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Mountains and Coast

I took one of my occasional visits to South Wales last weekend. There was nothing outstanding about the drive with the usual scattering of kites to the east of Oxford and buzzards to the west. On Saturday a visit to the Gwent Levels was not as exciting in birding terms as my visit in May 2006 but we were lucky to see a water vole cross the road in front of us and also saw a weasel in the reserve. Among the birds there were curlews and oystercatchers at a distance on the mud and a single egret flew across our path. The new visitor centre is impressive with a nice selection of cakes in the little cafe.

Later in the day we moved up into the hills near Blaenavon looking for Peregrines but thought we were going to be out of luck until one flew across just as we were turning to leave. As well as the usual buzzards the almost pig like croak of a raven caught our attention and among the small birds there were a host of meadow pipits and a solitary wheatear.

On Sunday a walk around Whitecastle gave me the unusual experience of hearing two or three skylarks singing at once. While they seem common enough at home I never hear more than one at a time. The other real excitement was a pair of redstarts. Facing me, with little to give a good sense of scale in the bins, I was uncertain but then they both conveniently turned their backs.

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