More time spent in the garden does mean more opportunities
to add to our garden bird list. On Sunday we had what must be
one of the rarest of garden birds (although there are hundreds
of thousands of this species in Pembrokeshire!)
After her 5 am visit to her moth trap, following a very
misty and dark night, Rosemary mentioned to me (later in the day
when I was up) that she had spotted a dead jackdaw at the bottom
of a wall under some ivy, and could I remove it. Well it wasn't
a jackdaw, and it wasn't dead, but rather a very lost Manx
Shearwater hiding, or so it thought, with its head deep under
the ivy and its tail sticking out. We suspect is was somehow
misled by the moth light trap in the poor visibility although we
are about 2 kms. from the sea and we were only using an actinic
(fluorescent) light. It was not keen on being extricated but was
soon secure in a shoebox. (I always have one to hand, usually
for rescuing bats from our sitting room!)
At dusk, having decided that the Welsh government would
have decreed this to be an essential journey if they had chanced
to think of this situation, I drove to Martins Haven and,
ignoring the coast path closed sign, went to the top of the
cliff and released the bird which happily flew into the gloom.
Good deed for the day done and one more bird for the garden
bird list, although what the Garden Birdwatch website will think
of it when we try to enter our details at the end of the week I
dread to think!
Peter Royle
