Potentially the bird we travelled down to see could’ve
been present since November. The Common Yellowthroat is a stunning brightly
coloured warbler and is an American migrant. It was found over a week ago, soon
after, it was correctly confirmed and news was out. It’s always stressful prior
to planning a visit to twitch a rarity like this one as the bird could
disappear at any time. First thing on Sunday morning we were faced with a whole
new problem: heavy snow at 6am... nightmare! I could only hope that it would
stop and fast as I couldn’t imagine seeing it otherwise.
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| You can imagine the domino effect here... |
After a good 4 hour journey down, we eventually made
it. The Common Yellowthroat showed intermittently, but when it did, it gave
superb views. It was incredibly stunning and we soaked up the views of this little gem. Everybody behaved exceptionally and respected the privacy and
welfare of the bird.
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| Common Yellowthroat |
Next stop, we travelled to Cosmoston lakes for the
over-wintering Lesser Scaup. This was a fantastic plumaged adult which seems to
be a returning bird to Cardiff.
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| Lesser Scaup |
The Bonaparte’s Gull that was also in Cardiff sadly wasn’t showing so we decided to
head back north up towards Aberystwyth where a Glossy Ibis was also taking up
residence. In the mean time, we were kept entertained with the good numbers of Red Kites on the journey. After taking the longest diversion route around Borth Bog, we
finally made the journey with spectacular views of this Spanish-born bird.
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| Glossy Ibis |
All those people, wow.
ReplyDeleteGreat photos, thanks for sharing.