GBC trip to Lavernock Pt and WT Reserve – highlights [8 participants]

Lavernock Pt & coast path – very many hirundines – est. 1000+ mixed Swallow, House- and Sand Martin, Sky Lark 4, Linnet 40, Blackcap 3, Chiffchaff 10, Stock Dove 4, Whitethroat 1,  Common Scoter 4 d/c past the point plus other common stuff.

Lavernock WT Reserve – 4 Clouded Yellow and 1 Small Copper but very few birds. Flock of about 50 House and Sand Martin.

Here’s a cropped phone pic of one of the Clouded Yellows:

The Marsh Tit was by the dragon tree in Cogan Wood again this morning. 12 Tufties present. o/w pretty quiet. There’s also lots of these which I think are Rudd as they do surface feed. There were also lots of ‘blue’ dragonflies which I took to be Migrant Hawkers – does that sound poss?

Just a quick message. Did you buy David/Jake Gilmore’s The Birds of Cardiff in 2006? There’s now a free updating supplement downloadable in pdf format here.

Highlight for me was a Marsh Tit by the ‘dragon tree’ in Cogan Wood – found by sharp-eyed young Matthew Binding yesterday. Also in the wood dozing in the sun by the main path, a Short-tailed Field Vole. It was tiny – not much bigger than my thumb so I suspect a young one. There was another in the leaf litter which was dead, and which the live one nuzzled a couple of times. Just a cropped phone pic so not high quality. Also by the dipping pond & reeds by the Med Village boardwalk, a Clouded Yellow. 15 Tufties on W lake too.

I have recently rec’d a request for help with counting Wood Pigeon which pass thro’ in impressive numbers on vis mig in Oct and Nov. Please visit the GBC Forum for more info.

For a while, thought it was going to be a bird-less session! At Lavernock Wildlife Trust reserve [thanks to Nigel Ajax-Lewis for correcting me on this one] , a Silver Y moth and 1 Painted Lady, 1 Green ‘Pecker, 1 Jay, a Heron and 2 Oycs in St Mary’s Well Bay. At Lavernock Pt coastal path a feeding flock consisting of c.20 Blue Tit, a few Gt Tit, 4 Chiffchaff, 6 Long-t Tit, an imm Goldcrest and a Garden Warbler.

Late news posted on behalf of Allan Dowson [awaiting registration].

1-Spotted Flycatcher in trees at the pond. Also,up to 5-Clouded Yellows and 1-Painted Lady.

Late news for 24th Aug – per Alan Williams [awaiting registration]

Osprey at Llanrhidian (2.30pm), eating a fish on one of the furthest posts on the marsh. 26+ porpoises and 6 common dolphins off Port Eynon point (4.30pm to 6pm), also 20 plus gannets in the area. OOC: spoonbill and ruff at WWT Penclacwydd.

GBC field trip to Carms sites: Pembrey CP beach – 6 Sandwich Tern, 200+ Sanderling [with Dunlin mixed in], 20 Eider offshore; Kidwelly Quay – 6 Greenshank, 100 Redshank, 2 Common Sand, 2 Dunlin in the creek, 100’s of Curlew far out, 1 Whimbrel flew by, 1 v distant Godwit sp, 2 Peregrine over salt marsh; Pembrey old dock jetty at hight tide  – 200-ish Sandwich Tern, 19 Ringed Plover, 1 imm Dunlin, a few Common Gulls, 2 Wheatear.

Late add-in – forgot to mention the moulting Slav Grebe eventually clinched quite a way offshore!

Nice to meet Matt Hunter for the first time & put a face to a name.

Sightings by Micky Maher (a friend of mine who is down at the moment visiting):Waterfowl: Slavonian grebe (s/pl adult) 1 (also 2 great crested grebe 1 ad, 1 juv); eider (4)Waders: whimbrel (8); curlew (8); ringed plover (24) Passerines: crossbill (8); tree pipit (3 inc 2 flyovers). Clouded yellow (3) and southern hawker. Posted by JDW as Owain having trouble posting at the mo.

1 Common Whitethroat, 10 House Martin, 2 Sand Martin, Green ‘Pecker, Gt Spotted ‘Pecker f/o E lake. Also a Clouded Yellow in the E paddock per Jeff Curtis.

V v quiet – small birds almost non-existent. Black Swan was on E lake and a couple of Sand Martins flew through. Shots below were still images taken with Panasonic camcorder. m & f Common Darter are the Odonata.

GBC monthly walk -pretty quiet – 2 Whitethroat, 1 Willow Warbler, 4 Chiffchaff, 2 Reed Bunt, small nos. of Swallow, House Martin & Sand Martin, 1 Swift, 2 imm Green ‘Peckers, 1 Heron, now 10 Tufted Duck, 2 fully grown imm GC Grebes, and a couple of Cormorants whiffling in like geese. Leps included lots of Common Blue, Small Blue, Gatekeeper, Speckled Wood, Comma, and several Silver Y moths. Also 1 Emperor dragonfly and Common Darters ovipositing.

PS also had a Treecreeper in Cogan Wood – a species not often seen at Cossie.

GBC weekday trip had 13 participants. We attained poss a record low for the no. of species seen on a field trip [around 20!], but 4-5 Whimbrel on coastal rocks plus Oycs and Turnstone provided interest. Also some very distant white specks [viewable only thro’ some ‘scopes!] running around on Kenfig Sands, were Sanderling. 1 juv Wheatear at Sker Pt and a family of Stonechat by Sker Farm. Lots of leps including Grayling, Common & Small Blue, Small Copper, Meadow Brown, and Red Admiral.

Trip with the grandchildren. In between pond dipping etc caught up with the lesser yellowlegs in front of b steel hide. A Clouded Yellow flew thro the grounds. Very smart dog fox also performed well on the saltmarsh bund.

Barrage – Sand Martins still around nest holes in the dock by Dr Who experience. By Mermaid Quay – juv LBB Gull ringed 7UF white on green ringed on Flat Holm this year.

Hi all

Just a quick msg. I’ve put some notes on methods of inserting images in posts, on the Instructions page. If you like to add images cd you take a peek at this as there are some restrictions for us on storage so file size/dimensions needs to be kept low. Apologies to those who have already sussed out the best way. Cheers.

From the last platform at high tide. The Pec Sand showed well on and off – it likes hiding right in the nearest corner where you can’t see! Also a stunning sum plum Curlew Sand, 1 Wood Sand seen briefly, 2 Avocet, 1 Barwit in with a small flock of Blackwits picked up when they were spooked into flight, 100’s of Dunlin, Ringed Plover, Curlew, a few Whimbrel, 4 Greenshank, Redshank, Oyc, in fact a wader fest. 🙂

2 ad Gannets flew u/c. c.20 Swift feeding low. Also a Hummingbird Hawkmoth near the gun emplacements.

Goldcliff – Wood Sandpiper showing well on & off from 1st hide. Also 3-4 Greenshank, 4 Common Sand, LRP, Ringed Plover, 200+Dunlin, 1000+ Sand Martin, 5 Yellow Wag, 1 imm Whinchat [by coast path to ‘seawall’ hide]. At Uskmouth a pr of Little Grebe with 4 downy chicks on the cafe pool.

Sluice Farm – Sprawk carrying prey – a small chick of some sort, imm Cuckoo on coast path, 3 Whimbrel, pr Shelduck with 8 downy ducklings.