Building a nest

Things have been quiet here, as I haven't been out and about due to moving house.

I'm pretty settled now and have ventured out exploring my new/old surroundings

I went for a nice walk out through Crumlin park and down along the river Ebbw.

In the park in one tree I saw 3 Nuthatch, two Lt Tit, Blue, Tit and Coal tit.



As I passed under the railway towards the river I saw Great Tits

On the river I saw a pair of Grey Wagtails and a pair of Dippers


I also saw signs of Otter spraint which is very promising.


I saw at least two areas where a bird of prey had made a kill firstly a likely Blackbird and then a pigeon, I was hoping they may have been Goshawk, but I have since been informed by Kes more likely Sparrowhawk.

I had some of the best views of Goldcrest I have ever had and then even better views of Grey Wagtail pair from the bridge.




I'm hoping to get out a bit more over the coming weeks and hope to continue my search for the elusive Goshawk. I have heard that you can walk all the way to Ebbw Vale along the river which I definitely want to do.

Hot & Spicy Birds

At new year I went out on to the Avalon marshes with my spiritual mentor Kestrel for our bi-annual wildlife watching expedition.

We set off early on a very cold, crisp, but bright, sunny, winter morning.

We decided to start the Westhay end of the Shapwick Heath reserve, somewhere I hadn't been before. up near Canada farm. 

We headed straight for Canada farm lake hide. There were around 250 teal, pintail, gadwall, wigeon, greylag geese, mute swan, mallard, tufted duck, great crested grebe, little grebe were all showing on the water. There was a kingfisher fishing from a tree perch just to the left, having success considering almost all the water was frozen.


Marsh Harrier went over and got all the Teal up, one of the Marsh Harriers had a Green wing tag, which I believe means its a North West Norfolk bird.



Shortly after seeing the Harriers we could hear a call which I assumed was kingfisher, but Kes guaranteed me was an otter, an otter came out of the reeds just in front of the hide and headed straight towards us, looked right at us turned around and dived under water.


We tried to follow it with our bins. but it vanished, then a little grebe dashed off through the water looking startled a sure fire sign the otter was back. This time there were three moving through the water, likely to be mother and two cubs.

Later further on the reserve Kes was testing me by asking me to ID birds as they flew over I got most right, but he was most surprised when I said Gooseander he grabbed his bins and confirmed I was correct Three male Goosander which Kes hadn't seen here before.


We also saw three different Bitterns and  a Great White Egret.

But the highlight was a tiny Harvest Mouse, up the reeds over the frozen water eating the reed heads, right in front of the hide for half an hour! Kes said he had never seen a harvest mouse here in over 20 years of birding the site.



I also recently made a delicious curry

Sweet Potato & Spinach Jalfrezi, a few people asked for the recipe so it's here if you fancy giving it a whirl.

"The Best it's ever been, be this good again..."

I always look forward to end of year lists of friends records, especially friends who I don't see that often who may have discovered a gem that I may have missed.

I have decided to list my 10 fave musical recordings, my fave gigs, my fave wildlife sightings and places I visited this year.

Hands down my fave album of the year is...

Helen Chambers - Penny Arcade 

http://shop.specialistsubjectrecords.co.uk/products/528428-helen-chambers-penny-arcade-cd-digital-preorder 

Closely followed by...

Young Conservatives - S/T https://youngconservatives.bandcamp.com/

Prawn - Kingfisher topshelfrecords.bandcamp.com/album/kingfisher

Failures Union - Tethering failuresunion.bandcamp.com

Echo & The Bunnymen – Meteorites www.bunnymen.com/

Personal Best – The Lovin’ personalbest.bandcamp.com/

Protectors – Soul & Fire is all we ever need protectors.bandcamp.com/

Owen – Other peoples’ songs owenmusic.com/

Stay Clean Jolene – S/T http://staycleanjolene.bandcamp.com/

Dolly Parton – Blue Smoke dollyparton.com/

My fave gigs:

Out of Spite 2014

Echo & The Bunnymen - Oxford 

Gregory Porter - Brecon Jazz

Failures Union - Undertone Cardiff

Helen Chambers - Le Pub
Dolly Parton - St David's Hall Cardiff
Gregory Porter - St David's Hall
Echo & The Bunnymen - Cardiff Uni
Pale Angels & Luuv - Le pub
Thousand Arrows - Last Gig at Moon

My wildlife highlights:

Seeing Puffins, Seals, Dolphins, Porpoise, Peregrines, Guillemots, Razorbills, Wheatear, Red legged Partridge, Chough, at RSPB South Stack

Seeing my first Weasel crossing the road near Barmouth

Seeing Little Ringed Plover and Chicks at Parc Slip

Seeing my first dog otter at Hamwall 

My fave places I visited:

South Stack

Holyhead - Holy mountain

Lisbon - Staggersaurus Rex

Barmouth - Hendre Fechan Cottage 
Ham Wall & Shapwick Heath

Merry Chrimbo & Happy New Year 
One Love
Stubbs
xx

Crudely Drawn Christmas

I have since my 100 bird year triumph, struggled to see many new species.

I recently went in search of Goshawks at Cwmcarn forest drive and failed miserably barring what we call a little bit of jizz, not enough to be sure.

I have sort of stuttered along still really enjoying what I do see regularly but not seeing anything new.

I also hit a bit of a wall creatively and stopped drawing for a bit too.

After a walk on the weekend in the beautiful winter sunshine I decided to commemorate the idyllic scene of a Robin having a little wash in a puddle after foraging for food on the muddy path.

I think what I need next from all the literature I have read is to get better at identifying birds by their song.

I have also been enjoying the newly renovated Eastern Prom at Barry Island, and think it would be a fab place for impromptu acoustic gigs...

I would love to have a beach hut


















I also went to see my faves Echo & The Bunnymen with one of my oldest friends the enigma Gary Pliers in Cardiff. Another sterling set with all the hits.

I am really enjoying this record Kingfisher by Prawn which ties in nicely to the blog too.



"We are Old Souls, In New Skin"

I am very much looking forward to Out Of Spite Festival next week a long running Leeds DIY Punk Rock and craft Ale all-dayer featuring:

The newly reformed Milloy http://milloy.bandcamp.com/

Also Young conservatives https://youngconservatives.bandcamp.com/ who I am yet to see live and naturally pretty excited.

As well as Protectors who have a great new album out
http://protectors.bandcamp.com/

And a new band called Stay Clean Jolene featuring members of the much loved Leif Ericsson & The Great St Louis http://www.bombedout.com/

Lonesome Trucker #4

I was meaning to get this last issue of my mini zine finished and printed during the summer I failed so I'm going to put it up here instead. If there are any secret collectors reading I have a few hard copies left.

Wish I could be drinking down the van...

During half term I had the privilege of spending a couple of days down the caravan with my Bessie mucker Pugs.

We set off from mine in Pugs' mams convertible beetle on wed afternoon. We picked up some essential provisions eggs, beers, bread, pizza etc at the local Lidl. 

The van is situated on a site at the far west end of Gower on Broughton beach. 

We took Bryn with us, he us awesome. He is a Golden retriever Poodle Cross.

We had a quiet first night had a few beers, a walk on the beach and watched Autumnwatch.

We got up the next morning took bryn for a walk on the beach, loads of birds around Oystercatchers, around 35, a few cormorant and loads of gulls.

We decided to head to Worms Head Rhossili for a bit of breakfast. Which was banging hand rolled Glamorgan veggie sausages. 

We had a walk out on Worms Head the views are unreal. On the way back we sat and watched two dolphins fishing in the water, amazing. 

We had a couple in the pub overlooking the bay. I had a Tomos Watkins Worms Head Bay followed by a Gower Power from Gower brewery, which was lush. 

We headed back to the van and decided it was such a nice day we needed a dip bear in mind it's October 30th.

We shared a bottle of Buck's Fizz to get us in the mood, packed some stuff,  the bins, a few beers and headed for Blue pool.

Blue pool is a natural ring of rocks, which fills when the tide comes in leaving a plunge pool when it retreats. 

We both had a quick dip it was surprisingly not that cold for the time of year, we had a beer watched the sunset and headed back to the van. 

We had a quick change, an amaretto coffee and headed out on foot to The King's Head Llangennith for a few beers and a spot of dinner.

I had the Gower Power IPA, which again was good. We shared a baked Camembert with garlic bread and chutney to start.

For main I had a gourmet pizza, which was anything but gourmet.

To finish I had sticky toffee pudding with hot vanilla custard, which was to die for. I finished off with a Gower brewery Lighthouse, which was Delish. Rolled back down the hill to the van. 

We watched a bit of Snow White and the huntsman, I was falling asleep though from the overwhelming fullness.

We took Bryn to the beach in the morning again loads of Oystercatchers about around 35 or so.

We decided as I was heading back today we would stop off at Kenfig Pool to see if  there were any birds about. Bear in mind Pugs has never really done any birding before, I have about 5-6 years under my belt and in that time I've barely seen more than a fleeting glimpse of a Waterrail. 

We were literally in the hide five minutes we were informed we'd just missed the Bittern, when not one, but two Waterrails came out of the reeds and started foraging right in front of us.



Needless to say I'll be taking Pugs birding with me again!

Love Marilyn x

"Wish I could be drinking down the Van!"

Unknown wales

Last weekend I was invited to attend the unknown wales conference at the National Museum of Wales in collaboration with The Wildlife Trust. 

I also entered the photo contest with my entry "A year in the life of a Welsh conservation volunteer."

"A year in the life of a Conservation Volunteer in Wales

The photo collage illustrates the range of conservation volunteering I have undertaken in the past year. From Balsam Bashing with the Wildlife Trust at Parc Slip, removing invasive plant species; Educational Wild Walks, Pond Dipping, Fishing, Field Drawing and Bug Hunts at Dow Corning Eco Centre with Wildlife Trust, allowing children to get up close and personal with wildlife; Monthly beach clean with Friends of Barry Beaches, clearing rubbish and recyclables; Residential Volunteering placement at RSPB South Stack reserve, people engagement about the plight of our seabirds, using optics to locate wildlife; Educational wildlife crafts, making pipe cleaner Bats at Techniquest and Margam Park with RSPB; Dissecting Owl Pellets at Margam Park with RSPB."

It was a great feeling seeing my photos on the big screen in the National Museum of Wales  Reardon Smith Lecture Theatre at such aprestigious event.

The first talk was on the bank voles of skomer and Ramsey island from Dr Tim Healing Who's comical sketches and excellent photos made the talk very engaging.

There was then a talk from Dr Ingrid Juttner on diatoms a form of algae/plankton which very beautiful to look at but the delivery was very dry. 

The talk I was looking forward to the most beforehand was on the reintroduction of the sand lizard to the sand dunes of wales, a species I was yet to see. Again the images made the talk.

There was then a talk on dung beetles of the uk from Dr Sarah Beynon who was very engaging and inspirational speaker. Also the bugs themselves were absolutely beautiful.

During lunch the photo contest would be decided and the entries on display in the oil room. I had my packed lunch outside in the fresh air and a piece of lemon and poppyseed cake and a belvoir ginger beer from the museum cafe. I then headed to check our the other entries and the results. The main prize was a trip to Skomer island, somewhere I have been longing to visit since I became interested in birds and wildlife. 

Most of the other entries seemed to me to focus on the photographic style rather than the subject of conservation in Wales. The winning entry was a stunning composition, light and colour contrast. I then saw my entry as runner up, sometimes coming second is worse as there is no prize no special mention just a  sign saying to me "nearly got to skomer mate" basically. 

The afternoons talks were on ancient forest fossils of Wales which was very very dry indeed.

Then there was the Barry triangle "Why do rare fish keep turning up off the coast of Barry ?" which initially being from Barry I was really into until I realised it was just 30 slides of the fish and when and where they turned up followed by suggestions as to why?

By this point following my near defeat I was ready to leave. However, the final talk from Stephen Moss former Spring Watch producer and president of Somerset Wildlife Trust. The day so far had been interesting, but heavily scientific and academic led. For me Stephen was a breath of fresh air as he spoke my language. The films he showed highlighted some of my favourite animals, people and places. Red Kites, Red Squirrels, Great White Egrets, Marsh Harriers, Otters, Iolo Williams, Ham Wall and Shapwick Heath reserves. Stephen spoke of the importance of us making our own minds up and making our own decisions about controversial reintroduction programs, he also highlighted the importance of educating the younger generation on conservation issues.

I left feeling fully inspired after an awesome day. Also, I finally managed to bag myself a weeks volunteering on Skomer next summer!