George Reed

Having missed the Hudsonian Godwit yesterday evening it was great to see her this morning. Harsh light and heat haze were an issue but managed a few OK shots.

@Stef123steve It's crazy what goes on out there sometimes. -There was something seen last week that they thought was a Harbour Porpoise, but I wonder if it wasn't this Common Dolphin as, tbh I thought it looked small and thought it was going to be a Porpoise.

@ReedRitz It’s a strange world George, good spot. Wasn’t there one last week as well?

Common Dolphin breaching the water, fimed on the River Usk just outside Caerleon this evening.

@grahamh941 Awesome 👌 I don't live in Caerleon, but I overlook it from St Julians and spend a lot of time birding around both Caerleon and St Julians. I'm in a unique and very fortunate position to have some really nice wildlife on my doorstep.

@ReedRitz I lived on campus when I studied there

COMMON DOLPHIN is currently swimming on the River Usk viewable from Caerleon Bridge 20:00hrs

@grahamh941 It's a lovely place. I can see why you do 👍

@ReedRitz I loved living there

@grahamh941 Yep, that very same bridge 👍

@ReedRitz Caerleon Bridge???? Walked over there heading to the Ship or the Bell many a time

Newport: Caerleon flood - 2 Oystercatchers (new in), the water is now dropping rapidly. I'm not sure if we will get much more than a week before it's all gone, so here's hoping for some last-minute waders, I still need Wood Sand, which should love the flood. 🙏 #gwentbirds

Newport: Caerleon flood- Oystercatcher 1 just flown in and landed. This is the first diurnal sighting this year, with all the others being birds calling at night as they go over. #gwentbirds

Newport: Caerleon flood - 1 Greenshank greeted us this morning, not a bad first bird on patch after 2 weeks away 👍. #gwentbirds

Eastern Olivaceous Warblers are only just making landfall in our part of Athens, I literally love patching it aboard. Yesterday, we had Red-footed Falcons (2 male, 2 female) and Goldern Orioles (1 male and 1 female) in our temporary local patch. Of the Old Quarry.

@DavidJIPrice Im always hoping to find a UK one, especially on local patch 🙏 lol

@ReedRitz Woodchat Shrike, nice!. My favourite bird. Still mine and Uncles favourite Gwent find, Caldicot 1993 a seminal moment for a 14 year old birder. Then a twitched female 2004.

Me and Kate were very happy to get a Black-eared Wheatear and a Chukar hanging out together in our little quarry in Athens today (see pic). Also, seen was Red Rumped Swallow, Alpine & Palid Swifts Woodchat Shrike, Hoopoe, Turtle Dove, Sardinian Warblers, and a while lot more.

None bird related, but the garden is positively swarming with Red Mason Bee's, so much better than last year 👍.

Newport: The Moorings - 1st Sedge Warbler singing on site today, 2 Goosander flying up stream, no L. Whitethroat's yet. #gwentbirds

Newport: Caerleon flood- 1 Greenshank, and 1st linnet of the year for patch. Last year was great for Greenshank sighting here. This year is shaping up to be even better. ##gwentbirds

Highly impressed with a sound recording App - linked below (it doesn't ID birds just records sound). It's called Song Meter touch. It provides an excellent sonogram that you can scroll and zoom in and out of, plus a 3 sec pre record plus it plays Wav files play.google.com/store/apps/det…

Newport: Caerleon flood- Wheatear on the spoil heap [W3W ///gaps.sleepy.large] this morning 1st of the year for patch #gwentbirds

@DavidJIPrice No worries, I'm happy to help anytime 👍.

@ReedRitz There have been reports of Firecrest in a Small woodland outside Caerleon. I tried unsuccessfully to locate the bird and haven’t heard of a report since. Never mind I did add Nuthatch yesterday so I’ll take that. Thanks for your input regarding this 🤘

@ReedRitz any good with calls George?. On my patch walk yesterday I picked up a Firecrest. Didn’t have any views sadly. I’ve put it out on socials but not getting much response.

@DavidJIPrice I've had Firecrest locally, but only twice one of them was indeed a spring bird in April, so it's not unheard of, but Firecrest is definitely one of the more difficult passerines to find, which was surprising to me when I first came here.

@ReedRitz No not at all. It seemed odd at the time. You can hear my voice toward the end of the clip sounding surprised. I waited around as with Merlin I like at least two recordings for a positive id.