No sign of Cattle Egret at 3:30 – just 5 Herring Gulls and 3 cows in the field, the rest in the shed.

Delayed WeBS count: at Green Pt, 500 Redshank, c.20 Dunlin, 1 Oyc, 20 Shelduck, 30 Pintail, 1 Snipe. At the Heliport bay, 24 Shelduck & 1 Curlew. No Turnstones or Oycs as 2 large dogs were walking and bathing along the shoreline.

A Cattle Egret was at St Athan today apparently in a field on the right as you turn off the B road. Here’ a record shot kindly sent to me by Tony Fisher.

No Wheatear this morning. A Kingfisher was fishing by E lake, from bushes by the central path, and a couple of Chiffchaff were feeding along the latter. Ad Grey Heron sitting in W lake reeds, & 2 male Reed Bunts noted.

A smart male Wheatear was in W paddock at Cosmeston late morning, and a Chiffchaff was in trees by the bridge. A Brimstone was in flight along by the medieval village. Still ` couple of Pochard lingering on W lake and 2 Gadwall that I could see.

Back from Lanzarote and now stomping [or squelching at the mo.] round Cossie again. No Sand Martins, but W lake had 6 Gadwall, 2 male Pochard, a pair of Shoveler, and 2 Grey Herons – 1 ad in the edge of the W lake reeds and an imm bird sitting on the posts.

Finally caught up with the Marsh Tit in Cogan Wood at Cosmeston this morning. There were 8 Gadwall on W lake. The three Wigeon from yesterday seem to have departed. The head-on photo of the Marsh Tit shows the whitish spots at the base of the lower mandible, diagnostic of this species in comparison with Willow Tit. V difficult to see in the field tho’!

Nearly got blown off the boardwalk this morning! There were 3 Wigeon on W lake [2m 1f], 2 Gadwall on W lake and 7 Gadwall sheltering on E lake, plus the usual Pochard & Tufties. Couldn’t find any interesting gulls.

Pretty awful walking round this morning in horizontal drizzle. However a group of 8 Bullfinch all feeding together was a nice highlight. Don’t think I’ve ever seen that many together before. They were feeding on buds in bushes near the entrance gate to the conservation area. Also around the W paddock hedges were c.30 Redwing.

V enjoyable trip to Steart Marshes and Steart Pt today with 13 participants. I think c.60 species seen and c. 5 miles walked! Highlights were thousands of Golden Plover, Lapwing and Dunlin, often all in the air at once. Also Grey Plover, Knot, Curlew, 2 small flocks of Avocet, 1 Barwit, Curlew, Peregrine, Kestrel, Sparrowhawk and Marsh Harrier, a flock of 10 Yellowhammers, but sadly no Short-eared Owls. Also nice views of 4 Roe Deer and at least 6 Brown Hare.

I was sent these two pix of a putative Sibe [tristis] Chiffy near the St David’s hotel by Tony Fisher [thanks Tony]- they were seen yesterday.

c.300 B-h Gulls on W lake, and 3 Common Gull with them. O/W pretty quiet.

This morning: The 8 Scaup [4m 4f] were by the inner shore at the Penarth end and the Long-tailed Duck was about 1/2 way along. 27 Cormorant were sitting on the fish pass fencing. When we returned, a sluice was open and as per the other day, they were all diving and catching Lampreys. At least 4 Rock Pipits along the barrage, 2 Grey Wags seen [1 on the barrage and 1 on the old Penarth port authority building next to the Custom House].

The Long-tailed Duck was still present, plus 5 of the 8 Scaup by the inner shore, and Cormorants were catching eels at the barrage outflow.

Thx Alan for the news, and great find!. For those who don’t use Facebook and therefore haven’t registered for it and cannot see the SWB FB page, here’s the details of what Alan posted [hope you don’t mind Alan]:

Red-flanked bluetail at Wern Ddu Caerphilly. Park in coed Parc-y-van car park on the Caerphilly to rudry rd. Walk back 50 yds towards Caerphilly and you will see a lane on the left. Follow this lane over the railway bridge and then right to the Warren. Turn left here and follow the lane towards Cardiff for about 200 yds. There is a notice board on the right and a bridle path on the left. Take the bridle path and the bird was either side of this path but highly mobile.

At Cosmeston this morning – this Darvic ringed LBB Gull white with red 3NF – ringed on Flat Holm in 2011 – reported at Cossie in Apr 2012 and now again today. On W lake there were 5 Gadwall. A smart Fieldfare was on Glamorganshire Golf Club fairway adjacent the E lake path. O/W the usual suspects.

Sorry about this – just a heads up. I noticed when I posted my pix just now that the image storage allowance that we have, is 34% used so the GBC admin [usually me!] will have to keep an eye on it and at some point in the future it will be necessary to remove batches of photos from very old posts. We will always keep the prev years active in case of queries re unusual or rare species that are photographed and posted.

The Long-tailed Duck was showing well by the inner barrage this morning, following a pair of Mallard to and fro from the sails to the Penarth end, mostly v close in, except when a couple’s children thought it would be fun to throw stones at them! Had my dog with me which made taking pix a little difficult as she wanted to play with all the other passing hounds! Didn’t affect the LTD tho’. Water was dead calm so it was easy to follow the LTD under water. Tried a few under the water shots!.

Came upon the Black Redstart in Pen Marina on way back to car, flitting around on the roofs at the barrage end of Plas Taliesin.

a.m. 2 Mistle Thrush and a single Fieldfare feeding in W paddock, and a Green ‘Pecker also. 4 Bullfinch [2 pairs] in trees by the Med Village concrete path, and 1 Treecreeper near the central path by the ‘T’ junction.

Late afternoon dog walk. There were 57 Pochard on W lake, again nearly all drakes. 50 Redwing and a single Fieldfare in W paddock which suddenly flew up when a smart male Sparrowhawk had a go and nearly got one after doing a spectacular stall-turn.