Thursday 15 December 2016

Strumble Diary 15/12/2016 ( Leapfrog Extravaganza )

Phew! What a day. Where do I start.  Prior to leaving for Strumble a walk with Leo the Porp Hound saw us spook a rare visitor to these parts on the inner breakwater. I watched it fly around and it seemed to settle on the sports fields, so quickly back to the car and a swift hop to the Sports Club brought me in sight of my quarry. A bird that I'd seen at Strumble a few days previous and indeed had photographed only to decide it wasn't anything special and deleted it off my camera. It was a cattle Egret. I managed a few shots at a distance and with a little tweaking in post process dug out some decent shots for Adrian's Strumble bird blog. If you want to see it take a look here:-

http://strumbleheadseawatching.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/cattle-egret-goodwick-moor-15th-dec-2016.html

Off we went to Strumble where I met up with Chris from Dinas, a biologist and as I found out a fellow porp enthusiast. Together we watched a  wonderful show of porpoise feeding close in and some extraordinary aerial activity. Lots of breeches which allowed me to capture three sequences of "leapfrogging" in some excellent light for a change. Later in the session after Chris had gone I spotted a distant group of around four Rissos about two and a half to three miles out. A bull grey put in an appearance below me and even a tortoishell butterfly came by and settled on one of the pillars of the lookout. What a day and as you can imagine I came away smiling.