Autumn watch

 Not the programme of course, but it`s that time to keep an eye out on what`s arriving for winter, with mid to late October being an interesting time.

I`ve been out looking for early winter raptors, but still a week or two too early I think. There are always some exceptions moving around, but I haven`t come across them yet.

Due to very limited personal time, and also WWT Llanelli now closed for 2 days per week (it will be closed for 4 days per week from November), i`ll be "watching" my local marsh, estuary and surrounding fields whenever I can. There are a few other places too if I have the chance.

Yesterday I had the chance of slipping further West for a few hours while the conditions were good, but no real sign of any winter arrivals. A female Marsh Harrier saved the day, but that was at a distance.

Back at WWT, i`ll be doing the Walk with the Warden on Saturday 17th October. As usual, we meet in the main reception area for 11.30am, and will go on to the Reserve for around an hour and a half, maybe a little more. (Come prepared for the weather, including appropriate footwear). 

If you do come to the Centre, make a day of it and check out the saltmarsh etc from the hides before the walk, as there have been good sightings of Spoonbill, Great White Egret, Cattle Egret, etc over the last couple of weeks. Also look out for wader numbers building up, and Knot are often mixed in with the Black Tailed Godwits.

I`ll be posting some occasional updates, and the odd "vlog" now and again, so hoping for a good autumn and winter ahead.

BananaGate

 Miss of the day:

YouTube subtitles not understanding what i`m saying again i`m afraid! 

Vlogging

 As much as I generally dislike selfies, i`m going to be trying some vlogging here now and again as we head into winter. 

These will be via links from this blog to start with, but will see how it goes.

So here I am, at Llanrhidian marsh in (the year 20,261):

Calendars

I`ve had some enquiries already as to whether I would be putting together and selling calendars for 2027, like I have done for the last few years. All profits from the calendars for the last couple of years have gone to help fund-raising for St.Gwynogs Church in Llangennech.

Well i`m afraid I won`t be putting together any calendars for next year, as there is only a small window of time to sell them. I might instead look at doing individual things "to order", but nothing concrete yet. If so i`ll announce this as and when.

Thank you for your continued interest.

Russ.

High tide watch next week

 

Pembrokeshire

 

Back after a good week away at St.Davids, with the bonus of better weather than was originally forecast.

Plenty of places for a pot of tea, which is always welcome for me.

Back to it now, and planning a few projects for winter.

Solar eclipse - Wednesday 12th August 2026

 The country seemed to be gripped with "Eclipse fever" this week, as the first solar eclipse for many years was due to happen when viewing conditions were good. I wasn`t expecting the chaotic scenes that were on the news and online, with roads jammed and people triple-parking.

I decided to go to the a quieter area, but there was still heavy traffic for a fee miles before it thinned out. My plan was to solely get the sun being covered by the moon, rather than stacking a sequence across the sky, so I chose to use an infrared filter (IR850) so that the camera sensor would hopefully not get damaged during exposures.

The resulting shots produced a surreal magenta colour, which I liked when I was doing some test shots a few days before. Some of them seem to come straight out of "pacman"!

I took two shots every five minutes from about 6.15pm to 8pm (with the peak being 7.13pm), and have just collaged some of them.

My favourite shot has to be around the peak at 7.13pm, which I might just get printed up on canvas one day. Such a thing to experience.

This shot is just a few seconds early - the moon moving from right to left.

I`m glad I shot in infrared as it`s different from anything else i`ve seen out there.