Six goosander 5 female 1  male 40 + Canada geese ,20+ mute swan ,90 b h gulls ,usuall mallards tufteds coots and moorhens

A minimum of 45-Snipe on the south side of the island,14h00-14h40

Ad.Gannet from the old redhouse pub 11:35 per Julian Swan.

It appears a Cattle Egret was seen along the Wentloog road today, with Little Egrets [per Paul Bowden on Facebook].

Apologies for the non-sightings post.

Please could anyone intending to sightings of birds within the Gower recording area in 2017 send these to Mark Hipkin by the end of February 2017. Mark’s email address is: markhipkin1@gmail.com

Guidance for the submission of records can be found HERE

Many thanks on behalf of the GOS committee.

There was a firecrest at Bute Park this morning. I’ve put details of its location on the south Wales birding Facebook page.

St James’ Church, Rudry – Hawfinch still present and favouring the south-west corner of the churchyard.

Siskin, Nuthatch and Great Spotted Woodpecker on the feeders and Treecreeper nearby at Coed Parc-y-Van car park.

5 Goldeneye (1m 4f) and a drake Goosander on Rhaslas Pond, 3 Goosander (2m, 1f) on Bute Town pond, and a Goosander pair at Parc Cwm Darran.

A Red-breasted Goose was at Parc Taf Bargoed this afternoon (presumably the same one that’s been at Caerphilly Castle and Rhaslas Pond recently). Also present 1 Mute Swan, 10 Little Grebe, 22 Canada Geese, 7 Moorhen, 45+ Mallard and a Coot.

A summary of ringing at Oxwich in 2017 is available by clicking HERE

For anyone who is interested, you can click through to a more detailed report from the above blog post. Starling photo Stephen Vickers.

Goosander 8 six females and two males the Red-breasted Goose has taken up residence along with the Shelduck

13+ hawfinches at Forest Ganol yesterday morning. Quite remarkable

Hi all birders. Having received 2017 bird records already from Alan Rosney, Graham Powell and Neil Donaghy, and also John & Margaret Samuel who submit theirs on a monthly basis [to whom thanks all], it is timely for me to put out a request to all of you who provide us with records each year which are used, inter alia, to write up summaries for the annual Bird Report. If you supply me direct with records can you let me have them as soon as poss [we aim for the end of Jan]. Alternatively if you submit to SEWBReC or use MapMate or BirdTrack then make sure they are up to date with all your records for 2017 so that I get them all when I do a download. Many thanks and happy new year for later.

In garden, Canton Cardiff– one male Blackcap.

Impressive starling murmuration over Whitchurch from 16:00 onwards. Minimum of 3000 birds but probably nearer 5000 as it was splitting, rejoining and disappearing behind buildings with more birds coming in all the time.

About 28 redwings feeding on the playing field at lunchtime today – a good count for the park.

A couple of pics of the RBG amazing how breast colour changes with the light-nice bird.

A walk round the pool today. -28th December

On the pool-

Bittern, (possibly two)in front of the South hide, Slavonian Grebe, Great crested grebe, Little grebe, Mute swan, Goldeneye, Redshank, Gooseander, Mallard, Canada goose, Tufted duck, Coot, Pintail,  Cormorant, Pochard, Gadwall, Cettis warbler heard, Black-headed gull, Herring gull, Grey Heron.

Plus-      Robin, Blue tit, Great tit, Bullfinch, Goldcrest, Long-tailed tit, Chaffinch, House Sparrow, Carrion crow, Jackdaw, Blackbird, Dunnock, Woodpigeon, Kestrel.

 

Red-breasted Goose 1 Shelduck 1 Goosander 6 (3&3) Yellow-legged Gull 1 Kingfisher 2

Ad Med Gull on the playing fields 13:00.

5 Shoveler, 5 Gadwall, 2 Little Grebe and the usual tufties and pochard W lake, pair of Wigeon E lake and a lot more Tufties, 50+ Canadas 2 G C Grebe. Buzzard in tree nr dipping pond, party of 10+ Long t Tit and what may become a bit of a pain – 2 drones.

Seems to be an annual occurrence now when I’m here in the winter, but there were 3 Brent Geese in the bay at Port Eynon at 11. They flew off west as the tide came up.

Also, a single Common Scoter out in the sea just off the rocks nearer the point