The Waxwings were still present when I left at around 13:00. About 50 in two berry laden trees by the side of The Range outlet car park next to KFC.

Late news from y’day. A Waxwing was seen briefly from a car, in Morganstown adjacent to the main road through. Obs did a U-turn but bird had flown.

54 species seen on the GBC trip with 20 participants today. 3-4 Purple Sands eventually seen on the foreshore rocks at Ogmore-by-Sea, and the Dartford Warbler showed briefly but well, a couple of times, in the gorse behind the toilet block at Dunraven. There were 7 Goldeneye at Portobello and a pair pf Goosander up towards the water treatment works bridge. Other wildfowl were Mallard, Teal, Wigeon [1 fem], Pintail [1 drake], Gadwall and Shelduck, the latter 4 near the river mouth.

3 of us stopped by at Ty’n-y-Caeau Farm on the way back East and had a couple of Yellowhammer on the hedgerow and a fly-over Redwing.

Eventually found the L-t Duck over by Prospect Place with the 7 Scaup and Tufties there [having yomped along the barrage & back!]. Black redstart didn’t show in Penarth Marina, but Grey Wag, 2 Redshank and 2 Turnstone on the outer rocks by R. Ely. Thx to the couple from London who put me on to the LTD from the Prospect PL boardwalk [I had seen it briefly on arrival but could not relocate after a guy walking along the rocks by the waters edge had pushed all the ducks a way offshore] – then asked me if there was anything of interest and had I seen any rats!!??!!. The LTD eventually flew off right back to the S end of the barrage – I hope the London couple got a closer look when they got back round there.

I have had a report of a Dartford Warbler showing well this morning in gorse by the car park, from Kevin Hughes.

Incredibly busy – gave up waiting for coffee after our walk – not so surprising with a nice sunny day after a day of non-stop rain! Species list during a 45 min walk – LBB Gull, Herring Gull, B-h Gull, 1 Common Gull, GCG, 2 Little Grebe, 3 Cormorant, Coot, Moorhen, Water Rail heard, 14 Pochard, 80 Tufties, Mallard, Mute Swan, Canada Goose, Crow, Magpie, Blackbird, Blue Tit, Great Tit, LTT, Nuthatch, Chaffinch, Bullfinch [1 fem], Robin, Dunnock, Reed Bunting, Goldfinch, Wood Pigeon. 29 Species.

The Long-taield Duck was at the far [N] end of the barrage and made its way towards the sails. Moulting so now showing a fairly good tail spike, much whiter face and some pink on the bill. Hopefully it will stay long enough to show full drake plumage. The 7 Greater Scaup were at the extreme S end just past the fish run. Also a Cormorant in the bay trying to swallow a v large eel. Annoyed I didn’t take my camera as it was drizzling when we left home.

In Penarth Marina, the male Black Redstart was on roofs by the Plas Pamir parking area.

I’ve made this a ‘sticky’ post for a while – hope y’all don’t mind.

Not a sighting I know, but bear with me. Well done to Graham Powell for being the first person to send his 2016 bird records to me – no prize sorry! So, it is an opportune moment for me to issue a plea to all East Glam birders out there to get your records for 2016 in please. Most contributors already use the preferred spreadsheet but if you need one let me know, or download it from the Records page of the web site {http://www.glamorganbirds.org.uk/records.html}. My details are on the main web site contacts page. I would like to get all records in by the end of Jan as it takes quite a long time to collate them all into a single spreadsheet. Thanks in anticipation. Any birds requiring descriptions shd be sent to our Recorder, Phil Bristow, ASAP. The lists of description species are also on the above linked page. [These need updating due to recent changes, which will do shortly.

First visit after return from Dorset. 100+ Tufties, 8 Pochard, 12 Redwing and 2 Mistle Thrush feeding in W paddock, 1 Common and 1 Jack Snipe flushed by the snipe paddock. O/W very crowded.

Delayed WeBS from Sun 18th [due to fog]. All the following at Green Point: 1000 Redshank,  100 Dunlin, 120 Lapwing, 1 Jack Snipe [in the small reed bed], 1 Little Egret, 4 Gadwall, an impressive 100 Shoveler, 60 Pintail, 173 Shelduck, 56 Mallard, 26 Teal, 31 Canada Geese, 1 Sprawk.

At the Heliport Bay, 20 Pintail, 37 Shelduck, 27 Oystercatcher, 19 Turnstone. There were c.200 Herring Gulls on Lamby Lake and a single Common Gull with the Black-headeds.

A pic of the Bittern at Forest Farm today, taken by Tony Fisher, to L of 2nd hide at about 1 p.m. Thanks Tony.

Apparently the L-t Duck from Cardiff Bay relocated to Cosmeston where it was seen this morning – just noticed the post on the Facebook South Wales Birding page. No doubt driven off by the speeding ribs I mentioned yesterday.

The Long-tailed Duck was very confiding this morning – pity I didn’t have my camera. This morn it was between the sails and the locks end. However the yellow high speed ribs were doing circuits full of screaming girls and insisted on doing high speed water-borne donuts as close as they could to the barrage shoreline and thus the bird, creating waves that were breaking over the wire meshing there. Obviously the LTD is a sea duck so waves wouldn’t bother it but they were coming within 20m of it and when we walked back from the Cardiff end I couldn’t find it. Not much else – couple of Rockits, a Mipit and a Pied Wag.

4 Gadwall on W lake. 2 Little Grebe on E lake plus 1 Ad Yellow-legged Gull. Otherwise the usual suspects.

In the heavy drizzle this morning – pretty sure I saw the Scaup on W lake that Wayne Strong apparently saw y’day – a very tatty 1st yr bird. Also 2 Gadwall and 4 Pochard plus the usual Tufties. The dark Buzzard that was harassed by a Magpie t’other day, was worming in W paddock. 2 Bullfinch in the band of trees between W lake back path and the adjacent long narrow meadow by Sully Brook.

Party of Long-t Tits along the central path, the one pictured playing peekaboo! Flat Holm gulls F:303 blue [imm LBBG] and F:168 blue {imm Herring Gull] also present. Still a few Redwing about but o/w pretty quiet.

Here’s a record shot of the Black Redstart reported by Jean and Rod yesterday at Sker. The pic was sent to GBC by a member of the public, Tony Fisher, who found it and consulted Jean & Rod who happened to be in the vicinity.

13 Teal, 3 Wigeon and 2 Pochard on W lake, and the usual spread of Tufties. Mistlle Thrush and Green ‘Pecker in W paddock and 4 Goldcrest noted up central path. The buzzard below was sitting on the W paddock hedgerow and had some aggro from a Magpie.

The Vale council have just announced plans for a possible cable wakeboarding facility on E lake at Cosmeston. I can’t think of anything less suitable for a relatively small lake that has a resident population of up to 60 Mute Swans. some of which nest, occasionally a similar number of Canada Geese, 100’s of Gulls and Coot,  and other wildfowl from autumn through to spring. Not to mention birds such and Reed Warbler, Sedge Warbler, Reed Bunting which nest in the reed bed which no doubt would be disturbed by the wash that wakeboarding creates. If like me you’ve never heard of cable wakeboarding, it’s like normal wakeboarding behind a speedboat except that the participant is pulled along by an overhead cable suspended between two tall gantries.  Thus these structures would grace the shore of E lake somewhere, plus the permanent obstacles in the water such as ramps and other jumps which the users have to negotiate. Please write to the Vale Council planning dept objecting to this proposal. Click here for a link to an article on the Wales Online web site.

There were 11 Teal on W lake and 3 Wigeon [2m 1f] plus a total of 73 Tufties on both lakes, 1 Common Gull on the W lake posts and later the same or different bird at the Swan feeding area on E lake.