Author: John Wilson

Birder and traveller

February 2019

On By John WilsonIn Monthly summariesLeave a comment

Highlights: A first-winter Caspian Gull was found at Cardiff Bay (27th), with two Bearded Tits still in situ at the wetlands reserve. Four Cattle Egrets remained at Porthcawl throughout the month. A Great Grey Shrike continued its winter sojourn at Garwnant. Great White Egrets were at Abercwmboi and Kenfig, where Black-necked Grebe and Slavonian Grebe were also present.
Other Sites: A Greater Scaup was at Cosmeston. Two Hen Harriers were at Llanilid. Ogmore Estuary had two Water Pipits, two Common Sandpipers and four Purple Sandpipers, with 15 of the latter noted at Sker. Cardiff Bay held an adult Little Gull. Three Short-eared Owls were regular in the dunes at Kenfig, while a Firecrest was recorded near the pool. Willow Tits were at Garwnant. A Chough was at Southerndown.

Jan 2019

On By John WilsonIn Monthly summariesLeave a comment

Highlights: The four Cattle Egrets remained in fields off Zig-Zag Lane, Porthcawl, for the duration, while nearby a Whooper Swan was noted passing just offshore of the town and a Black Redstart frequented Trecco Bay. A first-winter Caspian Gull was identified at Cardiff Bay, where Black-necked Grebe, two Bearded Tits and a Bittern were also around. A Great Grey Shrike remained at Garwnant. The well-documented Siberian Chiffchaff continued its stay at Parc Slip. Sightings from Kenfig included Whooper Swan, Slavonian Grebe, Great White Egret, Bittern, Merlin and Brent Goose. A Great White Egret was still at Abercwmboi Lake. Water Pipits comprised three at Ogmore Estuary and one at Llwyn-on Reservoir. A male Hen Harrier occurred at Cwm Cadlan. A Black Redstart was observed at Dunraven. Wintering Common Sandpipers were at Ogmore Estuary (two) and on the River Taff at Treforest. Up to seven Green Sandpipers were on the River Ely near Pendoylan, with another seen at Ogmore Estuary.

Featured

GBC CIO AGM

On By John WilsonIn NewsLeave a comment

IMPORTANT NOTICE: The first AGM of Glamorgan Bird Club CIO is scheduled for Tuesday 17th September at KNNR reserve centre starting at 7:45 p.m. I am posting this early as I am away for a week starting tomorrow [Sat 7th]. Please come along and support your club. There will be refreshments and a quiz afterwards.

Cancelled trip Weds 11th Sep

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NB Just a heads up. I have decided to cancel this trip. I am away all week and there’s no deputy available. If some club members wish to contact each other and arrange to go, that’s fine but it will have to be considered as a private trip out and not a GBC trip. Sorry to disappoint. John Wilson

New Web Site

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OK I have now imported all the stuff from the test site and created the top menu. Most of that works but there are some items that I/we would like to rearrange and there are some that still need a bit of work, but the Sightings page still works as before, and there are a couple of pages that still need creating, and other stuff that needs to be added in so please be patient.

The old web site on Weebly will be kept live until everything here is finished. Once that’s done, the domain name glamorganbirds.org.uk will be redirected to this site and the old one will be taken down.

John Wilson

Ogmore Est

On By John WilsonIn Sightings2 Comments

The long-staying Wryneck was still present today below the 30 mph sign just upstream from the main carpark entrance. Horror stories of rather aggressive photographer[s] chasing the bird around this morning almost put me off finally going down to see it, but I did go and got there at about 3:45 p.m. Nice to see Tim Hall there, and Rob & Nerys Stratton, and Matt Meehan and a few others, and Paul Denning later on. It was initially in thick vegetation just below the road, but then relocated at the bottom of the ‘cliff’ there, feeding around the rocks at the bottom. All present kept a respectable distance, so photos were not easy esp. in the howling gale blowing up the estuary! I struggled with my 100-400 with the 1.4x attached, hand held! This is one of the better ones [quite a crop] when it did a bit of a neck stretch due to a noise above. What a fabulous bird.

Cosmeston

On By John WilsonIn SightingsLeave a comment

One of the two Whinchats at Cosmeston, first reported by Annie Irving this morning. This was taken at about 3:45 this afternoon after some very careful stalking. They were very active along the W paddock hedgerow, sometimes dropping into the tall ground vegetation and never spending very long on the hedge tops. I used the cover of a bend in the hedge and managed to get 4 pix of which this is the best – even then it’s a crop. Also a present a v active Chiffchaff. Couldn’t find the Wheatear reported this morning.