Fantastic twitch location
One of my favourite photos of the year
On the hunt for another snack
Posing for everyone
Amazing views
Local signage made it even easier to find
A few video clips put together
Last weekend was one of those weekends when I fancied a rarity. I was so engrossed in Dusty's West Midland Basketball final I didn't even notice my phone had to gone off with texts from people all saying the same "GREEN HERON WALES". After a quick recharge and an assessment was made it would be all systems go as soon as the bird was reported the next day.
With Chris now on Anglesea & the Squire on civic duties, young birder Jack joined myself and WarwickRCBirder (wearing what had to be described as a big shirt for birding)for the trip to Llanmill in Pembrokeshire. The journey time of 3 hours 10 minutes was made slightly easier by the ease of the Sunday traffic.
We were all expecting a scramble for car parking and scrum to see the bird. For some reason people had not travelled in any numbers, there were only 35-40 birders maximum.
The location was a very nice pond (mini lake) in the garden of local MP Simon Hart who had kindly given permission for birders to view the bird from his terrace. The bird was in hiding when we first arrived but we didn't have to wait long to see the bird extremely well. The term "showing well' wouldn't reflect well on the experience as bird stalked its prey, caught fish, flew & preened all within 100 metres.
The small heron, about 40cm, reminded me of the Dwarf Bittern seen earlier this year. The colours of the birds feathers were just stunning, it's so good to see a bird this well. The bird clearly got lost on it's spring migration from central to north America. This was Pembrokeshire'd first record and the 8th for Britain. The last sighting of a Green Heron was in Cornwall in 2010.
With the third lifer in the bag for the year the normal Coldplay playlist was put on for the drive home. The excitement was too much for young Jack as he was asleep quicker than Squire is normally but thankfully without the snoring. Quite a day……..
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