Little bunting. Ringed and taken near South Pond hide for release. Released 09:40 and flew towards village / appeared to land in scrub near car park payment booth. Pics will be posted on Gower Ringing Group blog this evening.

Also, 40+ snipe, jack snipe (1 captured), good movement of redwing early morning, influx of goldcrests (40+)

 

Over the past two days: 5 yellow-browed warblers, 8 chiffchaff, a late reed warbler (this was checked for Blyth’s etc), 2 blackcaps among fifty birds ringed.

For more information and photos, see: http://gowerbirdringinggroup.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/oxwich-marsh-15-october-2016-late.html

4 YB Warbler, 7 Chiffchaff & 9 Goldcrest this morning (all ringed). Jack snipe with 6 common snipe in marsh

Popped into the marsh to fill my feeders.

There was a YB warbler calling close by, which I subsequently watched flitting around in a willow. I then went to check a wet area for snipe, and heard another calling from inaccessible scrub. Finally I went to the South Pond hide and had a YB warbler in with blue tits, a chiffchaff and a few goldcrest. The YB showed very well. All likely to be different birds as seen in very quick succession, not actively moving through, and in areas at least several hundred metres apart.

I then had to go to work. Given three birds in 30 minutes, I would imagine that there is a good chance of finding YBs anywhere around the village or in the scrub around the edge of the marsh this morning.

A firecrest this morning. Visible migration of meadow pipit, goldfinch, linnet, wagtails overhead. Few warblers present, with just a few goldcrest, blackcap and chiffchaff noted.

Nine yellow-browed warblers, 2 firecrests, garden warbler, 15 chiffchaff etc captured at Oxwich this morning.

Summary, photographs and numbers here: http://gowerbirdringinggroup.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/oxwich-marsh-8-october-2016-nine-yellow.html

 

A spotted redshank was close in on the dropping (high) tide at Penclawdd on Saturday morning. With a group of about 20 redshank.

West Gower cliffs quiet on Saturday. A couple of wheatear, a few chiffchaffs and a blackcap at Mewslade and in Ram Grove, and a whinchat at The Vile. Very large numbers of stonechats and robins throughout the area might indicate a movement from higher ground to the coast?

Oxwich on Sunday also quiet: 3 chiffchaff, 5 blackcap and reasonably late singles of willow warbler, sedge warbler and reed warbler all captured. A rose-coloured starling was seen by Emma Cole in flight, so it would be worth checking around Oxwich village.

The Welsh Ringing Course was held at the marsh over the weekend.

An account is here: http://gowerbirdringinggroup.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/the-welsh-ringing-course-9-12-september.html

Species noted included 6 grasshopper warbler, 37 sedge warbler, kingfisher and garden warbler

A male redstart, small numbers of tree pipit, relatively abundant willow warbler, 2 garden warbler and a grasshopper warbler over the past few days.

Pic of redstart (Keith Vaughton) below. More info see:

http://gowerbirdringinggroup.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/oxwich-marsh-23-27-augustswallows.html

Tree pipits moving again this morning (5 ringed)

2 garden warbler

A roost of well in excess of 500 swallows (plus sand martins) was present in the reedbed last night (could be 3x this but very difficult to estimate).

Willow tit this week (as well as 2 garden warbler). Photos / identification info here: http://gowerbirdringinggroup.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/oxwich-marsh-18-august-gower-rarity.html

Passage of tree pipit (25+ birds), willow warbler (44 captured and many more present), garden warbler (5) and reed bed warblers (reed, sedge and 1 grasshopper) at Oxwich this morning. Also the first snipe of the autumn. See:

http://gowerbirdringinggroup.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/oxwich-marsh-14-august-sixteen-tree.html

An update from the marsh. Over 200 swallows roosting there at present. Grasshopper warbler again (the 11th individual logged there this year) and steady movements of willow, sedge and reed warbler. See:

http://gowerbirdringinggroup.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/oxwich-marsh-early-august-warblers-and.html

Birds captured on the marsh this morning included 4 grasshopper and 2 garden warblers. Good numbers of sedge, reed and willow warbler. For a full account and photos, see: http://gowerbirdringinggroup.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/oxwich-marsh-30-july-2016-autumn.html

Garden warbler below

 

Good numbers of reed warblers, increases in sedge warbler and willow warbler noted this morning. Also a young lesser whitethroat.

See: http://gowerbirdringinggroup.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/oxwich-marsh-23-july.html for latest information

Reed warblers now a lot more mobile in marsh as adults and fledged juveniles move around post breeding / fledging.

Fledgling treecreeper. Large flocks of goldfinches and still the odd siskin hanging around.

For details see: http://gowerbirdringinggroup.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/oxwich-marsh-15-17-july-2016-surge-in.html

The results of recent ringing sessions at the marsh are detailed here: http://gowerbirdringinggroup.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/oxwich-marsh-late-june-early-july.html

Over the last week we have seen juvenile warblers including reed, sedge, grasshopper and Cetti’s starting to appear in reasonable numbers.

The first fledgling grasshopper warblers and reed warblers for 2016 this morning. A kingfisher was the first seen for a while.

For those of you on Facebook, Natural Resources Wales now has an Oxwich NNR Facebook page, and has put up some really nice footage of otters captured on trail cams.

See: https://www.facebook.com/OxwichNNR/?pnref=story

Not a sightings post, for which I apologise

However, Gower RG are looking for new trainee ringers. See: http://gowerbirdringinggroup.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/are-you-interested-in-bird-ringing.html#comments

Two grasshopper warbler territories on the marsh this year (obs from evening of 25th)

Captured 95 birds during the morning of 25 June including the 1st fledgling Cetti’s warbler of the year. For more info see:

http://gowerbirdringinggroup.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/oxwich-marsh-25-june-more-fledglings.html