gulls

Greater and lesser black-backed gulls have appeared on Ventnor beach during the last few days, with five greater and three lessers this morning before the hordes of holiday makers hoofed them off.

Quiet

The last week or so has been unsettled and quiet in Ventnor. So again this morning, with just three, then another ten swallows low west over the garden.

A pretty fruitless search around town and walk to Monk's Bay produced 12 swallows, a pied wagtail and c.30 swifts. Meanwhile, four bee-eaters pitch in at Portland!

Serin!

I was just about to sit down on a bench above the cascade when I heard a distinctive trilling coming from gardens behind the Winter Gardens just across the road - SERIN!

I rushed across the road, trilled again. Got my phone out ready to call Andy. Dithered. Still calling, out of view. Then up it got, calling, headed west, then took a sharp right turn in towards the police station clump. I rushed up there but no sign. I headed up the post office path, phoning Andy but had to leave a message. No sign nor sound from Grove Car Park - after which suitable habitat abounds. Bugger.

The cheapest drink in Cambodia is a glass of cold Angkor draft beer, at $0.75. I drink a lot of the stuff, in order to save money.

This morning, for the first time in a couple of weeks, I headed for Wat Phnom, my favourite Phnom Penh birding spot. Nothing particularly of note: the usual gang of yellow-browed warblers (just like Ventnor), the odd brown flycatcher (just like that dream I have, of a good day's birding in Ventnor), coppersmith's barbets everywhere, and a dodgy, blue flycatcher that showed once, briefly.

Intensely frustrating. Birding Frontiers has an excellent piece about finding female pine buntings, and I'm stuck in Phnom Penh right at the peak time! I really hope someone is checking the yellowhammers in St Lawrence Field!