At 4:10 p.m. there was a murmuration of 3000+ starling seen from the mian bridge – performed pretty well and eventually dropped into W lake reeds. 2 Bittern were seen by Jeff Curtis [birds seen to fly briefly in 2 widely separate areas of W lake reeds]. Also 1 Kingfisher briefly at dusk. John Wilson [I posted this from the wrong login].

Highlights from a re-scheduled WeBS count on the Rhymney Est, Cardiff this morning: 1 Jack Snipe which I nearly trod on!, 1 Kingfisher flyng around over Green Point, 800 Redshank 500 Dunlin, 35 Lapwing, about 120 ea of Pintail & Shelduck, a few Wigeon & Teal, and 11 Turnstone at the Heliport Bay. No sign of the reported 2 Black Redstarts by the water works but there were 8 fishermen along the beach there. {John Wilson – I posted this from the wrong login!}

Goosander 2 a drake and duck.

An adult winter Mediterranean Gull was roosting among Black-headed and Herrings at the Salt Lake car park this morning. Quiet along seafront at West Park Drive, 10 Turnstone and a Rock Pipit and what appeared to be a carcass floating offshore, possibly juvenile Gull or Gannet.

Great northern diver foraging off the bay. Ranging between Bracelet side of Tutt Head and Limeslade

good numbers of birds on the Vile this morning.

prob 7 Lapland bunting. One group of 5 flushed a view times. Only brief views on the ground, very difficult to photo. Other singles heard flying around.

around 90 to 100 skylark. Favouring the stubble fields that the sheep are in.

18 to 20 reed bunting, 4 yellowhammer, 15 to 20 meadow pipit.

1000+ starling and 500+ jackdaw / carrion crow.

25+ chaffinch. Only raptors seen were 2 peregrine

16-Little Egrets flew from the island roost today at first light.

In blustery wet weather, there were nine participants on the monthly bird walk this morning. Conditions improved, enabling us to see/hear 38 species.

Jackdaw, Starling, Collared dove, Robin, Woodpigeon, Chaffinch, Great tit, Blue tit, Dunnock , Song thrush, House sparrow, Mute swan, Gadwall, Mallard, Coot, Tufted duck, Great- crested grebe, Shoveller, Goldeneye, Cormorant, Moorhen,Redshank, Black-headed gull, Herring gull, Lesser black-backed gull, Pochard,Wigeon,Common gull,  Teal, Goldcrest, Long-tailed tit, Magpie, Blackbird, Chiffchaff, Wren, Pied wagtail, Redwing, Cetti’s warbler-heard.

Thanks Strinda, for leading the walk.

1 Chiffchaff from the snipe hide this afternoon, although no Snipe or Water Rail present. Also 1 female Blackcap in my garden in Whitchurch  on the 15th.

A reed warbler this morning seems a good candidate for the latest Welsh record.

Otherwise a quiet day with 2 jack snipe the highlight of the ringing session. See: gowerbirdringinggroup.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/the-latest-welsh-reed-warbler.html

A bittern reported yesterday from the South Pond area

 

A Bittern flew from by the Medieval Village access boardwalk at Cosmeston this morning and flew through the trees toward E lake. However later I saw a Bittern deep in the W lake reeds, looking down from the nearest end of W paddock. 2 Lapwing flew over and there was a scattering of Redwing all over.

I did not post these earlier because I did not think that they were good enough for Adrienne to identify from them.

Seen a few of these over the years but never one in the garden. This one has been around since 10 November. Picture is a bit soft as it was taken through the kitchen window …. and it was pouring with rain.

The flock of 8 chough on Locks Common on 9th November contained 3 separate ringed birds. (Seen and photographed by Mike Pugh) The Anglesey chough 9U, together with 2 local birds that are/were regular in the Ogmore/Southerndown area but they are 12 years old and the rings are falling off. I copy below details from Adrienne Stratford’s Email

The two colour-ringed birds in the group of four in the top photo, and also in slightly different shot of same group that you attached to yesterday’s email, are both familiar to me (although I’ve never seen them myself). These are a pair of siblings ringed by Bob Haycock near Pennard on the Gower in 2004 (originally ringed: Rt: Red/BTO Lt: Lime/Brown + Rt: Red/BTO Lt: Lime/Brown), then became resident breeding adults in the Ogmore/Southerndown area. Both were still around there until spring 2015, but with only one of them recorded in spring 2016. Both had lost their red rings some years ago – the plastic rings are not as durable as we’d like, but they’re usually reliable for 5 or more years by which time birds have generally stopped travelling far and have settled down as nesting adults – where we’re able to keep track of their gradual loss of rings… It’s clear that one of these birds (the one in the back of the photo) has also lost the lime ring since it was last recorded and is now Rt: BTO only Lt: White only. One the other bird (Rt: BTO only Lt: Lime/Brown – back right in both photos), the lime ring appears to have become unglued and un-spiralled, and has now has slipped down and is below the brown (clearer on the previously-attached photo) – this lime ring will almost certainly not stay on much longer. Not surprising really as they’re both now 12 year-olds. The first of these siblings (ex Lime/White) was also recorded at Lock’s Common back in March 2007, just before turning up at Western Supermare with some other Gower birds, where it had also been recorded alone the previous year.

The flock of 8 were present again today as per Mike

Two Pale-bellied Brent Geese were on the lower estuary today, relocating to the rivermouth when flushed by dog walkers.

1 v smart ad male Black Redstart on roofs at Penarth Marina this a.m., and another bird v briefly [roofs of small square facing the marina basin]. 1 Grey Wag and 1 Turnstone by the R. Ely mouth there.

Old Ice Rink car park/Prospect Place – 2 Little Grebe, 2 GC Grebe, 120 Coot, 12 Tufted Duck.

Martin Bevan and myself spent between 7am and 9pm seawatching from Porthcawl.

As soon as the light allowed we were treated to 1000 plus Black Headed Gulls in quite close going down channel in amongst we picked up 12 Med. Gulls.

Soon after a Red Throated Diver went down channel, along with 3 Fulmars and 3 Gannets. 3 Common Scoters were observed and a steady stream of Auks most of which seemed to be Guillemots kept going all the time we were there. One Shag went west very close in.

By now a stream of Kittiwakes were going down channel we counted nearly 900 but could easily have been a lot more.

Further out a Juvenile Dark Phase Pomarine Skua went west and then strangely for this time of year a Manx Shearwater went down channel close in.

Other birds seen were 4 Oystercatchers, 4 Ringed Plovers and 4 Turnstones.

Martin also seen a Harbour Porpoise.

Well, I got some interesting feedback on yesterday’s Chough!! You may have noticed from yesterday’s posting that it was a ringed bird. I sent off the details to adriennestratford@btinternet.com and recieved the following information from Adrienne this morning.

My goodness – I’m totally blown away.
This bird (Rt: Lime/BTO Lt: Green/Blue “9U”) is a young female, ringed as chick this year, by Tony Cross, on the North coast of Anglesey!!! This is a distance of 219 km, which is almost double the previous maximum we have recorded – it’s only 100 km from Anglesey to the Isle of Man, where a handful of “our” birds have been recorded. She couldn’t have travelled further within Wales if she’d tried. But no prior history I’m afraid – she was ringed on 9th June, seen fledged with her 3 siblings on 2nd July – I wish we knew all the locations she’d passed through en route… and why!
The colour-ringing is all part of a long-running study of choughs in mid + North Wales by Tony Cross + myself, with life histories recorded for many of these birds, shedding light on their movements, social + nesting behaviour, longevity etc. Our young birds often travel quite widely in their first few years, but of 5,000 chicks ringed over 25 years in mid + North Wales, and with 30,000 individual sightings, only nine of these birds have been recorded further than 100 km from their nest of origin. So yours is an amazing record – we’ve never had a Glamorgan record before, even from Ceredigion – the southernmost county of our project area, and only a few records in Pembs and one in Carmarthenshire.

 

Went over to try and find a Chough for my year list follow the few postings here this week. There were at least 3 together to the east of the lifeguard building and one to the west. In the group of 3, one was ringed (9U  – or could have been n6 if you stand on your head!). I’ve posted some shots on my web site at

http://andyburnsphotography.zenfolio.com/raptors/h1a57e502#h1a57e502

Pretty awfull weather though today…..but nothing of interest being blown into shore in the 30 mins I spent looking out to sea.

I will email Adrienne with the ring details (thanks Owain!)

Goldfinch feeding on teasel today.