After this mornings meeting at Llandegfedd, I spent a couple hours at Llandegfedd but ended up going to Pontypool Park to enjoy the autumn colours. Only a few Dragonflies left now, mostly Common Darters. The White Buzzard showed again though! It's been a while since I've seen it but it was flying in the typical spot and perching on the same perch. I may try this again soon as it really is a beautiful bird. I'll let the photographs do the rest of the talking :)
I don't usually blog about stuff like this but I think people need to know just incase they ever encounter similar issues. I made the mistake in purchasing a car April this year from an official garage called Wynford Williams Car Sales in Aberystwyth. Mistake number 1 for buying a car from far away... Anyways, from the very beginning, the car was with us for only 2 days and we weren't happy because the clutch was unnaturally high, there was a rattle in the engine and the gearbox was very loose (a lot of play in gears). They came down to pick the car up and off it went back up to Aberystwyth where it stayed for over a week. During this time I rang them to see how things were getting on and they said that they couldn't do anything about the clutch but they did sort the rattle out (no mention of the gearbox). They brought the car back and because I wasn't happy, the car just stayed in work. I hadn't yet passed my test so it was only being driven in and out of the garage ect.
A week later I checked in the car and noticed that they didn't give me my Service book back or the car manual so I rang them up and I got this answer: "Oh, I don't know where that is, i'll have to ask the guy who did the service but he's currently on holiday".... I was assured that I would get a call back once they find it... 1 weeks went by and I rang them back in which they said the same thing. Another week went by and I rang them back and got this answer: "I'm sorry Gavin, we did find your service book but it was on my desk and my desk no longer exists because we had a building fire".... Infuriated but trying to remain understanding, I asked them if they could replace the documents to which they said yes but it may take some time. 4 Months goes by and I hadn't received any documents and not a single phone call to date off them regarding any of this so far. At this point, I pass my test! So finally got the car on the road, to which I encounter LOTS of problems with the car... The Gearbox was 10 times worse, getting stuck in 5th and generally hard to get into forward gears 1st, 3rd and 5th. The clutch was also struggling to engage and generally hard to find the bite because of it being so inconsistently high. At this point the brakes were squeaking and the steering wheel was making a weird mechanical noise unlike the typical power-steering sound that it was having previously.
SO, at this point as you can imagine, I was getting very frustrated but issue I had now was the car was out of warranty but after nagging on the phone,, Wynford sent someone down for the car and it was back up to Aberystwyth for yet another service. The result however wasn't what I expected as he returned the car having only sorted the squeak out on the brakes.. The rest of which they deemed 'normal' and there was nothing wrong with the car at all. Even the guy who dropped the car off said, 'there's nothing wrong with it'. Before they picked it up this time, I wrote an official letter to Wynford stating the issues with the car and what I'd like to have done to try and restore some confidence in this purchase. He replied saying that he didn't like the 'tone of the letter' and that he doesn't have to do anything (because it's out of warranty). Upon arrival back to me, we took the car to a local garage in which they immediately found everything that was wrong with the car.. Something Wynford somehow 'didn't (want to) see'..
The gearbox linkage cables were held together with CABLE TIES!! Our local garage has now had the car for a week having had to take the hole dashboard off to access the cables and the bills are going up and up. Wynford had sold me a car unsafe to drive and to date has presented us with nothing but grief. Most likely because he doesn't want to have to pay for the fixes himself when in-fact it was his responsibility to check the car over WAY BEFORE selling it to anyone!!.
I'm absolutely disgusted at him for doing this and I still haven't received any paper work for anything they've done on the car or a replacement for the documents they burnt: Documents that reflected on the overall price of the car in the first place! I paid for a car with full service history that drove 'perfectly' and had low milage. Yet, I have a car with no service history that to date has been deemed unsafe to drive.
Moral of the story, don't ever do business with Wynford Williams Car Sales and ALWAYS make a copy of your service history book so if anything does happen to it, it will be easier to replace. Also never purchase a car before you pass your test or atleast have someone else driving it full time so that you can find any issues within the 3 month warranty...
Nice early start for todays session at Margam to photograph my first Deer Rut with Mike Warburton. Started off really foggy and didn't really clear fully till it was time to clear but still had some great opportunities. They weren't easy though! Spent a lot of time walking up and down the mountain trying to stay ahead of the herd as the dominant male was chasing off any rivals.
I had a fantastic time though and I hope that I can return soon once my recording gear is fixed so I can record the incredible bellowing sound.
This Autumn/winter I have a few target species that I'd like to get photographs of and also record the sound of. Other than the typical winter Robin singing, there are a few spectacles that bring incredible sound opportunities: 1 of which is the Starling Murmuration. That spectacle isn't just incredible to watch but it's incredible to listen to! You can hear the movement of the flock as they swoop together as one unit and when they land, thousands of Starlings gather in a very small area and that is well worth listening to as they communicate with each other in complete darkness!.
My photography list is reasonably short this winter but that means I can be more productive with my time. 1 species on that list isn't actually a bird, but a Red Squirrel!. I've never seen one before so just seeing them will make my winter better but I have already arranged a trip out with a few other professional photographers NEXT WEEK! (Weather permitting) so hopefully you'll see some half decent shots of Red Squirrels here in a couple weeks time.
Spent a couple hours with good friend Paul Joy today at Hamm Wall RSPB Nature Reserve. By far my favourite RSPB reserve with incredible diversity of wildlife and extremely well managed place. I was introduced to this site through my first 'twitch' to go see the Hudsonian Godwit. (Hudwit). On this occasion I just wanted to introduce Paul to the site so that he could familiarise himself with the place. I wasn't expecting to still see Hobby's but there were still a few around! Still LOTS of Dragonflies on the wing so it was a buffet for them! Plenty of Marsh Frogs still on the ponds with lots of newly transformed tadpoles. We saw lots of other birds from Kingfishers, Marsh Harriers, Great White Egrets, Snipe, Black-necked Grebe and lots of the usuals.
As of October 1st, access along the Llandegfedd Trail will be limited. You will no longer have access through the woodland trail leading to the north meadows and the fisherman car park. Despite Welsh Waters obligation, the reasons for shutting this trail are actually nationally important. Llandegfedd is an SSSI for wintering wildfowl which means that once upon a time, Llandegfedd was good for wildfowl! That certainly isn't the case in recent years which makes you think, why is the SSSI still in place? Well, a site of specific scientific interest is meant to be managed according to the subject and apart from shutting a path each winter, nothing else has been done to improve the site for wildfowl for years. All this will hopefully change through monthly meetings and different management agreements but for now, we simply have to deal with the closure and hope that it helps encourage the wildfowl in. With Welsh Waters decision to allow boats on the water up until November, it's an impossible target to try and achieve.
Quick stop off at Llandegfedd after work. Hundreds of Goldfinches present around the meadows taking their share of seeds. Looks like they have had another great year as I even have flocks of them near me in Sebastopol. Most of that flock is actually youngsters however and not all of them will survive. The local Sparrowhawk keeps having a go at taking one or two and do you blame them? Certainly not! Goldfinches are very noisy vocal birds which is why they flock up like this as they need that security and extra eyes on the watch out.
Still lots of Crickets in the meadows too! Only a few Roesel's at this particular hour, most of the cricket noises coming from the Dark Bush Crickets which actually sing throughout night too unlike the Roesel's.
I didn't do any recording on this occasion as I've actually got a problem with my gear right now. Something that I've been in contact with Telinga about and somehow will have to get this sorted during the next couple months. Hopefully before the Red Grouse monitoring.
As planned, a re-visit for a better photograph of a Black Darter lead to finding a beautiful female. Still lots of other Dragonflies flying there including a Southern Hawker which I haven't actually had there all year as it's been mainly Common Hawker and Migrants so far. Still lots of Froglets on the rocks, which to be fair make really great subjects to photograph and to top it off, another pair of Redkites! This time carrying what looked to be a mouse or even a rat. At first I thought it may have been tagged but looking closely it is actually a mouse. Another great couple of hours spent in this fantastic place.
If you didn't notice in my 'events' calendar, today marks a special day for the Moon called 'Blood Moon' and even though the peak isn't till 1am in the morning, (to which I'm certainly not staying up for as I have work in the morning) - You can already see the colour emerging while rising late in the evening.
If you're wondering why I have a secret patch, it's certainly not because I don't want to share it with you! It's mainly down to how many protected species actually nest there. I'm very torn because the site is by far my favourite location in South Wales. Even better than Llandegfedd Reservoir and you all know how much I love Llandegfedd!. Today I had another new Species for me in the form of a Black Darter and also an Unidentified Fungi that appears to be one of these Carnivorous types as it had a fly stuck in there much like a Sundew Plant. It appears to be a Fungi growing ontop of another Fungi but I'm still waiting to hear back from the professionals on that one. Lots of Froglets hopping around the floor today! I had so much fun photographing these little guys! I almost got a shot of them hopping off the stones but it was slightly out of focus. I may visit again tomorrow for a better photograph of the Black Darter.
Today I set out to venture on my old patch in the hope that I bumped into a couple of old friends. Things have changed slightly on the patch since my last visit though! which made it slightly harder to find them but it didn't take too long before me and my Brother found them basking in the sun in the ferns. I am of course talking about my old friends the Common Lizards of the Tranch. I grew up in the Tranch and this mountain was my closest access to green space and despite it being small, it holds so much wildlife!. The 'Table Top' is a section of the mountain that we used to camp on as kids but it was only 3 years ago that I realised just how great this section of the mountain was for Lizards including Slow Worms. The site has history of heathland and you can still see lots of Bilberry and Heather along the edges where the bracken hasn't taken over yet. This site has history of producing Red Grouse but those days seem long gone. Bracken is so hard to manage and we've lost a lot of heathland to the stuff. Despite it being a pain for heathland, the Common Lizards seem to like them. Managed to get a real close shot of the re-gen of the tail of one of the Lizards too which looks incredible!
