Wild and windy Wednesday

The Safari wasn't over enamoured with England's annhilation of the Welsh last night - hardly a convincing victory and the match really should have been a draw. Let's hope Rob Earnshaw doesn't make up for the miss when Cardiff play 'Pool in a couple of weeks.

Before settling down to watch the footy we had a good hour on the estuary watching the rising tide in the vain hope that something might have moved off the more exposed coast. Very nice in the early evening sun once we got out of the wind and we wish we had been able to do some digiscoping as the Lapwings, Starlings and in particular the (two) Golden Plovers looked resplendent with the sunshine on them - the Golden Plovers in partictular shone like they'd just had a good rub over with the Brasso!

Not a great lot new in, we could only find three Dunlins but two Knot were more unusual. As the tide rose we heard a Greenshank call from somewhere but never picked it up. Plenty of Redshanks and about 800 Lapwings were settling down to roost when two Sparrowhawks made their way along the riverside bushes in the hope of ambush but were spotted causing a mass panic.

In the river channel a Cormorant struggled with a large flatfish for a good five minutes with fair number of gulls loitering overhead waiting to snap up a morsel.

Over on the far side of the river we saw a family of Shelducks and running around on the mud behind them were six Ringed Plovers, once this mud was covered by the tide they relocated right in front of us and had become eight.

With no Curlew Sandpipers or Mediterranean Gulls to enjoy it was time to nick off back to Base Camp for the footy.

This morning a quick wizz through the stamps gave us a lovely Orang Utan; looking in to the eyes of one of the majestic and serene beasts is like looking into your own soul and only seeing the best bits. There is something very special about them and yet we all are playing a part in the destruction of their amazing habitat...both the toast and the bikkies we had this morning listed vegetable oil as a major ingredient...aka Palm oil...nuff said :(

Lots of stamps feature butterflies but hats off to the Spanish who have put some dapper moths on theirs.
A species of Tiger Moth

and a species of Burnet Moth

See more here

At lunchtime three Cormorants flew over Base Camp, a fairly unusual occurence and no doubt due to the recent strong wings, gusting to 50mph last night. It's dropped a bit now but still averaging over 20mph, let's hope it stays breezy until tomorrow morning as the tide is right for an early seawatch.

A teatime swift dash round Patch 1 only gave us two Peregrines sheltering on the tower out of the wind.
Where to next? Hopefully a seawatch and no stamp nonsense.

In the meantime let us know if the wind has droppped in your outback.