Choughin' hard work!!

With everybody seemingly lying low and recovering from our season saving glorious win over the English I gave myself two choices,a visit on my own to WWT Penclacwydd where I would be nice and snug in the hide or give Lily my Westie a good walk and try and catch up with the Choughs at Ogmore-By-Sea in gale force conditions.

Not having seen the Choughs this year yet and with a year tick in mind (I'm not listing though!) I arrived at Ogmore in hurricane like conditions and sat in the car for the first 10 minutes whilst a heavy squall cleared through.

Setting off from the car park myself and Lily walked half way to Southerndown stopping to chat with some ramblers on the way one of which was enthralled by my Swarowski ELs wishing that he'd bought a pair instead of the Leicas he had invested in!! (takes all sorts)

The weather was horrendous and I was just thinking to myself that Penclac may have been the better option when 3 Choughs flew past in a westerly direction landing about 150m away,we made an about turn in hot pursuit.

They were extremely flighty not settling for long and any thoughts of getting some good photos were rapidly disappearing.

It seemed that as soon as I got close enough to attempt a photo they would take flight again and fly back past me to where we had just walked from,back and fore we went for some 10 minutes and cutting my losses I managed a couple of record shots from about 150m away,in the conditions it was all I could do to stand up let alone take photos!!

Having got a couple of snaps we beat a hasty reteat to the sanctuary of the jeep and headed for Portobello on the way home.

Arriving I spyed a couple of Little Egrets on the far bank of the river and taking some shelter from the wall of the house managed a couple of record shots.

There was little of interest about other than the usual gulls,a couple of Redshanks,a group of about 15 Curlew and a rather odd looking goose in company with a pair of Canadas,it looked like some sort of hybrid of feral Bar Headed Goose and I took a couple of record pics in the hope that someone can shed some light on it's parentage.

There was no respite from the wind and after a brief and fruitless visit to the Watermill (didn't even get out of the car!) we headed for home,maybe a visit to Penclac would have ensured more birds but at least I got a year tick and the dog got a good walk.

Next time I try to photograph Choughs I'll ensure I pick a much calmer day!!.......