Ad Yellow-legged Gull on E lake this morning and 2 Cetti’s singing near the cafe. Plenty of Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs singing.

9:30 – 11:30 No hirundines. GCG pair nest building on W lake, Mistle Thrush carrying food nr dragonfly pond. Willow Warbler and several Chiffchaff and Blackcap singing, o/w pretty quiet.

1 poss 2 Swallows in amongst c.100 Sand Martins over the bay early eve. Rock Pipit on the barrage.

No sign of B-n Grebe this morning but 22 Gt Crested Grebes present, and a single Sand Martin. Poss worth checking R. Taff for BNG but I didn’t have time.

1st yr little gull present at 11, but no obvious sign of boneys seen earlier by Lol. Also Sand Martin’s inspecting nest holes in old dock by Dr. Who. Amusing to see 6 birds all trying to inspect the same hole!

Just had an e-mail to say that the L-t Duck was at Knap Lake Barry this morning.

The Black-throated Diver was on E lake late this morning but was on W lake when I left after about 45 mins.

2 reminders: Alan Rosney & I are off to Sri Lanka tomorrow morning. In the absence of any volunteers re my prev notice on Facebook dated 12th Feb about the Forest of Dean field trip on 13th Mar, then this shd be regarded as cancelled unless interested folk wish to get together and go. Also the indoor meeting for this Tuesday [4th Mar] is also cancelled as Paul Denning has to work that evening. 

Here’s a cropped head shot of the LTD [esp for Andy :-)] showing the bill serrations.

finally managed to get out for a little while. Here’s couple of pix of the L-t Duck seen this afternoon, one in mid-dive.

Ross’s Gull still at aberavon beach on & off this morning, per MHi, CHi et al.

Update as of 10:19 – bird flew off beach and out of view into theHarbour/Docks

the Ross’s Gull was reported as flying from within Port Talbot docks over to Aberavon Beach at 14:00 [per NPR].  No news since.

This bird has been reported present this morning at E end of Aberavon beach by the river mouth feeding with 2 Little Gulls.

Late news just picked up. What has turned out to be a Ross’s Gull was seen briefly in poor conditions at Afan Rivermouth SS749886 today but it flew top the Afan river. It was seen at high tide and the ID was only confirmed from a fly-away photo after the obs got home, as initial thought was 1stW Little Gull. Will be looked for again tomorrow at high tide. See the GRC site for details and photo – http://grcforum.blogspot.co.uk. 

The Lesser Scaup was on E lake this morning [out of the wind]. Other than that, just the usual. No show by the Marsh Tit.

from Paul Howe via e-mail – Hen Harrier seen ‘near St Mellons’ today. Sex not spec’d but more detail requested.

Update – this was a male and was seen from St Mellons Business Park off Cypress Drive, overlooking the Wentloog Levels and was last seen heading towards Cardiff, basically near the Hendre Lake area.

Yep the LTD seems to have taken the advantage of a nice day to depart – just ‘cos I took my new camera down there! BT Diver was still at Barry Docks at 2:40 on the far LH side by the dock gates, then it swam left and disappeared into an inlet in the far LH corner by the blue buildings where it says TANK WASH.

Damp GBC midweek trip. Lesser Scaup, Marsh Tit, Redwing, Treecreeper and Nuthatch at Cossie, and Long-tailed Duck at The Knap, Barry.

A quick walk round Cossie this morning: drake Lesser Scaup showing v well by shoreline on W lake together with c.180 Tufties and a drake Pochard. Also 3 Wigeon there [2m, 1f] and 6 Gadwall. A further 40+ Tufties on E lake. Grey Wagtail in the new wet area by the Med Village access boardwalk and several Reed Bunt and a couple of Redwing.

late news per BirdGuides – drake Lesser Scaup was apparently on W lake this afternoon.