First apologies for the delay in updating - I've been busy with a load of different mostly non nature related things and have not been so intense in my birding as usual. Anyway, I have finally got around to typing...
What a beautiful evening we've had tonight. After nearly being sucked into some crap movie (aren't most of them!?) I noticed that the (incessant) wind had dropped to force zero and decided to turn the TV off and have a wander around the fields/garden. The Irish Sea was becalmed and the Wicklow Mountains/Dublin coastline very clear. The red sun slipped away and bounced off the clouds nicely while a crescent moon emerged.
I adore that time between sunset and the dead of night on calm summer evenings. I love to just sit, slow down, absorb the endless natural activities (whether it's a Rabbit speeding along or a Whitethroat going to roost)... and think. Bliss.
There are loads of Red Campion flowering around the cloddiau, which look great in the day when the neighbouring pink Foxgloves are out but they alone remain open and take on the most intense magenta tones when the light fades - marvellous! No photograph will do this justice - you have to experience it with your own eyes as they adjust to the changing light. A host of different moths were swarming around the plants but don't ask me what they are.
Birdsong is still a real feature and a Song Thrush was singing away while a gang of Blackbirds were tacking in unison - presumably they had found a predator to scold, probably one of the Little Owls which I watched this afternoon from my office window. Bizarrely, someone has a posse of Peacocks a few miles towards Rhoshirwaun - what a racket they make! At least the incoming tide rolling against the rocks of Porth Ysgo was drowning them out to some degree.
One of the highlights of the evening - and a new garden tick - was a brief blast of singing Quail, which was calling from the direction of the cereal fields over near Ty Croes Bach around 2230 hrs when it was still light. What a great end to a fabulous evening stroll.
