At Cosmeston this morning – this Darvic ringed LBB Gull white with red 3NF – ringed on Flat Holm in 2011 – reported at Cossie in Apr 2012 and now again today. On W lake there were 5 Gadwall. A smart Fieldfare was on Glamorganshire Golf Club fairway adjacent the E lake path. O/W the usual suspects.

There was a Chough between the green lifeguard cabins and Sker yesterday, before being flushed by walkers up towards Sker. A couple who were nearby managed to photograph it and show me the rings on its legs, confirming for me that the juvenile female Anglesey bird is still around. There were 45 Common Gull and at least 800 Golden Plover in Sker Farm fields though I feel there may have been more than this as two microlight aircraft flew low over and the flock splintered with quite a few heading off toward the beaches and rocks of Rest Bay. Worth checking out as who knows what may be in with them?! The coastline had small numbers of waders Oystercatcher (40), Turnstone (16), Redshank (1) and Curlew (26) and a Shelduck flew over, whereas the farm cattle feeding areas held several Blackbird, Song Thrush and Mistle Thrush.

There still opposite the steelworks about 11 on the trees on the main road u can’t miss them woo 1st time Eva for me to see these

 

 

Rhossili: chance meeting saw Chris Brewer, Alistair Flanagan and I spend an hour or two together looking across the bay. No sign of the long-tailed ducks this morning, with the best bird being a red-throated diver. Scoter flock broken up into numerous groups and mainly distant.

Mumbles Pier: 58 turnstone, 1 purple sandpiper and 9 redshank on the old pier end at high tide. Nothing on the sea.

Oxwich: no proper count but farm more ducks on the South Pond at present, including c. 60 teal this morning. Decent number of common snipe in the marsh, but no jacks seen today.

Quick walk along John Batchelor Way and Plas Taliesin: 5 Turnstone, 3 Redshank (one colour ringed as part of the Tidal Lagoon project), 3 Grey Wags and a Rock Pipit.

A great group day trip yesterday – At least 4 purple sandies on the rocks at Ogmore first thing. At Whiteford, amongst the expected species, we had snipe, jack snipe, slavonian grebe, but only one distant GND. Whilst looking at the GND an auk sp. was briefly in view. At Llanrhidian Marsh – Great whites, hen harriers, an unexpected marsh harrier, and merlin. 88 species for the day. RW, DJJ, GJJ et al.

In sunny but cold conditions there were 15 participants on today’s GBC monthly walk at Kenfig NNR. In total, forty nine species were seen or heard. The highlights included a male Marsh Harrier which appeared late morning and which gave excellent views from the South Pool hide, Scaup, Goldeneye, Lapwing, Sparrowhawk and Greylag Geese. Many thanks to Strinda Davies for leading the walk.

Full species list: Mute Swan, Canada Goose, Greylag Goose, Goldeneye, Scaup, Tufted Duck, Mallard, Shoveler, Pochard, Gadwall, Wigeon, Teal, Great Crested Grebe, Grey Heron, Cormorant, Marsh Harrier, Buzzard, Sparrowhawk, Moorhen, Coot, Lapwing, Snipe, Black-headed Gull, Common Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Herring Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, Woodpigeon, Collared Dove, Magpie, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Skylark, Long-tailed Tit, Goldcrest, Wren, Starling, Blackbird, Song Thrush, Redwing, Mistle Thrush, Robin, Dunnock, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Linnet, Reed Bunting.

Anyone wishing to view a Kingfisher at close quarters should visit Clydach. This one is quite happy to sit while you snap. I had the pleasure of taking an 82 year old lady to see it. She had never seen a Kingfisher before in her life. Needless to say she was delighted as the bird fished up to about 10 feet away.

Sorry about this – just a heads up. I noticed when I posted my pix just now that the image storage allowance that we have, is 34% used so the GBC admin [usually me!] will have to keep an eye on it and at some point in the future it will be necessary to remove batches of photos from very old posts. We will always keep the prev years active in case of queries re unusual or rare species that are photographed and posted.

The Long-tailed Duck was showing well by the inner barrage this morning, following a pair of Mallard to and fro from the sails to the Penarth end, mostly v close in, except when a couple’s children thought it would be fun to throw stones at them! Had my dog with me which made taking pix a little difficult as she wanted to play with all the other passing hounds! Didn’t affect the LTD tho’. Water was dead calm so it was easy to follow the LTD under water. Tried a few under the water shots!.

Came upon the Black Redstart in Pen Marina on way back to car, flitting around on the roofs at the barrage end of Plas Taliesin.

Posted for Will Wadsworth-Davies

Flock ca 30 Waxwings from first light still at The Range, Winchwen, feeding on good berry trees. Lots of observers.

A late visit produced the usual suspects but no yellow legged gull. 3 fallow deer were a surprise.

 

30+ birds still present at right-hand side of Range store Winchwen at 16.30. Cracking views of birds in stand of tall trees. Very accessible.

a.m. 2 Mistle Thrush and a single Fieldfare feeding in W paddock, and a Green ‘Pecker also. 4 Bullfinch [2 pairs] in trees by the Med Village concrete path, and 1 Treecreeper near the central path by the ‘T’ junction.

30+ Waxwings at The Range (Old Winchwen store) and adjoining side road. Flew off 0930ish but likely  to return for very good berry trees. Several observers.

4 Wigeon this morning (1m 3f) per Mathew Meehan.

My phone scoped effort from this morning. Also the 2 Siberian chiffchaff still present with 2 common chiffchaff.

A Purple Sandpiper was with a flock of Turnstone on the rocks off Lock’s Common at high tide this morning (record shot). Nearby the Gull roost on rocks off West Park Drive to the south of Lock’s Common, there were 275 Black-headed Gull, 2 Common Gull and 5 Mediterranean Gull (4 adult winter / 1 second winter).

Long-tailed Duck with the 8 Scaup today from the barrage and in flight.