Mainly a butterfly day today with at least 12 Clouded Yellows seen, plus Small Skipper, Ringlets, Gatekeepers, Whites, Common Blues and a Red Admiral. Star however was a juvenile Goshawk with what appeared to be an injured leg, which circled above Cogan Wood. It was quite distant but my instant thought was Gos, athough when I looked at my back of camera pix I thought maybe Honey-buzzard, but after downloading and adjusting them Gos it was.

First couple of days back after a 2 week break visiting various places.
It was a nice surprise to see a Red Kite drift slowly across E paddock this morning, heading NNE towards Penarth. A pair of Gt Crested Grebes have 4 half grown ‘humbugs’ on W lake. There’s plenty of Gatekeeper bnutteflies about and I think the dragonfly is probably a Migrant Hawker.

At Cosmeston in a v brief visit this morning. A smart Whitethroat by the dipping pond and a young Moorhen with HUGE feet! Also a Flat Holm ringed 2nd yr Lesser Black-back F:H44.

A few birds from recent days. The Tawny Owlet has been around for a while and has been rather too confiding, but now seems to be more mobile and is not so obvious. Jays are usually pretty hard to come by in mid summer. The adult Great Black-backed Gull was also a fairly unusual visitor at this time of year. The Whitethroat was being very active by the dipping pond and in the couple of shots I managed to grab it looks like it’s carrying food, so must have a nest there.

We had a successful and enjoyable walk at Pontneddfechan this morning, with 15 participants, in initially chilly conditions until the high cloud burned off. We didn’t expect a huge list but 26 species wasn’t too shabby. Gold star goes to Alastair Flannagan who first spotted the two flycatchers – A Spotted and a very brief female Pied. In the end we definitely saw 2 Spotted Flycatchers. Dippers and Grey Wagtails amounted to approx 6 of each. Those with decent hearing, heard a few Wood Warblers. We also saw an active Great Spotted Woodpecker nest and a Mistle Thrush nest with 2 chicks being fed. The latter provided a sad note as immediately following a visit by an adult, one of the chicks fell out of the nest, which was quite high up in a tree, and fell into the river. It managed to struggle out and ended up on some rocks by the rivers edge, way below the nest. We thought its chances of survival were probably fairly low unless the ads could find it.

An unexpected sighting was a female Goosander resting on a mid-stream rock – she eventually flew off downstream. Link to the list is here – it’ll be updated if I’ve missed anything.

Had a brief walk at Cosmeston this morning after a long tiring weekend away in Portsmouth. A Cormorant was looking rather regal drying its wings by E lake, and there were 2 Blackcaps actively foraging behind the dipping pond, so I suspect they have a nest with young nearby.

This trip had 14 participants and was led by club member Ceri Jones [many thanks Ceri]
It comprised a linear walk from Castell Nos car park to the miners’ memorial at Maerdy. Forestry tracks to Castell Nos and Tarren y Bwllfa, before crossing moorland to the Rhondda Fach at Pont Lluest-wen. It then followed the river downstream along a mostly surfaced track to Maerdy.
Highlights of the 47 species seen, as suppliued by Ceri were: Whinchat (1 seen – found by Barrie Gardiner), Cuckoo (2 seen at same time, quite possibly more there as heard numerous times – but hard to be certain as they are mobile up there), Wheatear (1 seen), Spotted Flycatcher (1 seen well by everyone – it was flycatching over the Rhondda Fach – found by John Western), Crossbill (heard only), Garden Warbler (heard and seen – found by Barrie) and Raven (scope views of young in nest).
Click here for the list.

Interesting sight this morning [at least I thought so anyway]. House Martins and a couple of Sand Martins, landing on the verge right by the road by Penarth Marina/R. Ely mouth, collecting dry bits of grass. Obv for nest material but [a] one usually sees HM collecting mud [of which there isn’t any atm] and [b] the Sand Martins were a long way from their nest site on the other side of the bay, where I did get a pic of one collecting grass the other day.

There was 1 Rock Pipit by the R. Ely embanment there. Sadly no sign of any Swifts altho’ it’s early days.

We had a successful sunny trip to Penderyn this morning with 16 participants, led by Ceri Jones [many thanks Ceri]. We walked part of the old mineral line and then basically did a circuit of Moel Penderyn. We did well, with 45 species [link to list below], highlights being singing male Redstarts, Cuckoo, Tree Pipits, Stonechats, Willow Warblers galore, a Grasshopper Warbler heard [not by me!] but not seen – well picked up by Julia Banks. Birds all distant for photos but some heavily cropped record pix below. Photos captioned individually. {Edit – I forgot to link to the trip list. Click here now to see it.

During this morning’s circuit:
Around the dipping pond: A Common Whitethroat sang a few times and did a brief song flight, and Blackcap and Cetti’s Warblers were singing.
Upper Dovecote field and the plantation: 2-3 Common Whitethroats singing incl another song flight in the big island of scrub on the slope; Lesser Whitethroat singing in dense scrub on the far side of the plantation by the new fence.
Sully Brook: 2-3 Reed Warblers singing, and Cetti’s, and a v brief snatch of Sedge Warbler song. [confirmed by Merlin].
The stiff chilly breeze was keeping birds hidden.

Around 6 Reed Warblers singing in the E lake reeds by the boardwalk, not showing; 1 Willow Warbler by the W lake viewpoint and 2 Common Whitethroats singing in the ‘snipe paddock’, again not showing. Male Redstart reported by Graham Smith late afternoon in the W paddock long hedge.

Decided on a day out today and went to Slimbridge. Sunny Sunday so not a good idea you may think. The car park was rammed when we arrived late morning, usually not a good sign. However the hides were fine and we ended up seeing 44 species, the highlights being a Spotted Redshank, a lingeringTundra Bean Goose, Common Sandpiper, 60 or so Black-tailed Godwits, a very brief Bittern. Reed and Sedge Warblers were a-plenty and v active so getting pix was tricky. Highlight at the end was 4 Cranes seen feeding from the Zeiss hide and then a group of 9 circling above, from the Kingfisher hide. Click here for the full list.

Anne & I did a walk from Penarth Marina, across the barrage to the Norwegian Church for a coffee & snack, and back again. There was much action in the old dock where the Sand Martins nest – see the pix below and a short vid from my Youtube channel. I’ve never seen a Sand Martin that close before. The old dock also had 2 pairs of Tufted Ducks and a Grey Wagtail. In the scrub by the path beyond the swift tower a Common Whitethroat was song flighting and there were 6 Shelduck on the mud outside the barrage. A few Swallows were over the bay and a House Martin entered a nest cup on one of the Penarth Marina houses. The adjacent R. Ely embankment had 1 Common Sandpiper and 2 Turnstones