Lords of the Flies

Well, what a cracking 48 hours that was! The last two days have been just about the best couple of days I've had in a long time when it comes to birding, and thats without even seeing a new 'tick'. It started yesterday around 10am when I decided to head over to Ynys-hir for a couple of hours prior to picking Steffi up in Aber. Taking the path through to the woodland hide, I stopped to listen out for any singing newly arrived migrants, and heard just above me the calls of a lesser spotted woodpecker - I quickly latched onto it and was delighted to watch a female frantically feeding in the trees around me for at least 4 minutes, before she headed off. Feeling chuffed as billy-o, I carried on my way, soon hearing, then getting great views, of both male and female pied flycatchers. The woods were full of redstarts,willow warblers and chiffchaffs, and it really felt good to be out in the warmth and sunshine of a proper spring day (finally). Making my way onto the boardwalk that cuts across the marsh, next up was a displaying tree pipit, and this was followed by my inadvertantly flushing a small dark bird that dropped a few feet away into some scrub - getting my bins focused on it revealed a grasshopper warbler, looking almost as surprised as myself. Prising myself away to go and get Steffi, once she'd heard about my previous few hours, we decided to head back to Ynys-hir, taking a small detour to check the sea at the turn car park. Within seconds of arriving, right in front of us on the track was a belting male snow bunting, which showed so well that Steffi was beside herself with grief that she didnt have her camera. Also on show was a whimbrel, again very photographable......
Back at Ynys-hir we cleaned up on the migrants, with only the lesser spot and gropper refusing to play ball, and adding sedge warbler and arctic tern to our year lists. Just as exciting was the dicovery of a sunbathing grassnake on the bank by the track from the woods to the boadwalk.
Today, combining work and pleasure, we spent the day in the Elan valley, where we managed to boost the 2013 tally with a lovely whinchat that Steffi found, along with good views of many redstarts, pied flys, wheatears, common sand, dipper, grey wagtails, peregine, sparrowhawk, willows and chiffs, reed buntings, kites, buzzards and others. Coming up next, a fine selection of photos from today, when Steffi did have her camera.....