By the bridge to the second largest island of Al-Sajid there are deep green, fringing mangroves and a range of migrant waterbirds along the muddy banks including small numbers of bar-tailed godwits, dunlin, Kentish plovers, slender-billed gulls and various herons. A female brimstone appears to lay eggs on the mangroves. We travel back east towards…
Tag: Osprey
Llyn Brenig and Llyn Bugeilyn
7th and 8th July 2018 On the way to the Elenydd mountains to check a merlin’s nest on the edge of a forest of Sitka spruce that has sadly failed, we stop at a small village hall to try to catch breeding swifts. There are perhaps 10-15 pairs and they come and go flying in…
Summer days in Wales
In the conifer forests at Clocaenog, the night is swept by cloud and rain; in the few clear periods before midnight, midges and moths are on the wing and nightjars churr incessantly from the clearings. Tony Cross catches a male in a mist net but the female escapes and we miss the opportunity to find…
A Few Jars
The nightjars in the clear fells within the conifer forest are slowly being located. Late on a damp, cool night, heavy with cloud, suffocated by the humid air and an irritation of midges, we immediately find one of the four radio-tagged males. Tony knows he is likely to be sheltering the first brood, with the female somewhere…