Early Morning Stroll to Site A

Martin Bevan and myself decided this morning to have our annual climb (thinking about it I missed last year) up to Site A to look for Red Grouse  Weather was looking good, quite clear, no wind and plenty of coffee and healthy food in the rucksacks so we were raring to go!!!

As we hit the first conifer block Martin heard Crossbills calling and three were duly found just sitting on top of a tree. Not much else of note apart from 3 Bullfinches were seen on the walk up to the stile.

Over the stile and onto the open mountain the ground became boggy, more so after all the rain we have had and the weather started to close in with visibility getting worse. We decided to keep going but if the conditions got any worse we would turn around straight away. Martin said that in the mist it is easy to get disorientated and lose your way which I replied, Martin you do not need mist to do that!!!

The weather cleared for awhile, a very cold north wind came up, the ground became more icy and has we got to the site the mist was back. Luckily for us we heard a Grouse calling and Martin somehow picked one up through the mist on the ground and then two flew up. We looked at each other and said job done, they are still here let's get off here as quick as possible. Working our way down the mist cleared and the temperature went up a few degrees. I decided to slip on the mud and go a**e over tip. Martin was quite put out because I was not covered in mud saying that if he had done that he would have been plastered. A quick stop for coffee and pizza and it was back to the car picking up five more Crossbills on the way.

We then called into Llwyn Onn reservoir which was dead on the water however between the middle car park and the hide Martin heard a single note and a Willow Tit duly popped out right in front of us.

Next stop was Brecon for a quick look for Waxwings, a quick walk and drive around produced a negative result.

Then it was over to Llangorse where again it was very quiet although we picked up another year tick in Goldeneye, over twenty. We decided to go over to Talybont to try for Marsh Tit but just has we were getting in the car flocks of wildfowl started to appear from our right. Groups of Teal, Wigeon, Goosander, Goldeneye and Lapwing just kept coming and all of a sudden the lake was what we had expected to see.

We finally got to Talybont reservoir after a diversion around the village itself, no Marsh Tit but on the water 2 Goosanders and at least 16 Little Grebes, 10 in one group.