Wipe Out!

Manmoel, South Wales. Brambling HQ, Winter 2007.

Alec and I went to see the huge finch flock at Manmoel this morning. In ‘difficult conditions’, we saw two chaffinches and a blackbird.

Beech trees laden with brambling. Possibly!

An attempt to save the day, by bagging water pipit at Llwyn-Onn Reservoir ended in a damp squib as the spill area was frozen, so no wapit or even an ice pipit in sight. As Dan says, ****it!

Getting the Hump

Another tale of disgruntled twitchers chasing a reported Stella's in Cardiff Bay?

No, this is a report of the family and assorted Glamorgan birders dipping the 'long-staying' humpback whale at the Mumbles.

After news on Friday and continued reports yesterday, it seemed there was every chance of getting up close to a large whale today. The kids were exited (so was I), so we set off for the Mumbles full of hope, and plenty of warm clothing and waterproofs. We arrived around 2:15pm and joined what seemed like a Glamorgan Bird Club field trip at Mumbles Pier.

With plenty of light and a rising tide, our prospects looked good. After an hour and a half freezing and soaking, things didn't look good. Talk of it being around since last weekend, and showing down to 20m this time yesterday, did nothing to cheer up an increasingly despondent crowd. Indeed we later learned it had been last seen at 8:00am swimming strongly out past the Pier.

Mumbles Head: a cetacean free-zone.

And so we left in the gloom, without our whale and just a peregrine and a Mediterranean gull to show for our efforts.