30 Days Wild | Day 10 - going on holiday....

Well, as I suspected might happen, I didn’t manage to keep up with my 30 Days Wild blog posts. The big life changes of moving house (from Birmingham to Malvern) and starting a new job (at Herefordshire Biological Records Centre) meant that although I did manage to do something nature-related on most days of 30 Days Wild, I certainly didn’t have time to blog about it! Furthermore, since we moved on the 24th June we had no internet access in our new house until today.

However, between 10th and 18th June I was away on a brilliant holiday to Bardsey Island which was nature-packed to the max! There was no internet access there but I wrote a blog post every day in my notebook and will be posting these bumper blog posts over the next few days to make up for the lack of 30 Days Wild bloggage throughout much of June. Here’s the first one!

Today I headed off for a wildlife-packed holiday on Bardsey Island, where I would be staying at the Bird Observatory for a week. However I wasn’t actually going to the island today – as the boat goes there early on Saturday morning, I travelled to Aberdaron (where the boat sails from) today to stay overnight in a lovely B&B. The journey was long but went smoothly and was very scenic – I took a train from Birmingham to Pwllheli, then a bus from Pwllheli to Aberdaron.

The highlight of the journey came shortly after the train stopped in Machynlleth. I was vaguely familiar with this area having visited RSPB Ynys-Hir with the West Midland Bird Club many times, so I knew that the Dyfi Osprey Project was nearby. However I was not prepared for quite how close the train passed by the Osprey nest platform. Looking out of the train window I was suddenly confronted with the sight of both Ospreys! One on the platform and the other on the camera that watches the platform. I had neither my binoculars or camera to hand (sorry no photos) but there was no mistaking the eyeful of Osprey I had just received. I’m sure a couple of other people on the train were wondering why I was looking out of the window grinning from ear to ear!

142. Osprey (Pandion haliaetus)

The Osprey is a fish-eating eagle, which breeds in the UK but winters in Africa. Due to historical persecution in the UK Ospreys are not common, but they are becoming more widespread, slowly recolonising former breeding grounds. They are very widely distributed throughout the world, being found on all continents except Antarctica. Their preferred habitat is freshwater lakes with plenty of fish, and tall coniferous trees for nesting in. Ospreys are quite unique in appearance, their slender wings in flight sometimes make them look a little like a large gull and unlike other eagles their wings do not have prominent 'fingers' at the tips. The juvenile looks similar to the adult, but with pale mottled upperparts and dark streaks on its white crown.

Osprey, ©mikebaird, via Flickr Creative Commons.

Osprey painting.

I've not done any paintings/drawings for the past few days as I've been busy trying to get an assignment done which has been bamboozling me! I made quite good progress on it yesterday though so had a bit of time this evening for this Osprey; it's a bit on the chunky side but considering I got up at 5am today to go birding at Wicken Fen in Cambridgeshire (more on that to follow) I don't think it's too shabby.