Late afternoon. 1st yr drake Goldeneye, drake Lesser Scaup, 180!! Canada Geese, Water Rail calling and Cetti’s singing.

pretty quiet and initially damp on the GBC monthly walk. Highlights 1 Snipe, 1 Green Pecker, 1 Redwing flew over, 3 Chiffchaff.

per Paul Bowden – the L-b Dowitcher was still at Rhaslas this afternoon.

GBC mid-week trip with 10 participants so thanks to them. The wooded section of Cwm Nash was pretty quiet with just a Treecreeper of note. In the open lower area, 8+ Chiffchaff, 1 Blackcap, 1 Reed Bunting, Goldfinch & Chaffinch, 1 Spawk, 1 Buzzard, 1 Gt Spotted Woodpecker.

On the W cliff path and fields: 2 Merlin together was the highlight, 1 flew inland with prey and the other flew east. Also 100+ Goldfinch, 30+ Linnet, 4 Wheatear, 3 Stonechat, and a new mown field with c.30 Mipit and 10+ Sky Lark and 3 of the 4 Wheatear.

Also of note on the Leps front were a  couple of Comma, several Red Admiral and at leas 4 Small Copper by the coast path, and a couple of Silver ‘Y’ moths.

a fem Pochard was my first back this autumn. A large fem Sprawk was harassed by B-h Gulls over E lake.

Hi all, I don’t want to teach grandma to suck eggs but just  tip re posting pix. I have commented on a post below but thought this might useful as a separate post. When posting the best option is to use the New Post item top right of the screen whether on the homepage or in the Dashboard. Then always select the Text option on the far left on the next screen. This option allows to to write a post and also to insert an Photo into it [there’s a button top right of the post form]. If you choose the Photo option when you click New Post all you can do is post a photo with no accompanying text. Hope that helps and apologies to those who are wise to this already.

per Mike Powell. Rose-col Starling at Newport Wetlands, Uskmouth. Fromm info centre go up to the lagoons and turn immed left at top of slope and bird is along there towards the distant copse.

There’s a problem with the main web site. It was OK when I updated something this morning but now there’s a message saying that the hosting has expired. I need to contact 123-reg who deal with our domain names to sort this out. Please bear with us whilst this is sorted. It’s not clear what has happened as 123 no longer ‘host’ our site, they only deal with our domain names.

I have now raised a support ticket with 123 asking them to sort this out. Thanks for your patience.

FIXED IT MYSELF 🙂 – DNS settings for our domain had defaulted to the original site [which no longer exists] for some reason. Fingers crossed……

very brief visit mid afternoon. 5-6 Chiffies in trees by Church House and m+f Blackcap. 2 more Chiffies along the coast path. Ominous signs of disruption to access. “Tarmac” painted on the turnoff into Fort Road, then fresh white numbers painted on the road every 20 metres right down to the church. Re-surfacing or services?? Cd be annoying right at the critical time.

from BirdGuides. apparent late news from Landimore on Gower on Sat 28th, of a Red-throated Pipit at Weobley Marsh and also Lap Bunt. Can’t find any ref to this here or the FB page.

Update – apologies – this was listed as late news on the GRC blog today.

A GBC REMINDER – it’s the first indoor meeting of the 2103-14 autumn/winter season tomorrow Tues 1st Oct. An illustrated talk on a trip to Manitoba and Churchill in Canada by Richard Smith = Polar bears and exotic northern species. Usual time and venue – 7:45 p.m. KNNR. JDW

Keep your eyes peeled. Just checked BirdGuides news – there are shed loads of Yellow-browed’s all down the east coast. Lets hope some wander across this way.

For the record, here’s a nice shot of the Wryneck at Lavernock this morning, taken by Andy Burns, a local photographer – nice one Andy and good man Lol for re-finding it. The full set of pix can be seen at Andy’s Zenfolio web site at: http://andyburnsphotography.zenfolio.com/p849903857/h79a4be56#h79a4be56.

late afternoon after delivering nest box making planks bought by GBC.

1 2ndS Med Gull – interesting plumage with a tiny amnt of black in 1 or 2 primaries, yellowish legs and bill, and slightly smoky head w/o distinct eye patch. Also 3 Wigeon, 3 Teal and 3 Shoveler on the shoreline by the boathouse, and 2 Heron. 35 Mallard counted. Also the 2 hybrid Canadas mentioned below by Adrian – quite attractive birds as it happens.

The Wryneck of last week [Sep 18th] was seen again this morning by Lol Middleton in the same hedgerow that runs away from the coast path between the second and third stubble fields. Apologies but I couldn’t get this posted earlier. It was seen at around 10 a.m. It appears some photos have been taken.

I have edited this post. The location I originally gave was where it was seen last week. Apparently this a.m. it was by the hedgerow alongside the first paddock/stubble field past the big house by the coast path.

At LAvernock Pt and N along the coast path, approx 10:00 to 12:30

Continuous overhead vis mig of Meadow Pipit, fairly heavy at first then tailing off but still continuing, tog. with Swallows. Also c.200 Meadow Pipit in total feeding in the two stubble fields and near the silage dump at the N end. A mixed flock of c.500 Jackdaw, Rook and Crow was in the big stubble field. Plus:

Chiffchaff 18 [4 by church and 14 at N end], Grey Wagtail 3 feeding around the silage dump, also in that area 3 Blackcap [2m 1f], 1 Common Whitethroat, 10 Long-t Tit, 1 Pere over, 1 Raven over, 20 Sky Lark flew in to feed in the large stubble field, plus Gt and Blue Tits, Blackbird, Dunnock, Robin, Collared Dove. More land birds in 2 hrs than in a whole day at Portland Bill on Sunday! 🙂

just rec’d info via Lol Middleton who’s found a Wryneck at Lavernock about 400m along the coast path towards Penarth from Lavernock Pt.

Update – no further sighting 2 hrs+ after it was originally seen, having been looked for by Lol, myself, DRWG and Mike Powell. It had flown up to the hedgerow at the inland edge of the first stubble field.

Of interest just offshore – 2 Harbour Porpoise slowly moving up channel about 100m offshore.

GBC monthly walk with 5 participants. Highlights – 2 Spotted Flycatchers (hedgerow of southern field by Sully Brook), 1 fem Pied Flycatcher nr the dragon tree in Cogan Wood (uncommon bird here) [but no Marsh tit], 1 Wheatear on high ground above dragonfly pond. Also 1 ad and 1 imm Green ‘Pecker and now 21 Tufted Duck. Leps – 2 Small Copper in the south field ref’d to above. Also a lot of Chiffchaff 20+.

PS just been reminded by Matthew Binding (as he spotted it!) we had a rapid Kingfisher fly-by along the edge of said field, parallel to Sully Brook.

Hi all – just a quick heads up that a space in the Obs has become available due to someone being unable to come on the weekend trip 20th – 22nd Sep. Cost would be £40 [£30 for members of the Obs] for the 2 nights at the Obs plus 2 eve meals at the pub. Please contact me. johndw at ntlworld dot com or 07999 801645

Visited again solo – thought the rain might’ve grounded a few bits & bobs. Nowhere near as many hirundines as yesterday. Birch tree  by Church House had at least 6 Chiffchaff, 1 fem Blackcap and 2 Long-t-Tit. Coat path had 1 County Recorder :-), 1 male Blackcap briefly, 1 fem/imm Common Whitethroat and a few Goldfinch. Also 1 Holly Blue pointed out to me my DRWG, and I also saw a Clouded Yellow in the fenced off scrubby paddock behind the big house.