Wood Lark Dip

There was a young man called Marc
Who went out and found a Wood Lark
(on my patch!)
He told me, I twitched it, then sadly I dipped it
So now I'm gonna punch his face off....

ONLY JOKING!

But (gggggggrrrrrrrr), it is a teeny weeny bit gripping when a One Man Bird Observatory turns up and finds stuff that I should have!

The fact that Mr Hughes was actually out looking (rather than limping around in recovery mode after a particularly spine-bending yoga class the night before while contemplating a day of meaningless toil) probably helps to explain his good fortune. Plus the fact that he's a bloody good birder. Nice find - they're a scarce Welsh migrant - and it could have been a lot worse (think Calandra worse).

The bird was seen in flight between the Ty Newydd Campsite and the end cattle grid onto Mynydd Mawr then landed in the weedy field adjacent to the lower car park but was not relocated. Having dashed along (all of 17 minutes on the road) I discovered that there were loads of birds on the move - Starlings, Jackdaws, hundreds of Chaffinches, Reed Buntings, Siskins and a few Brambling and began kicking myself for not getting out earlier.

So never mind, lesson learned and to be honest I don't really need Wood Lark on the patch - having heard one over Mynydd Mawr a few years ago that pitched down on Bardsey 20 minutes later. I was still stuck in the wires from my Sennheiser when I received the news from the island, having managed to pull the microphone lead out from my MiniDisc while simultaneously attempting to hit the record button and fit my headphones - becoming hopelessly entangled while trying to reconnect. Fortunately my Anglo-Saxon expletives were not recorded at the time. I tend to keep the record button on these days...

Fortunately, the interloper will be heading off back to the Great Orme soon - leaving the hardcore Lleyn Birder(s) to soldier on, probably counting Jackdaws... PS he also had at least two Firecrests in Porth Meudwy.

Good for him...;-)