late post from yesterday evening- single Little Egret.

A bit belated I’m afraid. Here’s the trip list from the GBC trip last Wednesday courtesy of Gareth Jenkins:

Total list 62 species; Little Grebe, Cormorant, Little Egret, Grey Heron, Mute Swan, Canada Goose, Shelduck, Teal, Mallard, Pintail, Shoveler, Tufted Duck, Buzzard, Kestrel, Moorhen, Coot, Oystercatcher, Ringed Plover, Little Ringed Plover, Lapwing, Knot, Dunlin, Black tailed Godwit, Curlew, Redshank, Common Sandpiper, Wood Sandpiper (seen by 1 ! ), Turnstone, Mediterranean Gull (1 seen), Black headed Gull, Common Gull, Herring Gull, Wood Pigeon, Collared Dove, Swift (1 seen)Great spotted Woodpecker, Green Woodpecker (heard), Skylark, Sand Martin,Swallow, House Martin, Meadow Pipit, Yellow Wagtail, Pied Wagtail, Wren, Dunnock, Stonechat, Blackbird, Cettis Warbler, Sedge Warbler, Reed Warbler, Whitethroat, Blackcap, Willow Warbler, Magpie, Carrion Crow, Starling, House Sparrow, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Linnet, Reed Bunting.

One other notable sighting was a Water Vole swimming across the reen at Goldcliff.

There were 7 participants on today’s GBC monthly walk at Kenfig NNR. Meeting at 9am at the car park, we decided to head for the coast at Sker to look for waders around high tide.

En route, in light rain, birds heard or seen included Willow Warbler, Whitethroat, Starling, Linnet, Bullfinch, Dunnock plus Herring, Lesser Black-backed and Black-headed Gulls. The highlight though was a group of 9 Stonechat on the edge of the golf course including a number of juveniles.

Around Sker House there were 5 Lapwing in a field, and nearby another 4 Stonechat along with Goldfinch, Meadow Pipit, Skylark and a flyover Cormorant. As we moved on from Sker House, and with the weather deteriorating rapidly, some in the group saw a Snipe.

We pressed on to Sker rocks for a brief look in by now heavy rain. We managed to add Oystercatcher, Ringed Plover, Turnstone, Curlew and Rock Pipit, but the combination of wind and rain was too much to allow a thorough search.

Many thanks to Strinda Davies for leading today’s walk and to all those who came along.

We saw or heard 30 species. Full species list: Cormorant, Oystercatcher, Ringed Plover, Northern Lapwing, Common Snipe, Eurasian Curlew, Turnstone, Black-headed Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Herring Gull, Feral Pigeon, Magpie, Carrion Crow, Skylark, Swallow, Willow Warbler, Common Whitethroat, Wren, Starling, Blackbird, Song Thrush, European Stonechat, Dunnock, Pied Wagtail, Meadow Pipit, Rock Pipit, Goldfinch, Linnet, Bullfinch, Reed Bunting.

Hello,

Sorry for the non-sighting post, but I thought that some people may be interested in attending this year’s Unknown Wales Conference, held in the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff. Stephen Roberts will be presenting a talk about Honey Buzzards.

The date this year is Saturday 28th October.

It should be a very interesting day- along side Stephen’s talks, there are talks about marine life, rivers, seagrass meadows, natterjack toads and polychaete worms. More details, the programme and booking form are online here https://www.welshwildlife.org/unknown-wales/conferences/unknown-wales-2017/

All the best,

Rose

UnknownWales 2017 flyerCYUnknownWales 2017 flyerEN

15 (fifteen) Common Sandpipers this morning. At one stage they were all perched low down on dead branches on one of the islands. Also 2 Little Egrets and a Kingfisher.

Meditteranean gull… nice surprise when walking the dog… never seen them closer than west cross before..

7 juv stonechats and 3 adults ,a female wheatear with a juv suggesting local breeding, 90 oyster catcher and 100+ black headed gulls on the river 15 linnets,buzzard, skylark, and whitethroat

Last night:  Male seen churring from favoured song-post, plus close fly-past by female.

Midges on the wing in nightmare numbers!!!! 😦

Started with me finding a small pod of 3 harbour porpoise foraging in the outgoing tide race.. Nice! They were being followed by plenty of manxies, several gannets, 1 fulmar, kittiwakes.. And through that scope view flew a skein of 6 common scoter.. Wow.. Plenty of other stuff going up and down channel.. Several GBB gulls, lots of auk species.. 3 rock pipits flew in off the sea.. 1 mead gull in the car park.. along with several herring gull. Raven overhead

Nice to see two broods of Tufted Duck on the reserve this afternoon, one brood of 5 the other 8.

Swift 100+ Sand Martin 20 Great Crested grebe 20 incl 2 juvs and a bird on a nest. Black Swan 1  Mute Swan 50  Tufted Duck 1

Lots of coot with young. Whitethroat 4 singing males plus 2 juvs Blackcap i juv Linnet 1 Reed Bunting 2

 

This afternoon, two brief views of a bird as it flew away from me – 90% sure it was a Black Redstart, dark back, red tail, but I got no view of the front of the bird.
It was initially seen on the upper path that runs from Bendrick Drive to Pobbles, just before the gorse ends and the path skims the edge of the golf course (google maps gives me 51.571121, -4.100496).

Dave Morris

There are now two broods of Tufted Ducks on the lake: one has 11 ducklings, and the other has 7. Also another group of Mallard chicks: at least the fourth there this year. Been a good year for waterfowl breeding on the lake this year.

Nothing exciting but 2 juv Whitethroats seen [1 nr dragonfly pond and 1 near Med Village], Mute Swan pair with 4 cygnets [they started with 5]. 2 Ad sum plum Black-headed Gulls were new returning arrivals.

Just had a text from Graham Smith saying he’s found a RBS at Cwm Ivy on Gower. No further details.

Single Red Kite spent large part of the day over or in view from the garden. Also 4 Swift, 4 Swallows, single Raven, 3 Buzzard, Sparrowhawk. Grey Wagtail visited the pond.

Five stock doves on Grangemoore Park this morning at 6.00 am.  Flew west.

Five stock doves on Grangemoore Park this morning at 6.00 am.  Flew west.

Encouraged to count at least 18 Swift this morning over the River Ogmore in Bridgend Town Centre this morning. All feeding between the Church and the Council Offices. We counted 20 on arrival last month, so very good news indeed.

Tufted Duck female with 11 ducklings seen on the lake in the rain this evening.

How commonly do Tufted Ducks breed in Glamorgan?