BNG-Llanilid "Return visit"

When visiting Llanilid after work last week the conditions were overcast and the light very poor,seeing the weather brightening up this morning after the overnight rain I decided to pay another visit in an attempt to get some better photgraphs.

Black-necked Grebe:Llanilid

When the belated news broke of a summer plumaged Black-necked Grebe on one of the pools at Llanilid I knew that this was one bird that I wanted to attempt to photograph.

I managed to get down to the site after work this evening and Peter "Pedro" Morgan was already on the bird and clicking away with his camera.

The pool isn't very large but the bird prefered to keep it's distance sticking mainly to the middle of the water and only occasionally drifting a little closer to shore.

The weather was overcast and the light was very poor so I had to push the ISO a tad but I was pleased to get some reasonable record shots of this spectacular small grebe.

I've only seen a handful of Black-necked Grebes and all have been in winter plumage so as well as getting a few pics I got a "plumage tick" as well,happy days !!

Return of the Dotterel:Cefn Cadlan

After the disappointment of not finding any Dotterel on Sat a.m I was well pleased when news broke on Sun a.m that Martin Bevan and Phil Hill had found a pair in the same location as the birds that were found by Graham Smith in 2010.

Teresa had borrowed the Jeep to visit a local car boot sale in the morning so I birded locally and decided to go for the birds in the afternoon.

I just missed Peter Morgan who had just "ticked" another lifer but met up with Rob Mitchell who was already on the pair and clicking away with his Nikon and "Bigma".

The birds were very confiding and approached within 4-5m and although the wind had now reached hurricane like proportions I managed to get a few nice shots.

Both myself and Rob enjoyed chatting with visiting birder/photographer Dave Barnes from Worcester whose name I picked up from the images he had posted on Birdguides,Dave was shooting with a Canon 500mm f4 on a 1D body,the stuff dreams are made of,one day,one day...............

Whilst the three of us were firing away Dave and Mrs Palmer from Cardiff also turned up and we were able to get them on to the birds straight away.

What a nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon,why aren't all birds so co-operative ??..........

Craig Cerrig Gleisad

On Sat 30.April myself and fellow enthusiastic bird photographer Peter "Pedro" Morgan decided to hook up with the GBC field trip to CCG and arranged with John Wilson to meet up with the rest of the paricipants at 09.45 at the reserve.

Firstly though we agreed to meet to meet each other on the road below Cefn Cadlan and walk up to the limestone pavement in search of Dotterel hoping that perhaps last year's two passage birds would make a timely return.

It was cold and cloudy at 07.00 but Peter was in buoyant mood after "ticking" the White Stork at Aberdullais en-route,by the time we had reached the ridge though we could feel the keenness of a stiff easterly breeze.

We searched for about an hour but to no avail,little did we know that Martin Bevan and Phil Hill would find a pair the next morning !! (Guess that makes us crap birders ???-were the birds there and we missed them or did they arrive later,who knows !)

We soon arrived at CCG and despite a good scan of the crag failed to connect with a Ring Ouzel although a dapper male Redstart had us stalking it along the edge of the fenced wood.

We met up with John and his fellow field trippers and after a short while John picked out two Ring Ouzels about 3/4 of the way up the left hand side of the crag which had been spooked by a passing Raven.

We enjoyed some brief 'scope views courtesy of John and Alan Rosney and Peter decided he would like to get some pics of what was a "lifer" for him,I didn't argue and so the two of us made the lung bursting trudge up the crag.

We connected with a single RO but the bird was quite wary of our presence and we ended up shooting into and across the sunlight which was far from ideal,the bird was feeding on the close cropped sheep pasture beyond the reserve and for the record we didn't pursue it onto the crag and attempt to find it's nesting location,we both got some record shots and moved on.

Whilst the others connected with Whinchat in our absence we "dipped" although we had good views of one of the resident Peregrines and a passing Red Kite.

After a well earned picnic lunch we visited the small wood across the A470 from the reserve where we soon came across the first of 5 male Pied Flycatchers which we found along the footpath,although they were all quite flighty I did manage a few reasonable record shots.

Whilst lagging behind taking photographs we missed a couple of female Redstarts that the rest picked up,such is life.

The remainder of the trip decided to call into Llwyn-on Reservoir/Garwnant on the way home so after saying our goodbyes I headed back to Llangors and Peter for home both well pleased with our excellent if "knackering" day out.

Warblers or "The Wedding" - no contest !!

Teresa and myself took advantage of the the second long weekend in a row by spending four nights up at caravan in Llangors and while she watched the royal wedding I made an early start and paid a visit to Park Wood in Talgarth in search of Wood Warbler.

I had noted from the Brecknock Birds sightings page that Wood Warblers had been seen recently at the wood and so decided to pay my first visit in the hope of a new "photographic tick".

The first bird I heard singing when I got out of the car was Wood Warbler and I soon found the bird alongside the footpath through the wood,this bird and another of a total of five that I found duly obliged for some photographs although pinning them down was not easy as they continually flitted around in the canopy.

This is a large wood of mainly broadleaved trees with some conifers in places and is certainly a site that I will visit again,there were large numbers of Willow Warblers and Chiffchaff present along with our resident woodland birds but try as I might I couldn't find a Pied Flycatcher although the habitat looks perfect.