Bush Bashing

Last Sunday I had a couple hours in the valley trying to top up my valley year list. So first light I was at Tir Founder Fields in search of Jack Snipe but had no joy, but there were lots of Common Snipe twenty four in total and I also had 50 Mallard, 7 Teal, 2 Water Rail. I also had a walk along the old canel in Cwmbach looking for the recent reported  Lesser Spotted Woodpecker but there was no sign of the mythical bird. The next stop was Cefnpennar to check out a couple of sites for Great Grey Shrike and Crossbill. When I got there things were looking a little bit foggy with light wind. I decided to go any way what a big mistake,  I found as I went up through the forest the fog got thicker and the wind picked up and to make things worst there was a mountain bike rally in the forest. I found that out when I went around a bend and met about forty guys on mountain bikes coming out of the fog and not one of them had a blooddy bell. So time to get out of there and have a quick brew with Phil. The next stop was to check out Phil's Chaffinch flock, they were looking pretty good with about forty birds in the flock, but sadly no Brambling. The last stop was Peace Park and there were 16 Teal, 2 Water Rail, 2 Coot, 1 Little Grebe. This site was looking good and they have started to do some work on site with a new gate and a path around the field by the lake. I got home with no new birds for my list and I went out my back  garden and I had about fifty Canada Geese flying towards Merthyr so I finally got a new bird for my list. I had five minutes spare yesterday so I went to Nant Meol Reservoir for a look. It was a bit disappointing with only Cormorants on the res. There were twelve in total and thats the highest number I have seen in the valley, there were two juvs and ten adults. One of the adults was showing signs of being the continental or the p.c sinensis race and what a cracking looking bird.