There was a good selection of waders on Newton Point at high tide this afternoon until a dog walker arrived.

Purple sandpiper 2, grey plover 9, ringed plover 50, turnstone 21, sanderling 4, oystercatcher 2, and about 50 dunlin (they flew before I counted). A sparrowhawk  was also investigating the flock.

Three Waxwings in trees around the area from 12:00-12:40 when they flew off NE over Techniquest. No berries for them so they were flycatching!

I viewed the scoter rafts from Rhossili on 7Feb17 – think there were 20-30 scoters in the two rafts I saw but at the limit of my camera’s zoom. (Corrected see comments) Initially thought these were mostly velvet scoters, with a female smew with this group, and also a scaup seen there too. Now likely to be mostly common scoters – maybe one velvet scoter with a white flash. Plus seven sightings of chough (at least three individuals) and the great northern diver(s) at Port Eynon.

Two Great Northern Divers in the bay this afternoon, presumably sheltering from the earlier weather. 12 Brent Geese and 3 Med Gulls still present at lunchtime.

Quiet on the pond this morning.. Few wildfowl (mallard & Teal).. 6 mute swans, 6 little grebe, singing cettis & water rail ( if you can call that singing)

Highlight was the passage through of a ring tailed hen harrier scattering snipe everywhere.

An adult Mediterranean Gull (acquiring its summer hood) was an unusual inland record at Manor Farm. Across the road at Pwll-y-waun was a female Goosander. There were 24 Sanderling at Sandy Bay, but no sign of any white-winged gulls from there along the seafront up to Lock’s Common. Rest Bay car park (still £1 to park all day) and the playing fields were again very good for gulls with 7 Mediterranean Gull (1 ad sum, 5 ad w and a 2nd w bird), 26 Common Gull and 25 Black-headed Gull. The weedy fields to the north held about 35 Skylark. A mobile Turnstone flock max 24 birds seen also contained 2 Purple Sandpiper which settled down to feed on the rocks on the rising tide. The Wilderness Pool was relatively quiet with an adult Grey Heron, a pair of Pochard, 5 Shoveler plus an impressive flock of 59 Goldfinch frequenting the alders, later joined by 3 Mistle Thrush.

11 Brent Geese on the beach now. Also at least 3 Mediterranean Gulls near them, in with Black-headed, although the gull flock is mobile with the tide coming in.

3 Stock Doves were on top of the pine trees at the rugby club near Forest Farm this evening. Never seen this species here before and so it was a very welcome sight.

A glaucous gull came in off the sea at Rest Bay this morning. One Mediterranean gull also flew past.

Not a sighting, but a reminder that on Tues 7th at KNNR, Richard Smith will be giving a talk on the famous Kruger National Park in South Africa and the surrounding areas. Richard is an excellent photographer and it should be a good evening.

High tide watch at Broughton yielded a Great Northern Diver and 2 Guillemot, a Great Crested Grebe and 200 Common Gull. A walk through Llangennith Moors produced 11 Oystercatchers in dune slack and 12 Goldfinch plus Skylark, 22 Meadow Pipit and 12 Chaffinch, mainly around a cattle feed area in a field close to the footpath. A Red Kite was soaring over the moors near Llangennith village. We accessed Rhossili beach where Diles Lake spills out on to the beach and the Common Scoter flock was something to behold, very active, quite close in and probably up to 2,000 birds between there and Burry Holms as well as 2 Red-throated Diver. There were probably more Scoter out there as the sun was not allowing us views south towards the cliffs where the Surf Scoters have been reported. Single Curlew and Kestrel were present around Broughton Farm fields as we left the caravan car park site later on.

Two stonechat. First I’ve seen down here and a kingfisher

47 snipe and at least 4 jack snipe this morning.

6 little egret in the roost

Siskin back on the marsh for the first time in a few months.

A summary of the ringing session is HERE

Apologies for a ‘non sighting’ post but if anyone is getting bored by this windy, wet weather, then here’s something to keep you awake.

Do you want to practice your Bird ID skills? If so see how many birds you can identify at:

http://andyburnsphotography.zenfolio.com/birds

Over the past few years I have photo’d over 210 species of birds in the UK (about half in the Glamorgan area) and if you open each gallery in the ‘right size’ window you can see each pic without the title of the bird. See if you can ID each bird. I suggest you start with the ‘Other Passerines’ gallery – where you will find most species have more than one shot (but not all). Obviously it is not always easy to ID a bird from one photo. This is aimed more at those of you who are on the lower rungs of the Bird ID skills ladder (like me!!!) but there are a couple of birds that may fox even the best amongst us – and one in particular where the ID is wrong (no clues yet).

There is a separate set of galleries that deal with each species of UK Gulls but one shot of each species in the ‘Seabirds’ Gallery.

To open each Gallery, go to the site via the link above and click on the thumbnail and then when that galleries thumbnails open, quickly click the first one (as the species names are there!) to get you to the best viewing option. Resize the window so you cant see the species name (you only need to do this once). Hope this makes sense! Have fun.

There were 213 Black-headed Gulls with 36 Herring Gull and 3 adult winter-plumaged  Mediterranean Gulls roosting at puddles in the Salt lake car park. There were 30 Turnstone, 1 Oystercatcher  and a Rock Pipit on lawns at Irongate Point with another adult Med Gull nearby. The Wilderness Pool held a Little Grebe (my first record for this site), 3 Cormorant, adult and juvenile Grey Herons, 3 pairs of Shoveler, 1 Pochard, 1 drake and 4 female Goosander and finally 20 Goldfinch feeding in the alder trees. Approximately 200 Black-headed Gull flew from puddles in Manor Farm over to Pwll-y-waun Pool.

c.300 B-h Gulls on W lake, and 3 Common Gull with them. O/W pretty quiet.

Little Egret @ Ynys Fields

The white blob I spotted in the distance yesterday is confirmed today as a Little Egret, sitting forlornly on the Ynys Fields in the rain. Last spotted here c.2013 but no record, so this is the first recorded here in a large swathe of the Valleys area, at least according to Bird Track. Pic on Tirfounder FB Page

1 male and 5 female Goosander and 2 male Shoveler at Wilderness, Newton, this afternoon.

She was on the Northern Wetlands on Monday and is apparently now on the canal

Posted for RH DAVIES

On high tide, Great White Egret x3, Long-tailed Duck female x1, Slavonian Grebes x3.