West Wales to Eastern Europe (1 Viewer)

Saturday 9 June: early start in thickish mist until I reached Glasgow. I stopped at Annandale Water for coffee - the setting here is really rather nice. Anyway, sitting at a table overlooking the water (mostly plastic type ducks and a pair of Mute Swans) and Osprey flew over which brought up loads of corvids, Meadow Pipits and Skylarks to chase it away.

I had a short walk along the path and found Sedge Warbler so all in all quite pleased with that break.

On then to Carnforth. The Moss or the Crags??? Decided on Wharton Crags, quite a few people there and it was really hot, very little shade to get into. The male Peregrine was perched at the top of the quarry, the female on the nest with the 2 fairly well grown youngsters, one of which was right at the edge of the nest trying to get some shade from the tiny tree. The mother was covering the other with her wings.

After an hour or so I was beginning to feel a little tired, so crept back to the car for a nap and woke up an hour later to discover that a Litttle Owl had been seen:-C

After that it was foot down to South Wales.

Sunday 10th June: No peace for the wicked here. Packed my brother's car and off to Pembrokeshire for a couple of nights camping at Marloes.

A really hot day and by the time we'd erected the tents and got sorted we were suffering with the heat somewhat. After a break I went for a walk along the cliffs - loads of Sedge Warblers and Whitethroat and a Raven. It was really misty across the water but I could just make out some auks, which I think were Guillemot.

In the afternoon we went down to Martin's Haven and walked round the Deer Park - more Sedge Warblers, Whitethroat, Reed Buntings and a Mistle Thrush. But I couldn't find the Chough.

During the night I heard an Oystercatcher, although I hadn't seen any during the day.

Monday 11th June: A much cooler day so we walked across to Marloes Sands. More Whitethroat in the hedgerows and loads of Linnets too. On the cliff path down to the sands we had really close views of a female Kestrel hovering.

Paddled our feet in the sea and had lunch then Clive and Glenys walked off to explore the rocks. Suddenly I heard them - turned round and there were 2 Chough flying along the cliff face. They settled on a ledge and were joined by another one, all then flying off. We had a few sightings of them after that.

We left the beach heading back for the hide on the Mere and had no sooner arrived when it bucketed with rain! The water was really popular with the Lesser Black-Backed Gulls coming in to bathe. Also seen there was a Moorhen, Mallard, Shoveler and Canada Geese with several well grown goslings.

Tuesday 12th June Now the day Clive and Glenys had been waiting for - Skomer! They've never seen Puffins and had long wanted to. There were many on the water for the trip across. More yet climbing the hundreds of steps up the cliff face :eek!: Everything else you would expect to see was there - Fulmar, Kittiwake, Guillemots, Razorbills. We took our time, stopping a lot and then went to the hide on the Mere where we eventually had lunch.

A Shelduck there had just one duckling and kept chasing off the Lesser Black-backs if they came too close. Moorhen, a Wren beside the hide, Sedge Warblers, Reed Bunting heard. Quite a lot going on there really.

A young Pied Wagtail was being fed by the farm.

A really enjoyable day on a lovely island.

D

Hi Delia,
enjoyable report, thanks for sharing. When do we get to Eastern Europe?
Ken

delia todd said:

I stopped at Annandale Water for coffee - the setting here is really rather nice. Anyway, sitting at a table overlooking the water (mostly plastic type ducks and a pair of Mute Swans) and Osprey flew over which brought up loads of corvids, Meadow Pipits and Skylarks to chase it away.

I had a short walk along the path and found Sedge Warbler so all in all quite pleased with that break.

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We always try to stop here on the way up and down to Aberdeen. The setting is lovely... Would love to see an Osprey here (or anywhere for that matter), but Goldfinch is probably my highlight to date |=)|

Ken Hall said:

When do we get to Eastern Europe?
Ken

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Given that she now resides up on my land, I might well add that the mod-cons of my house there do not extend to such delights as even a telephone, so internet connection is something Delia might struggle to find ...but I can confirm she is still alive

Jos said:

mod-cons of my house

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Huh!!?? Were there any? :-O

Back in Wales now for a few days after a really terrific time in Lithuania; more details will follow when I get back home next week and the mosquito bites have subsided:eek!: but at least the bees behaved and didn't sting me

D

delia todd said:

Huh!!?? Were there any? :-O

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Clearly didn't look in the right direction - all located strictly outside the windows

Wednesday 13 June

A gentle walk along the canal with my brother in between packing for tomorrow.

Plenty of Chiffchaffs along there, unfortunately my brother couldn't hear them which is such a shame. We stopped for a while where we could see some small birds flitting about in the branches and scrub and eventually got a good view of them - Blackcaps. A nice one for me as I rarely ever see them. In fact that is only the third time.

Up till now my brother has only had House Sparrows at his feeders, but now both Coal and Blue Tits have found them (well one of each but it's a start).

And a couple of pics of the Warton Crags Peregrines. It was so sunny and the young ones so well camouflaged, it was difficult to get the focus.

D

Here's some pics of the trip to Skomer

D

Thursday 14 June

The journey to Vilnius went without a hitch, apart from discovering that you cannot take Marmite on board as it's considered a liquid! A text to Jos to say I'd arrived and was outside the Casino, was followed by one from him to say he couldn't see me! More texts and he eventually hove into view accompanied by a recently trained and very well behaved Bacchus!

Left to my own devices on Friday, I'd a lifer before I was even dressed - Pied Flycatcher - and it was dive-bombing a juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker. A Pied Wagtail was hopping about and at the kitchen window feeders were Tree Sparrows and Greenfinch mainly.

As there was no milk in the house er... well nothing in the fridge but meal worms :eek!: I wandered down to the garage store to see if I could get some there. I heard plenty of Chiffchaffs and Chaffinch in the woods, Starlings flying around too.

The garage didn't sell milk, so got a few other bits and started wandering back and there in front of me were (as I thought) Grey-headed Wagtail. However Jos later explained that they are actually Blue-headed but still a lifer having never actually seen even a Yellow Wagtail before.

Back home I spent ages watching the comings and goings of the Flycatchers, and the feeding of the two young Great Spotted Woodpeckers. In amongst a Hawfinch came for a quick feed a couple of times.

Now time for a little more exploration, so I walked down the road to a marshy area. On the way I was stopped by a song I'd not heard for a year - Wood Warbler. I searched for a while but couldn't find it. Several Sedge Warblers singing here so I watched them for a while. Then, taking my life in my hands crossed the busy main road and walked to the nearby hotel for lunch. Very good it was too - a lovely herring salad followed by chocolate icecream, sitting on the balcony overlooking the lake. A female Black Redstart was feeding a young one just below me. Out on the water, all I could really see at this time was Black Headed Gulls, a Reed Bunting and a Coot on a nest.

Thought I'd better walk lunch off, so followed a track round the lake and then made my way down to the water's edge. The heat was getting to me by now so I found a shady spot, went to sit down and a Bittern flew up out of the reeds! Had a while sitting there and could hear more Sedge Warblers - in fact they were dotted around the whole side of the lake. Continuing on along the lake-side I could see Great Crested Grebe, some Common Whitethroat in the trees, lots of Swallows hawking over the water too. Nearly back at the hotel I found a Common Tern on a nest and disturbed some Mallards near here.

Back on the track there were 2 Blue-headed Wagtails a female with a juvenile.

On the way back to the house was a Spotted Flycatcher sitting on a telegraph wire. In the garden the juvenile Woodies were still wanting fed! The Hawfinch made another quick visit and a Jay tried to have some peanuts but the Woodpeckers weren't having any of that and chased him off. Ravens flew over, Swifts were screaming above, the Chiffchaff in the forest never stopped. A Marsh Tit came for a feed too, the only other Tit to be seen apart from the Great Tits.

D

delia todd said:

A text to Jos to say I'd arrived and was outside the Casino, was followed by one from him to say he couldn't see me!

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Largely due to a certain lady not being outside the casino, but a sign to the casino!

Jos Stratford said:

Largely due to a certain lady not being outside the casino, but a sign to the casino!

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Seems perfectly reasonable to me...

Hi Delia

The picture of the puffins on Skomer......looks like you were right among them!
Classic piccie too.

Lucky you with the bittern and pied flycatcher and all the others too:-O .

What kind of host is he if he can only supply you with mealworms?!:eek!:

Joanne

joannechattaway said:

What kind of host is he if he can only supply you with mealworms?!:eek!:

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White Stork chicks get the good treatment, hence the mealworms, visiting birders need to be thankful for what they get ...standards maintained low to deter hangers-on, make it even slightly comfortable and they might try to come back again

Saturday off to the Local Patch. On arriving Jos said "Seen Black Stork before?" er.. "no". Well there you are! Bouncing along the rough tracks with tree branches hitting the windscreen and my face through the open window is quite an experience! :eek!: We stopped for a while over-looking Lake Papis, Black Terns were flying in front of us in amongst many hundreds of Black Headed Gulls. Then Jos found some Whiskered Terns and White Winged Black Terns - oooh gosh I can't keep up, especially as we now heard a Savi's Warbler in the reeds. More bouncy tracks and there was Yellow Wagtail, Hoopoe and Marsh Harrier flying over while Jos was nose down in the grass photographing butterflies.

Another track produced Great Grey Shrike and a fleeting glimpse of Great Reed Warbler. Then my first ever Red Backed Shrike!

The fishponds... and my next lifer was a Great White Egret

My brain was reeling.

We set off then to pick up some essentials in Vilnius (but forgot the most important one!). Then continued on our way to Labanoras. En route we stopped at a yard selling garden furniture. "Just want to get something here" says he! Well! the rest of the journey I spent with wood over my left shoulder and trellis above my head. hmmm... do hope we don't have to do an emergency stop with this lot! Fortunately we arrived without mishap.

The bereaved White Storks left their nest as we arrived and the feeders were active with Tree and House Sparrows, Great Tits and a Marsh Tit. Later a Nuthatch and Great Spotted Woodpecker came too.

After unloading the car we watched some Black Terns hawking the lake below, with a Whitethroat singing above and Black Redstart chacking behind us. Then Jos called my attention to a stick pile where a Wryneck had just landed!

After a few odd jobs about the place and a walk for me down through the meadow to try and see the Golden Orioles that were calling,the thunderstorm which had been following us from Vilnius finally arrived. So we retreated to the house till it passed. Later on we went over to the land to check some nest boxes. hmmm good idea this - long wet grass up to my waist and trees dripping onto my shoulders! Heading back towards the car there was a Scarlet Rosefinch - I just had a brief view but what a beauty.

Changed into dry clothes when we got back and went to the hotel in Labanoras for a really very nice dinner. As we got out of the car there was a Serin singing in a tree, yet another lifer.

D

The next day, while Jos was doing some more odd jobs, I walked across to the land and this is rather typical of the birds to be seen on the way: Goldfinch, Redbacked Shrike, Skylarks (deafening), Meadow Pipits, White Storks (on nests and in the fields), Fieldfare, Whitethroat, Linnets, Tree Sparrows,Yellowhammer, Hooded Crow, Rooks, Starlings, Corncrakes (heard), Swallows, House Martins and Swifts.

When we met up and had filled the feeders at the Cabin, we wandered through the forest to see what else was around. An Icterine Warbler was heard (but not by me I hasten to add). We then sat for some time at the Raptor View Point: Marsh Harrier, Lesser Spotted Eagle and Black Kite were seen today. On our way back I pointed out to Jos where I had seen the Shrikes, so he stopped the car and sat a few minutes looking about (a good place apparently for Marsh Warbler). Looking about me and searching all the shrubs and wires er... Jos what's that on top of that pole? (Just hoping he'd confirm what I thought I could see!) A grin was the only response - the bird I'd really come all this way to see - Roller . Yipppeeee! We moved the car a bit closer, as it really was at the extent of my bins where it was sitting, but no sooner had we stopped the car than it flew off. What lovely colours in flight. We later saw it fly again.

Turning into the drive of the house we suddenly realised there was a police car following us in! Gawd :eek!: - now what? Apparently they'd been just a bit further up the road checking on speeds when they saw us disappear and thinking we were evading them decided to investigate. Soon sorted!

Shortly after this Jos had to return to Vilnius, so now down to me to do my own bit of finding.

D

Usually I was up around 6-6.30 having breakfast at the garden table under the shade of an apple tree, favourite haunt of the Whitethroat, and where I could watch the comings and goings of the Wryneck. This seat looks across a meadow and down to a lake, home of Black Terns.

Some days I stayed local to the house, just wandering about the garden - watching the Storks, Black Redstarts, feeders and looking across to the land. Then walk along the road a bit to a circle of trees round a water tower. Monday morning was the only time I saw a very fleeting glimpse of a Golden Oriole. I spent hours during the week staring up into every tree that I could hear them calling in!

The Whitethroat sang virtually non-stop all the week from the apple tree and the Wryneck was constantly flying back and forward to the brush pile. A Black Kite would occasionally swoop across the meadow, land, and carry off a stick. I struggled rather with identifying all the raptors carrying out their sorties over the meadows to the front (very much at the stage of needing good, close views of them - preferably the way they're shown in the book!). Marsh Harriers, though were around nearly all the time.

Walking through the lower meadow and along to the ring of trees, at various times through the week, I found Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Grey Partridge, Hawfinch and once a juvenile Thrush Nightingale, tweeting a bit waiting to be fed, with Fieldfare constantly chacking away - strange for me to see these birds as individuals, rather than in flocks. This area was a good one for me to see and digiscope the Rollers, as their preferred wire was fairly close.

My first solo visit to the forest - gosh! those mosquitoes are vicious;:eek!: :h?: for some reason they liked my left knee and right calf to start with, then found other bits of me! I was also got by a tick (but I won't say where) I spent a while sitting at the cabin, only Great Tits had found the food at this stage but a couple of juvenile Great Spotted Woodpeckers were in the trees round-about. Chiffchaff were constantly calling and a Spotted Flycatcher was very busy backwards and forwards to a nest. Eventually I'd had enough of the mozzies so walked along the track startling the Mallards. I'd been hearing a bird calling and eventually saw this wader flying round the trees, then landed at the top of one of them. It was obviously a Sandpiper - but which one? My book just didn't show the right features for any of them!:h?: However, it turned out to be a Green Sandpiper which breeds there. (Not a lifer as I saw one in Kent last October but a nice year tick though). I didn't hear anything that sounded like an Icterine Warbler, so retreated to the Raptor view point. Blue-headed Wagtails treated me to some nice views. Golden Orioles were calling from the trees, but I didn't hear the Rosefinch that day. Another day a female or juvenile Grey Headed Woodpecker flew over and landed in a tree not far from the feeders. I saw a Pied Flycatcher - very much darker than the one at Jos's house in Vilnius and a White Stork wandered in to feed at the water's edge.

D

A really enjoyable account - makes me wonder why I rush around like a lunatic when on birding holidays! - there's much to be said for not packing the bag and driving a couple of hundred kilometres every single day of a trip!

Also, I love the picture of the Red-backed Shrike.

Nice account Delia, sounds like a really laid back trip with lots to observe and appreciate close at hand. Nice pictures too.

Joanne

Thanks Mark and Joanne

Yes, it really was a treat to be able to sit in a garden and just watch so many birds coming and going - living in a flat I don't really have that opportunity at home.

You have a different 'mind-set' Mark when you're without a car - I could have got a bus but just couldn't be bothered... to much to see at base.

Wednesday I was about to walk to the local shop (about 1 and a half kilometers) when Jos suddenly appeared about 9.30am, supposed to be bringing some essentials for the house but hmmm... had rather forgotten again! Over at the Raptor view point on the land a Wryneck was visible for a few minutes, as were the Blue Headed Wagtails, Rosefinch and Whinchats poppped up every now and again and I got some much-needed ID pointers on some of the raptors.

Later, after Jos had left I'd been in the house and came outside, felt something over my head looked up and there was a White Tailed Eagle ... oooer! I followed it for some some as it crossed the edge of the lake and then got mobbed away.

Thursday I walked to the shop - didn't see anything different exept the Rollers were very visible again. I sat for a while in the church yard (it was very hot that day) and watched 20 or 30 Swifts screaming overhead. The girl in the shop was very helpful and spoke a little English fortunately. With the aid of my crib list, a book, the few words of Lithuanian I knew and the more words of English she knew, we managed very well!

I collapsed in a heap in the garden after I got back, watching the Black Redstarts and Wryneck and trying to get pictures of them, as well as of the Red Backed Shrike and Rollers.

When I went into the house later on, there was a fledgling Black Redstart. It took a while to catch, trying not to frighten it too much. I don't suppose that many people can say they've actually had one in the house.

Friday's trip to the land and I heard "whip-por-whit" hmmm what on earth is that? A text to Jos produced absolutely no response! But told me the next day when he came down for the weekend that it was a Quail - which like the Corncrakes I never did manage to see.

Saturday we spent some time at the forest feeders and what a selection there now. Lesser, Middle and Great Spotted Woodpeckers, as well as White Backed and Grey Headed. Nuthatch, Great Tits and Marsh Tits. Mallards were seen as well as two Teal then a Redwing (saw another in the garden later).

However, Jos was quite determined I'd get another lifer so set off on a Black Woodpecker and Crane hunt. This entailed walking right round the forest, rather hard work for my little legs. However, in one clearing sitting on a telegraph wire was a Tree Pipit - lifer! Did a lovely display for me too. Around the other side of the forest Jos spotted a Crane and tried to get me on to it, rather forgetting that he is about a foot taller than me (the grass being nearly as high as my head! So he kindly set off down towards it and flushed it giving me superb flight views. Later he found 3 young Tawny Owls in a tree.

Jos needed to return to the house to do some odd jobs there (well I mean rather more substantial than odd jobs). I stayed behind to try and find the Black Woodpeckers, but got rather distracted to begin with by a pair of Scarlet Rosefinch. Just as I was at the best spot for the Woodpeckers it started to rain, just nice and refreshing to start with then got rather serious, so I beat a hasty retreat to the cabin. About an hour later it eased off so I thought I'd better set off back to the house, arriving with my trousers soaked right up above the knees! Didn't care - two lifers and more good views of the Rollers on the way back.

D

delia todd said:

Wednesday I was about to walk to the local shop (about 1 and a half kilometers) when Jos suddenly appeared about 9.30am, supposed to be bringing some essentials for the house but hmmm... had rather forgotten again!

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Wasn't a question of forgetting but you have forgotten the Osprey over the Raptor Viewpoint