Cosmeston this morning. A single Whinchat was in the plantation above Sully Brook, together with 2 Stonechat. No pix of these – too distant and flighty. A couple of smart Starlings were feeding on blackberries near the Medieval dovecote. Elsewhere the vocal Buzzard was circling and a Flat Holm ringed juv LBBG [F:F76 blue] was by E lake. At the dipping pond there are still some very small punk – plumaged Moorhen chicks. It seems that a single pair there have had 3 or poss 4 broods this year.
Having missed a lot of migrant activity over the weekend as I was away, I was pleased to catch up with Whinchat [3 of them] at Cosmeston this afternoon, plus a first winter male Redstart, a plumage I’ve not seen before. Superficially it looks like a Stonechat, but the greyish head & mantle, dark smudgy cheeks and rufous ‘springy’ tail are good pointers [although the tail is not well shown in the two px I managed to shoot before it dropped out of view]. The birds were in the sapling plantation above Sully Brook. There were also c.20 Linnet in a tree by the brook.
Not much of interest for me of late although others [who get up earlier than I do!], have had Spotted Flycatcher and Redstart. Yesterday there were no less than 6 ‘Spot Flys’ at the far end of East Paddock! I did catch up with a rather elusive Whinchat by the tree plantation above Sully Brook, on 31st Aug. The only interest this morning was the Grey Heron sitting quite peacefully in a tree near the main bridge, until another arrived and set it off squawking and eventually chasing the intruder off. Other interest yesterday were 5 Tufted Ducks, all in eclipse plumage.
Highlights: A Wryneck was seen fleetingly at Kenfig (30th). An early Grey Phalarope turned up on the Marine Lake, Barry (26th). Two Black-necked Grebes arrived at Llanishen Reservoir (31st). A Garganey lingered at Roath Park Lake.
Other Sites: A flock of seven Pale-bellied Brent Gesse stopped off at Black Rocks, Newton Beach (29th). Single European Storm Petrels were seen off Lavernock and Porthcawl. Several Great White Egrets were logged at Kenfig. Ospreys were noted over Pentwyn, Kenfig and Llanishen Reservoir. A Hobby was at Flemingston. Several Greenshanks and Green Sandpipers passed through at Kenfig. A juvenile Yellow-legged Gull was located at Ogmore-by-Sea, with up to 13 Choughs seen at the rivermouth car park there. A Firecrest was trapped for ringing at Kenfig.
Summary by Paul Roberts
As John Wilson is unavailable for this one, Alan is taking the reins. Note that this is a Saturday trip, not the usual Sunday.. High tide is around 10 a.m., so we’d need to be there ahead of this. Meet at Pembrey Harbour at 9.30ish. (Google maps estimates a travel time of 1 hr 30mins from Cardiff). The plan is to then de-camp to Kidwelly later in the day. Please let Alan know by email if you intend coming – alanrosney@gmail.com.
The postcode for Pembrey Harbour is SA16 0HD, which is the same as that for the nearby Shoreline Caravan Park that you drive past down to the dirt car park. There’s a pdf map below. To get to Burry Port first I think it’s best to come off the M4 at J.47 Penllegaer, then take the A483 down to the 1st roundabout then go right onto the A484 and follow that all the way along, over the Loughor Bridge. This avoids Gorseinon, which is all 20 mph. After the bridge, stay on the A484 until the Parc y Scarlets roundabout. Go over that then immediately at the next big roundabout take the B4304, which loops round to the south of Llanelli past Machynys and eventually takes you to the roundabout by Sandy Water Park, where you take the A484 again that goes through Pwll and on to Burry Port. You eventually have to come off the A484 onto the B4311 that goes into Burry Port. Follow that until the left turn into Derwydd Road which is just after a bridge on a bend.
Great excitement yesterday when a juvenile Grey Phalarope was found a the Knap Lake in Barry. We took our morning dog walk there this morning rather than the usual Cosmeston – not surpringly! It was pretty obvious that it was still present when we arrived, due to the row of folk with cameras along the east side of the lake. As is often the case with phalaropes, this tiny wader was incredibly bold and was swimming along the near edge of the lake right next to photographers sitting on the adjacent path. Its tiny size is accentuated in one of my photos below where it is being followed by a Mute Swan. Loads of portrait images have been posted on social media. There’s a few of mine below including two where it moved away from the lake edge to wash and prean.
There’s been a very vocal Buzzard at Cosmeston recently, often up circling with a few others. It was there again this morning calling and drifting towards me and not too high so I prepared for some flight shots. Managed a few which needed some post processing as they were a bit silhouetty. Dead chuffed to get a couple where it was in mid “mew”. Pretty sure it’s a juvenile due to the heavy breast streaking and the pale tips to the upper wing coverts viewable in one of the ‘wing down’ images.
Rather humid outing to the R.Ely floodplain near Peterston-super-Ely this morning, with 18 participants. We scored with the target birds – 6, possibly 8 Green Sandpipers, a new bird for some. They did their usual thing of exploding from their hiding places along the river edge, uttering their characteristic “weet-a-weet-a-weet” call. 26 species were logged on what was a fairly quiet morming bird-wise. The full list [subject to updates] is linked below. A non-avian highlight was the Dark Bush-cricket which is pictured below. The other non-avian shown is one of the common Hoverflies, Eristalis pertinax. A notgable find by Charlotte on the walk back, was a Roesel’s Bush-cricket – apparently a new record for the site – nice one!. John Wilson
PS an image of the Roesel’s is added to the gallery. Cropped phone pic taken by Charlotte.
Here’s the current list: click here
Cosmeston a.m. A Little Egret was resting by the W lake ‘island’ – it was very distant so the pix are rubbish. But pale bill and dull legs seem to point to 1st yr bird. Very vocal large GCG juv was pestering it’s parent. Also a very vocal Green Woodpecker was in the conservation area but I couldn’t see it. There were about 20 Sand Martins over W lake – the first hirundines I’ve seen in the park for about a week. The LBBG was an evil looking brute!
There were c.30 Canada Geese by E lake shore today, presumably having arrived early this morning as they weren’t there yesterday. A Kingfisher flew under the main bridge and disappeared into the trees along the edge of the W lake reed bed. A pair of GC Grebes were with 3 small humbugs there – see photo. Also of note – good numbers of Gatekeepers and a few Common Blues
A reminder that our small grant scheme (of up to £250) is open for bids for local projects, designed to help conserve or record the bird life of East Glamorgan. Projects might include nest box schemes, planting berry-bearing trees, attending training courses and much more. The deadline for applications is 31st August. Go to the GBC website to access the form.
This link takes you to the correct page.
Kenfig: A Cattle Egret was a brief visitor (13th), with Great White Egret also recorded. A Marsh Harrier was hunting at Sker and a Hobby was seen at the Pool. Waders included Little Ringed Plover, two Greenshanks, two Green Sandpipiers and a maximum of 10 Black-tailed Godwits.
Other sites: A Cattle Egret called in at Cwmbach Wetlands (14th). A passage Little Ringed Plover was noted at Rhaslas Pond, with a Green Sandpiper at nearby Merthyr Common. Ogmore Estuary hosted a Green Sandpiper and two Greenshanks. A Yellow-legged Gull was at Cosmeston. A flock of up to 15 Choughs was frequenting Ogmore-by-Sea.
Summary by Paul Roberts
:
We had a successful trip to Goldcliff Newport Wetlands today, with 10 participants. There was some work going on but we still logged 50 species. Highlights were Little, Great and Cattle Egrets [singles of the last two with the Cattle Egret being in full breeding plumage]. Waders comprised a nice flock of c.80 Dunlin plus Ringed Plover & Lapwing, and 2 Green Sandpipers. Amongst the duck [all in eclipse plumage now] were a couple of Wigeon, Shoveler, Gadwall, Teal and a Pintail. A female Marsh Harrier flew a couple of times and was then found on the ground plucking a prey item, but we couldn’t figure out what it was, apart from the fact that the pluckings were feathers! John Wilson.
Click here for the full list.
Couple of heavily cropped shots below of the Cattle Egret when it flew off.
We’re pleased to be able to publish the minutes of the 2024 AGM which was held in April. We apologise that they have taken a while to go oline but both the writer and the webmaster have been away at crucial times.
They can be see by clicking this link.
Kenfig: Seabirds noted off Sker included Pomarine Skua, Arctic Skua and a maximum of 200 Kittiwakes. An Osprey was seen flying along the coast and a Hobby was near the Pool. A Greenshank flew over the rivermouth, calling.
Lavernock: Seawatching effort was rewarded with Roseate Tern (16th), Pomarine Skua, Arctic Skua, Great Skua and up to 5,000 Manx Sheawaters. A Great White Egret was recorded.
Other sites: A Turtle Dove was briefly in fields between St Athan and Flemingston (7th). A Greenshank flew over Merthyr Mawr. A Hobby was at Penllyn Moor. A Hawfinch was seen in the Alun Valley.
Summary by Paul Roberts
Kenfig NNR: Sightings in the vicinity of the Pool included Purple Heron (16th), five Spoonbills over heading north (4th), Garganey (10th), Bittern, Marsh Harrier and Osprey. Meanwhile at Sker the highlight was a Turtle Dove (16th), with five Black Terns up channel (11th) and a Little Ringed Plover ‘in off’ also noted there.
Other sites: A male Woodchat Shrike was briefly in St Gwynno Forest, above Perthcelyn (11th). A total of 26 Black Terns was noted off Lavernock (11th). A Hobby was over Bridgend town.
Summary by Paul Roberts
Kidwelly Quay, Pembrey Harbour, Sandy Water Park & WWT Llanelli
Thirteen Club members met up at at Kidwelly Quay at 9 a.m. in dismal fine drizzle and a stiff breeze – ideal conditions for creating wet optics! The high was extremely high already despite there’re being another hour to go. Hence there was a dearth of waders, but we did spot a Common Sandpiper by the railway bridge, some distant Oycs in the murk and on the usual circular walk, a few Whimbrel and Curlew. Two pairs of Red-breasted Merganser were distant in the water. On the walk a constantly singing Sedge Warbler refused to show, but Chiffies and Willow Warblers were more obliging. Scoping the fields to the east eventually gave us poor views of a small group of Pink-footed Geese, which was a bonus. By the water treatment works Goldcrests and a small number of Long-tailed Tits were active, and there were large numbers of hirundines hawking insects, mostly Swallows and Sand Martins, with a few House Martins. The former two were hitching roundabout rides on the slowly rotating filter bed sprinklers.
We then moved east to explore the old jetty at so-called Pembrey Harbour, just west of Burry Port harbour itself. The sandbar offshore just had a tight group of around 1000 Oystercatchers, but on the tidal saltmarsh there were 3 Ringed Plover and a Dunlin, plus a few pipits which caused a lot of discussion. They were Rock Pipits but didn’t have the classic dusky Rock Pipit look about them Many photos were taken and we were speculating as to whether at least one or two were of the Scandinavian ‘littoralis’ race. David Rich had ‘scoped a few Common Gulls in his Questar reflector ‘scope but the rest of us missed those. A male Wheatear posed on the jetty wall.
Next up was a visit to Sandy Water Park near Llanelli to see the adult Little Gull. Sadly the Bonaparte’s Gull which had been there for sometime, was not present. The Little Gull performed well in the usual constant active dipping flight characteristic of the species.
Having had our fill of that, we dropped in to the WWT Llanelli Wetland Centre where a Spoonbill, a Long-tailed Duck and a Russian White-fronted Goose had been reported. Those still with us [some had left previously] headed straight down to the British Steel hide to see what we could see. On the walk down I had a fly-over Peregrine. Two Greenshank were resting in the scrape area and by the pool from the rear there were many Black-tailed Godwits and Redshank, and eventually 5 Ruff were found by David Rich. The visibility was very poor at any distance but during some concentrated scoping of the saltmarsh I finally found the Whitefront, in with some Greylags. We dipped on the Spoonbill and Long-tailed Duck, but rewarded ourselves with a nice coffee back at the cafe, to end a successful day despite the damp start. A total of 66 species had been recorded.
8 hardy folk met this morning at Dinas RSPB, north of Llandovery, at 09:30 for some Welsh specialities. Within 5 mins of starting the walk, the first of the forecast showers arrived! We endured 3 or 4 of these, a couple of which were pretty heavy. We persevered but the birds weren’t very ‘showy’. We had to make do with brief views of Pied Fly but a couple of Spotted Flys were more obliging. Redstarts showed quite well, but only 1 Wood Warbler was heard faintly but not seen. A pretty damp day all in all but always a nice location to visit. A couple of the group did the whole circuit but us oldies declined the rocky bit. Alan Rosney got back to the car park first and lucked in on a fly-over Goshawk and the two ‘full circuit-ers’ had a fly-by Cuckoo. Thanks to the hardy participants for attending! Update – 35 species were logged – click here for the [now updated] list.
John Wilson
As a new location field trip, we had a successful 4hr walk round Llanstrisant Common this morning with an unprecedented 29 participants. We broke into 2 groups and walked in opposite circuits, one led by club member Tim Collier and the other by trustee Paul Denning – thanks both. 35 species were logged as per list linked below. Best avians were a couple of Tree Pipits, one feeding and one singing in display flight. Best highlights were non-avian – a female Adder and a Green Hairstreak butterfly. Most birds distant so no prize winning pix. John Wilson
Click here for the full species list.
We have planned our next ‘Walk For Women’ to be on Sunday 19th May at Kenfig NNR. Meet by the centre at 10 a.m. We plan to be out for a couple of hours, but sometimes overrun – we don’t rush. Folk are welcome to leave anytime of course. There are toilets, the cafe is outside – so we’re hoping for a warm day! We have to pay for parking when we leave, card only. Dry (we hope) sandy paths. As with all GBC walks, we ask folk not to bring dogs. We can lend you binoculars if you need them. As always, let us know if you plan to come anytime up till the evening before, so that we know to wait for you – Jean Haslam – haslamj@talktalk.net : Strinda Davies – daviesstrinda@gmail.com
Glamorgan Bird Club 
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