In the light drizzle and v poor light at Cosmeston this morning. I was walking across W paddock when a Kes came and alighted in the hedge, but only briefly as a second Kes flew in a flushed it off. The camera wasn’t ready but they flew up fairly high then had a kind of dog fight. I think they were both young birds and there was no real aggression. Nice to watch tho’. One pic below shows how distant they were when I took the pix, hence they are pretty fuzzy.
The Woodpigeon is I understand, one that has been around for a couple of years, although I’ve never seen it before. As the pic shows, it has a pretty bad deformity of one of the bill mandibles, but it’s obviously coping OK as it was pretty plump.

Just a few from the last few days. The Jay was burying acorns on the slope by the dipping pond at Cosmeston on Thursday. The Linnets on Hawthorn were part of a flock of about 40 at Lavernock this morning, where I also counted at least 20 Skylark over the large field. I wasn’t early enough for much active vis-mig but I did note a small group of Crossbill and a single calling Yellow Wagtail flying over. A high group of vocal crows drew my attention, whereupon I discovered they were mobbing a high circling Short-eared Owl, which was a nice surprise. The photos are MEGA crops – it was v high. It continued west until lost from sight. The African Grey parrot!!! was perched on the railings by Chew Valley Lake yesterday eve [long story as to why I was there]. Its owner appeared to be the inhabitant of a tatty campervan. Lastly I was dead chuffed to get a few nice portraits of a Wren whilst I was sitting outside the back of the Cosmeston cafe this morning.

The Club ran a great trip to the Portland Bird Observatory in Dorset over the weekend – an annual event. 10 club members stayed in the lighthouse. Some special birds were seen, including a first for GBC – a White-tailed Eagle. We were very lucky to see a Wryneck in a local quarry, accompanying the resident Little Owl. Also of note were huge numbers of Razorbills passing the tip of Portland Bill over a couple of hours. Thanks to Cindy Howells for the photo. We logged an impressive 101 bird species over the weekend.
This brief summary by Alan Rosney but posted by John W with a couple of additional comments.

Nothing exciting around, and i got caught in the unexpected heavy drizzle!. Had a Great Tit feeding from my hand by the Medieval Village. A Heron was sitting rather dejectedly in the drizzle in the favoured tree near the main bridge. A dog exploring the trees there flushed it and it flew & landed on a tree on the conservation ‘island’. It was an adult with some impressive plumes. What I assume was a pair of Little Grebes were together on E lake near the shore.

A surprise this morning was a Hobby which flew over our heads from the direction of the golf club and alighted in a tree by E lake – unfortunately with its back to me – see photo. It was only there for about 30 secs when it was chased off by a Crow and was lost to view over the trees by the playpark. I saw it again above W lake being harassed by Jackdaws , then again hunting v high over E paddock which I took some flight pix of, but it was just a dot, so the pic below is a HUGE crop. Nice to see tho’. Nothing much else to report apart from a few Common Darter and Migrant Hawkers still about.

I decided to do the Glamorgan Bird Club Big Bird Count today and logged 28 species. My route went via the dipping pond, then up the Mile Road between the lakes, into West Paddock, then round through Cogan Wood, out into the westerly field and up by the plantation above Sully Brook, along the top of the so-called upper Dovecote field and back down to the Mile Road and back past the Medieval Village. My full list is here. Nothing of real note although Jay and Green Woodpecker were best of the bunch. Noticeable absentees were Coal TIt and Nuthatch in Cogan Wood [and Marsh Tit I guess], despite my taking some seed.

Did a very slow shortish walk round W lake Cosmeston this morning – my 1st outing recovering from a v nasty cold & cough. The Kestrel was hovering over W paddock, so the photos are biggish crops. Also of interest, plenty of Ivy Bees around at the moment and finally a nice pristine Speckled Wood.

I’m a bit tardy posting this as I’ve had a stinking cold since getting home on Sunday. Anyway, we had a great club field trip on Sunday 28th, when 21 Club members enjoyed a full day visiting Pembrey Old Dock by Burry Port, Kidwelly Quay, WWT Llanelli and for some stalwarts, the R. Loughor foreshore [an attempt to ‘twitch’ a Lesser Yellowlegs … unsuccessfully]. We logged 64 species of which the waders were the stars, with the top of the bill being the Grey Phalarope at Kidwelly. Those that had seen Grey Phal before had mostly never seen one other than swimming around in circles as they usually do but this one behaved like a ‘proper’ wader and spent some time waddling around on the mud. The waders total was an impressive 15 species the other notable ones being Spotted Redshank, Curlew Sandpiper, Ruff and Greenshank. Click here for the full list. There’s a full trip report here: https://glamorganbirds.org.uk/category/trip-reports/

On a walk round Cosmeston on 19th with my eldest daughter, we saw 3 Buzzards circling over Cogan Wood, joined by a Red Kite which drifted westwards. In the conservation grazing area at the far end of W. paddock there were 4 Stonechats.
On 21st I walked across the Cardiff Bay Barrage and saw 2 Wheatear on the outer barrage rocks. There were also a number of Swallows heading out over the channel.

A rare short visit this morning to walk the dog whilst my wife attended an appointment at UHW. There were 5 Little Egrets at the north end, 2 by the S. end of the island and 3 at the north end by Wild Gardens Road. There were also 2 Grey Herons and 2 Cormorants in the trees there.

An amazing count of 22 members met up at Peterston-super-Ely for an amble along the R. Ely floodplain, hoping to see Green Sandpipers. Club member John Duffy acted as our guide as it’s his WeBS count location – thanks John. At their favoured meander in the river we were awarded with flight views of 5, or poss 8 birds giving their strident shrill “weet weet weet-a-weet” call, looking like giant House Martins with their bright white rumps. Other highlights were Red Kite, Stock Doves, Spotted Flycatcher, 2 Great Spotted Woodpeckers and a selection of common species. Butterflies included 2 Painted Ladies, several Small Copper and a Clouded Yellow. Some photos below for the record.
Click here for the full list. 32 species seen or heard.