Tregaron, Sunday and Thursday

Visits to a couple of tetrads in and around Tregaron enabled me to locate a few new species and lifted the total for one of the tetrads to 50. House Sparrows seem exceedingly common hereabouts and there also seem to be healthy populations of Green and Goldfinches. A Spotted Flycatcher was at Ystrad Caron and two more pairs were to the east of Tregaron. There were about 20 Sand Martins at a colony at Abercoed to the south. Higher up the hills at Bryn Du there were still 10 Crossbills present, presumably the same group I saw here containing juveniles a few weeks ago.

There is an interesting little article on the BTO website about 5 tagged Cuckoos in Norfolk. Two are still in the area whilst two others have already started heading south. However, I was most interested/amused to read about the final bird which is also still in its breeding area. One day it flew several miles to the outskirts of Norwich but then headed back home again that evening. Like it had gone on a day trip. I was left with a sense of wonder at how little we know about what 'our' local birds get up to and where they travel.