Nature with Nev

 Article completed for the Majorca Daily Bulletin (for Friday 23rd June). Falcons and Flies They need to be wary, for a falcon looms on the horizon. Mallorca has a good variety of dragonflies and damselflies, and May to July are excellent months to see them. Most habitats will see them, especially where there are water sources nearby. They are skilful fliers, but they do have to be alert, as there is a summer breeding bird on Mallorca that is more than a match for their flying ability. Male Black-tailed Skimmer, Son Bosc, Mallorca Recently, I was watching both male and female Black-tailed Skimmers (Orthetrum cancellatum), a chunky looking dragonfly, flitting back and forth, and eventually landing on the soft sand. The female is an overall yellow colour, and she was perched close by on some grass stems. They can be found at areas of open water with patches of bare ground, where patrolling males like to frequently rest in the sun. They will also inhabit slow flowing waters, ponds, marshy

  Little Egrets with Lesser Black-backed Gulls in                                     the background The first thing I noticed at my visit to Goldcliff Reserve on the Gwent Levels yesterday morning, was the number of egrets present. I counted 21 Little Egrets in total which is a great number here, but mixed in with them on the first lagoon, was not one but a pair of Great White Egrets (see my previous post), but also a pair of handsome Spoonbills. Eurasian Spoonbill I arrived just after dawn to plenty of bird song, and a calm and warm early morning. En-route to the hides I saw a Magpie, Pheasants, Wren, a Chiffchaff singing, and a Kingfisher was an unexpected surprise, perched on a branch with a tiny Minnow just by the little bridge you walk over by the car park. Several Common Whitethroats were singing, and Crows and Blackbirds were added to the list. At the first hide it was clear this was where all the action was, with the lagoon awash with water birds. Egrets seemed to be everywher

  This handsome fellow is a Great White Egret, one of a pair I watched at the Goldcliff Reserve (Newport) on Friday June 9th. What stood out about this one was a red colour ring on the lower left leg with the letters ABP. I put the picture on my Twitter page (@ecology_cymru) and was pleased to receive a quick reply, and it seems this individual has done a fair bit of travelling already. It was ringed at Ham Wall in Somerset - https://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves-and-events/reserves-a-z/ham-wall/ on 29th April 2022, and since then, recovery records have shown it to have visited North Yorkshire, Lothian, Northumberland, back to Wales (Powys), then up to Doncaster, and as of only four days before I seen it, in Derbyshire. Now that is not bad going for a bird barely two years old.  ABP ringed as a chick at Ham Wall Nature Reserve (picture                                  courtesy of the RSPB ringing project) I was also pleased to receive an email from Alison Morgan of the RSPB, who provided me