Today’s immature Glaucous Gull at Pink Bay. Appears to me to be a 1st winter bird. It has a bad leg but otherwise seems healthier than the Cosmeston bird. Two turning up in one day in East Glamorgan. What a nice surprise!

In my opinion, the small islands should have a separate UK Islands Minileague. Islands attract more rarities and other birders have difficulty gaining access so island patch workers have too big an advantage over mainland birders. 

There were a lot of auks on the move this morning. I counted 170 flying up channel between 0950 and 1030. About 10 or so flew close enough for identification as guillemots. There were also 6 red-throated divers.

13 red-throated divers were off Sker Point this morning. Some were on the sea and some flew past. Also 3 distant auks on the sea and 4 great crested grebes feeding near the mussel beds.

per Jeff Curtis: 2 great northern divers and 2 common scoters on sea. Purple sandpiper, little egret, kingfisher and grey heron on rocks.

It took me ten months to get a mention in the summary and it was for a bird I didn’t see!  

Tony Messinger reported seeing a bittern (6 times) and an otter feeding for about an hour today. Coot numbers reached a two-month high of 3 birds. No diving ducks were seen again.

A late wheatear was near the point and 5 purple sandpipers were roosting on Ffynon-wen at high tide this morning.

An interesting common buzzard with some white tail feathers that got me hoping for a rough-legged today. It’s just a common buzzard though.

A merlin was hunting over the point today and two drake common scoters were swimming in the surf off the beach. 14 Mediterranean gulls were at Ffynnon Wen and 16 swallows flew over the golf course but otherwise very quiet.

Immature peregrine at Sker Point yesterday.

Thanks for the plug Mark. The day formally starts at 10am but I’ll be out ringing from early morning. We plan to put the nets up at first light and hope to start processing birds at 7.30am if we catch anything! You are welcome to come and watch. To get to the ringers’ table, walk past the southern hide, through the avenue of willows and bear right when the path forks. Look for the table on the left after about 50 metres. At some point we will move back to the centre and catch a few birds next to the car park in the afternoon. Bird ringing is weather dependant but at the time of writing the conditions look pretty good for Sunday.

For people wanting to maximise their birding on the day, high tide is at about 9.24am. There have been good numbers of waders this week between Sker Point and Rest Bay. They can be seen on any tide but are closest when the tide is right up. Low tide is at 3.34pm when many gulls and waders will have moved onto the mussel beds off Sker Beach.

Kenfig Pool has been poor for birding this autumn but water rails, snipe and a kingfisher have shown really well in the cuts out from the southern hide. A female pintail has been about for weeks. An otter has been regularly feeding in the lake over the last few weeks, often quite late into the morning. A great white egret put in a brief appearance at the saltmarsh during the week and with light easterlies and overcast conditions there is a chance for another rarity or two to turn up over the weekend.

Cakes, hot drinks and children’s craft activities (in the afternoon) will be available in the reserve centre and there will be guided walks starting from the front of the building. We are keen to enthuse children about birds and birdwatching so please make a special effort to invite families and point out birds to children. We look forward to seeing you!

A nice frosty juvenile Arctic tern flew close in up channel at high tide this morning. A bar-tailed godwit and a good count of 83 turnstones were also of note.

Much the same as yesterday but no sign of the Brent geese. A razorbill flew up channel and landed in the sea off the point on the rising tide.

Two pale bellied Brent geese that were briefly on Sker Point this morning before flying off down channel. Also present were 266 golden plover, 29 knot, 21 turnstone and a bar-tailed godwit. A picture too of a French colour-ringed Mediterranean gull on Rest Bay from 21 September.

An Arctic skua flew down channel at 10.10am, two Sandwich terns were feeding around the point and a bar-tailed godwit was on Sker Beach. Two yellow wagtails were feeding in the Royal Porthcawl Glf Club.

Late this morning there were 27 Mediterranean gulls in field next to the road in Nottage and a further 6 in field next to ‘The Rest’ in Porthcawl.