A very unusual day today. At exactly 11.00am, Alwyn is heard shouting from the hide on the radio.. "Garan, Garan, Garan..." And indeed we had a couple of common cranes flying left to right from Glandyfi, over Cors Dyfi reserve and beyond up the river towards Derwenlas where were we lost sight of them. Alwyn rang a few local birders and these birds had been seen some minutes earlier over Borth bog. A bit more research showed that this was the first ever record of common crane in Montgomeryshire. Paul, thanks for the call and sorry I couldn't speak - I was in a meeting!.

A bit less common but still very nice was a magnificent male merlin that landed on the osprey nest this afternoon whilst our female was away.

Emyr