Reed Warblers:Llangors Lake

Teresa and myself have started using the caravan again since the season started a few weeks ago,I managed an hour down at the lake on Saturday evening and managed to get a few reasonable shots of Reed Warbler although the light was fading and I had to crank the ISO up more than I would have liked.

"Gropper" in the bag.

I fancied a couple of hours out this evening after work and was going to pop down to Darren Woods to have a look for a Wood Warbler but after having a chat with Paul "Sid" Parsons decided instead to have a look around the fields behind Maesteg Cemetery.

"Sid" assured me that the fields were a reliable site for Grasshopper Warbler and I wasn't dissapointed with four different birds "reeling" and two seen,one of which posed quite nicely for the camera.

Nice one "Sid" !!

Woodchat Shrike:Llangennith,Gower

Although I'm well into double figures for Great Grey Shrikes in the UK my list of the "summer" shrikes is quite pitiful in comparison with only one Red Backed Shrike and two previous Woodchat Shrikes so I was keen to catch up with this bird and hopeful of getting a few "snaps".

I'd been keeping my fingers crossed all week that it would stay 'til the weekend and the bird duly obliged.

I phoned Peter "Pedro" Morgan from Bridgend who was equally keen and after meeting him at Sarn Junc 36 on the M4 we were soon heading west to the Gower.

We duly arrived at Hillend Caravan Park in Llangennith and after parking up were soon strolling across the dunes in search of the shrike.

We scanned some of the scrub but with no luck and I then spied the friendly face through my bins of Phil Hill with Mrs Hill coming towards us and Phil soon put us on to the bird which was a little further along the track,we'd been looking in the wrong place-no change there then !!

The bird was quite conspicuous with it's chestnut cap and black and white plummage and whilst it perched up prominently on the top of brambles and bushes it never allowed an approach closer than 25-30m before it took flight.

We snapped away with our cameras and I managed to get a few reasonable record shots.

We stayed for about 1 1/2 hrs always trying to get that little bit closer for that "crippler" of a shot but realising that the bird wasn't going to allow a closer approach and with evening closing in and the light getting poorer with more cloud cover we headed for home.

We couldn't really complain,a third "Woodie" for me (all in Glamorgan) and a UK "lifer" for Peter,quite a good afternoon all in all.