Silverstone Weekend

We've just had a great weekend at Silverstone for the MotoGP. We travelled up last Wednesday and camped at Whittlebury Park. This is a golf club and hotel that opens up a huge camping field for events happenning at Silverstone.It could have done with a few more showers but is otherwise a beautiful place to stay, nicelylandscaped and with a man made lake full of wildlife. All the water birds were busy rearing broods of chicks so I had a happy time taking bird photos. Here's a few to be going on with.

Mallard

Coots

Great Crested Grebe

Greylag Geese

Bike photos to follow!

Elvie

Wildlife on Skohttp://www.flickr.com/photos/pontydoc/4704617794/mer

After just a few days at home it was back to Pembrokeshire for us to greet our next set of visitors. We have been friends with A & B for more years than I care to admit! They're the sort of guests where the host/guest relationship doesn't exist we just enjoy each others company. They arrived on Saturday morning and as the weather was indifferent we had a drive around the area showing them various points of interest. Our new picnic set proved a great success at the Castell Henllys, the reconstructed iron age hillfort. In particular, it was surprisingly nice to have a table cloth, albeit small, to spread on the picnic table! We also visited the lovely church at Nevern with its 9th century Celtic Cross which is gradually turning orange due to the lichen growing

on it.

On our way home we discovered Fishguard Fort. It's just a small ruin but in twenty years of visiting the area we had no idea of existence and came across it accidentally. Amazing! Back at the caravan we made the mistake of enjoying a good meal and wine & then additionally having a

sociable late night with more friends.

Now one of the main reasons for A & B's visit was to get the boat to Skomer Island to see the wildlife, and in particular, the puffins. Unfortunately the seas had been high and the winds strong so we thought the trip wouldn't be possible. Mistake! Sunday morning brought hangovers, no wind and a flat sea! It took a bit of an effort to get going but what a wonderful day we had! It's a magical place and I was pleased to get some good wildlife photos.

Razorbill having his chin scratched by his mate - looks like he's enjoying it!

Little owl sitting on a rock staring at the visitors going by.

And finally -The puffins were performing well!

So thanks to A & B for helping make it such a great weekend!

Weird!

Look closely!

I will admit to a tiny bit of photoshopping as I removed a bit of seagull tail that was just visible below the pigeon. Original photo is on my Flickr page.

Elvie.

Walking on Skomer

Had a great day on Skomer yesterday. We joined a guided walk run by the National Park Authority. The first bonus of doing the walk was that our group of about twenty had priority on the boat, so no queueing. We then had 6 hours on the island in glorious sunshine, walked about 4 miles, enjoyed a picnic on the outermost headland and saw thousands of seabirds.

There's an inlet callled the Wick where you can get close up to the puffins and the cliffs are full of the nests of guillemots, razor bills and kittiwakes. Also there are several pairs of chough nesting so I finally managed to get a photo of one.


Annie, our guide, was very informative and really added to our enjoyment. Having got an overview of the whole island I'm looking forward to going back again and spending more time in the areas of most interest.
Elvie

Ravens Revisited

I wasn't happy with the photos I took of the raven's nest three weeks ago so after today's rain had passed over we went back to the Deer Park to have another go. Well, they have grown! Last time we could barely see the fledglings, now there are three nearly nearly full grown youngsters in the nest. I used a tripod for todays photos and got half a dozen much better shots. There was also a fulmar's nest nearby with three argumentative adolescents on board.


Elvie

Newport Wetlands Reserve

Had a pleasant afternoon at the Newport Wetlands. The reserve was constructed some years ago to replace the lost habitat in Cardiff Bay, when the barrage was built. It gives very easy access to the ponds and reed beds with proper paths and no mud! It would have been very peaceful there yesterday if it hadn't been for the reed warblers! What noisy birds they are! It's actually a lovely cheerful song and we were surrounded by them. Frustratingly the birds stayed well into the reeds and although I had a few glimpses, enough to identify them, I was unable to photograph them. In fact none of my photos were particularly good. I could do with a more telephoto lens. I'm finding photography is the sort of hobby which encourages you to buy more and more accessories! Anyway to get back to the birds. We spent most of our time watching a family of young coots being fed by their parents.
They were really cute. The iconic bird of the reserve is the bearded tit but we failed to spot them, ah well, it's another reason to go back there!

Elvie

Seabirds

We're back in Pembrokeshire for Easter. We've been blessed with lovely sunny weather so have made the most of it with lots of long walks along the cliff path. Of course I've taken the camera and have been trying to get more bird shots. We went chough hunting on Saturday but failed to see one let alone photograph them. We did spot this raven's nest though and spent some time watching as the parents flew back and fore feeding the youngsters. The chicks were still very small and all we saw of them was the occasional beak visible above the top of the nest. I also took dozens of photos of the gulls and fulmars as they circled around. Most were a bit fuzzy and ended in the bin but I was pleased with these two, a herring gull above and fulmar below.

Yesterday we had a brief glimpse of a chough near West Dale Bay but had no time to photograph it. Never mind, it's early in the year so I'm hopeful I'll get a snap of them. They're beautiful birds with bright red beaks and legs and very acrobatic in the air. It will be a good challenge!

We've had a lovely weekend here, catching up with old friends. A caravan site is an incredibly sociable place, presumably because we spend more time outdoors so bump into people more. We've previously considered buying a flat down here but always decided against it purely because we'd miss the company of the campsite. Amazingly LB met an old college friend here yesterday. They've not met for over thirty years but John, who lives in Swindon, has just happened to buy a van pitched next door to one of our closest friends here! It's a small world!

Elvie

Llanelli Wildfowl & Wetlands Centre

Viv & I went here on Saturday for a bird photography workshop run by Tim Collier. I learn't a lot and thoroughly enjoyed the day. I was also very impressed with the Wetlands Centre itself. I had often driven past but never visited it till now.



It's run by the WWT and is similar to Slimbridge but smaller. There are a number of ponds and pens of captive birds with a large lagoon and abutting salt marsh where you'll see a variety of wild birds including ducks, geese, gulls and waders. There are numeous hides which proved very useful in the showers. The cafe was clean & pleasant with plenty of choice and a good view of the birdfeeders outside. It's certainly well worth a visit and I will definitely be going back there to explore some more. Anyway here's a few of the photos I took there. (From top to bottom an eider duck, smew and whooper swan )

Elvie

More birds!

The red kite was reintroduced into Mid Wales some years ago. In order to encourage the birds and ensure their survival there are a couple of official feeding centres where the kites get a good meal and the public get a superb close up view of them. We went to the centre at Llanddeusant today along with 60-70 kites. They're quite tricky to photograph, even under these ideal conditions, however, after binning all the blurry shots I'm left with a few good ones. The kites would grab the food and fly off with it immediately.

A few buzzards also turned up. They were easier to get a shot of as they ate the food on the ground and instead of viewing the scene from the air, like the kites, they perched on trees and fence posts like this one.

On the drive home we spotted our first baby lambs of the year. This one was really cute !
On our return home we were just in time to watch Barack Obama's inauguration as US President. An historic day!

Elvie

Birdwatching

We had an enjoyable morning on a "Birding for Beginners" walk today. The walks occur on the third Saturday of every month at Kenfig National Nature Reserve not far from our home but this was the first time we'd been on one. It was well attended with about twenty people accompanying the warden who did a great job in educating us. The nature reserve is largely sand dunes surrounding the large Kenfig Pool. There's some scrub and woodland which, as you can see, is nearly as wet as the pool! We wore walking boots but I think I'll be getting myself some wellies before I join the next one!

Most of the birds were too small, too far away or too fast for me to photograph but the gulls were quite obliging as they sat in the sun on the fenceposts. We saw a fair variety of birds the most interesting for me being the snipe and jack snipe, which I'd
never seen before and the sparrowhawk and yellowhammer which I've probably seen but not recognised. I don't think I'll ever get as keen as the regular birders on the walk. They were obsessed with numbers of species seen whereas I get excited at seeing something new. We'll definitely go again & it should be interesting seeing the different species as the seasons change.

Elvie

ps you'd better add birdwatching to yesterday's list!