 18th July 2012

A spread of common spotted orchids at the head [north end] of the reservoir . Quite a number of spikes were either very pale or white. Site was very wet. Could not get nearer!

Common Spotted Orchid, Cod Beck reservoir, north end

Unst August 2012

The highlight of my trip to Unst was the hour or so spent at the Keen of Hamar hunting for frog orchid. By some miracle we did find it.

However there were other orchids about. Heath spotted orchids were found beside the road to Muness on our first asfternoon on Unst. That was an unexpected bonus.

Heath spotted orchid [dactylorhiza maculata] Unst

Heath Spotted Orchid Heath Spotted Orchid The best was of course the frog orchid, coeloglossum viride. Approximately one and a half inches tall we almost missed it. Several views below.

Frog Orchid Unst Frog Orchid Unst

Frog Orchid Unst Back at Uyeasound Barry found this vigorous hybrid [?] growing by a narrow track just west of the hostel.

Hybrid common spotted/northern marsh?

Swift, fairly swift and just a little swift...a day of two halves

I set off for New Brighton at 8 o'clock precisely as the bird had come up on the pager. It was definitely a risky business but worth a shot. I was sure there'd be plenty of eyes there. I drove swiftly and was there by 10.04, parked at Fort Perch Rock car park. I walked fairly swiftly along the promenade. Birders were scattered everywhere but a large group was about 400m away so I headed for them, with Tower Grounds Park on my right.

Slightly alarming but house martins were everywhere around us. How would I tell a mega swift from a house martin? There must be similarities. I began to worry that this was going to be a waste of time.  No-one seemed bothered. Standing around in groups chatting. Exchanging past reminiscences. Weather fine and dry by the way whatever the news said about the rain in the north-west, New Brighton had escaped it.

Suddenly someone shouted. People began to run up the grassy hill on the edge of Tower Grounds Park. Arms waving, gesticulating. 'Gone over the rooftops!' someone yelled. We headed slowly downhill, downcast.

Again a cry. 'Over the water!' Someone beside me began to speak firmly, confidently. 'Over the river. In front of the grey battleship.' Moving left. in front of the blue crane things!'

I had it in the bins. Nothing like a house martin. White rump flashing. Size hard to judge. Clearly swift.

'In front of the little yellow boat. Going right. Now back left. Left.'

By now everyone had it. Some in their scopes, others with their bins. I daren't transfer to my scope. Thought I'd lose it. Followed it for four or five minutes continuously until it climbed higher and became no longer a little swift but a little dot. I relaxed. Lifer 380.

I headed back to the  car. Now what? I didn't want to go back on the M62 as the weather over the tops had been nasty. Thought I'd call at Marshside RSPB. It was very quiet there. Black-headed gulls and shelduck. Tried Hesketh Out Marsh as I'd never been there. It was like October. Cold, bleak and blowing a gale. More shelduck and the tide was low but definitely somewhere to revisit. Go home, I told myself. Brockholes, thought I'd call there. When I got there the police turned me away. Closed due to flooding.

I was home for 4.30pm.

After unpacking and sorting myself out I was told there were stock doves in the garden. I've been trying for ages to photograph them but they are extremely cautious and react to the slightest noise or movement when the resident collared doves and woodpigs take no notice. From an upstairs bedroom and a 75 minute vigil I got some nice shots especially at the end when the remaining bird perched in the eucalyptus for me. So here's my little album of columba oenas...

Stock Dove Stock Dove Stock Dove Stock Dove Now for a bonus photo. My wife claimed that our collared doves had once perched on one of the wooden ducks in our garden. I found this a little hard to believe until today.

Collared Dove UK2012  238; Yorks still 114; Life 380. Target is now 20 away!