An amazing count of 206 Mallard on the pool this afternoon which is a record for me – I would be interested to know of any historical higher counts. Also present was a female Northern Pintail of note. A Bittern showed extremely well in the first cut from the South Pool Hide – out in the open for a good five minutes at about 15.30, the Siberian Chiffchaff was with a mobile Long-tailed Tit flock to the right of the hide and a Common Chiffchaff was in a gorse bush in the East Pool Fields. Otherwise a Redshank was on the East Pool Shore and seven Common Snipe were in the East Pool Marsh.
Glamorgan Bird Club 
Neil: Mallard counts at KNNR: Your count [206] equals the highest count at KNNR, which was set in July 1987. The next best was 183 in August 1983. Numbers for this species dropped from the mid 90s at KNNR and have never hit the peaks of the 80s, except for yours yesterday. Well done. DRWG
Thanks David – it was a really impressive sight. I think the highest count I had ever seen there previously was only around forty. Signs of an influx were there in November when seventy or so birds were seen in flight over the northern dunes the day after we saw you at Cosmeston…