Some news from our Extreme Photographer

The Safari went to work full of optimism this morning, the sun was shining the sea was like a carpet all was well with the world. We got to work grabbed the scope and went over the road for a shuffy. Our optimism was short lived, a thick sea mist had rolled in and bizarrely there was a heat haze over the water too. Visibility was down to less and about a kilometre and what we could see was wobbly. All we could see was a couple of Great Crested Grebes and a pair of Eiders becalmed on the water.

In the absence of any other news here's a few pics from our Extreme Photographer down in south west Wales. The reservoir at the bottom of his garden has had a Great Northern Diver, occasionally two, a decent gull roost with a regular Ring Billed Gull and good numbers of commoner waterfowl, even a solitary Moorhen which one of his birding pals down there has never seen at the res in many years watching there.

Drake Goldeneye

After the excitement of his Palmate Newts being still active on News Years Eve they went down just after that and haven't been seen since. However his Toads have now woken up and are doing what Toads do when the come out of hibernation.

Far more interesting was a snatch of drumming coming from the wood at the bottom of the garden that he sent to us. We had a listen and independently came up with the same answer as his local birding mate. Lesser Spotted Woodpecker!!!! He's heard it a few times since and managed to triangulate where the sound was coming from and discovered this recently dug hole.

We're looking forward to seeing pics of the bird itself.

Not only that he saw one in a park well away from his garden a while back and now someone else has seen one/it in the same place to confirm his sighting. All fascinating stuff - we're really looking forward to going down there before too long.
Back at Base Camp the House Sparrows were chirruping noisily in the garden opposite again this morning. On the way back after work we stopped at the shops to buy a feeder and a load of suitable small seeds and put it up on the pergola over the front gate - hope they find it tomoz.

Where to next? It's the weekend again  so snotty nose and pounding man-flu infested head permitting we'll be out on safari somewhere.

In the meantime let us know who's having all the luck in your outback