Two Scaup still in the middle of the bay from Dorset House/Prospect Place(per Julian Swan).

At high tide this morning 28 guillemots in twos and threes down channel with some landing nice and close. A red-throated diver landed over the mussel beds and a common scoter flew down channel.

Astonished to have just witnessed a sparrowhawk grab a starling from a tree in my garden…

Goldeneye fem just off the boardwalk.

nice flock of 30+ juvenile common scoter viewed in Swansea bay this morning

Red b Merganser found by Mathew Meehan showed well off Prospect Place but mobile 10:00.Still a single Scaup in the middle of the bay 11:15. An ad male Black Redstart in Penarth Marina in the three sided courtyard in the rear of Plas Taliesin. Still a fem Wheatear by the fish pass.

Only a trickle of movement over Canton/Leckwith this morning with just 760 ssw in fifteen minutes.

Grey Wagtail, Goldcrest, long tailed tit and coal tit obliged this morning. Heard Nuthatch and Greater spotted Woodpecker…. had a male black cap feeding in my garden in brynmill.

On Sully Island at high tide early this morning there were 119 Oystercatcher, 45 Ringed Plover, 12 Turnstone and 12 Curlew. Another 35 Turnstone were on Sully beach.

A Wheatear was on the outer rocks of Cardiff Bay Barrage, and 2 Common Gull were with the Black-headed Gulls near the Barrage lock gates.

Mid-morning walk at Kenfig began with a fiesty Chiffchaff chasing off Long Tailed, Blue and Great Tit from its favoured tree, where it was making aerial forays for insects. Then a female or imm. Blackcap was showing well feeding on Blackberries near the bird table below the Centre.

Had 2 second sighting from South Hide of a Bittern landing deep into reed bed on West of Pool just as I was describing them,  in comparison to a Grey Heron, to a first time visitor to the reserve.

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The usual autumn movement: c17,000 moving SSW over Canton/Leckwith in two hours with birds still moving after 10am.

I’m pleased to announce that we are now in possession of 320 copies of the 2015 Bird Report. 🙂 Those who came to last night’s talk were able to take theirs away with them [saving a little bit at least on the increasingly expensive postage]. Everyone else please be patient whilst the remainder are stuffed in envelopes and labelled, before my kind local postmaster works thro’ them to add postage labels.  PS Thanks to Alan Rosney for collecting them.

On the East Lake this morning 6 Teal, 4 Gadwall, 1 Shoveler and a drake Wigeon.

A search at the seafront area – no sign of yesterday’s reported Snow Bunting. Wilderness Pool held lots of Canada Geese and a few Greylag Geese, 1 Shoveler, 30 Black-headed Gull, 1 Kingfisher, 1 Chiffchaff, 1 Coal Tit, 4 Goldcrest and a Nuthatch. A quick check of the pool at Pwll-y-waun produced another Kingfisher among the usual common waterfowl and birds there.

Birds seen during an unsuccessful search for the American Wigeon at high tide on the Glamorgan side of the Burry (from Salthouse Point and Dalton’s Point) produced counts in this section of Shelduck 200, Dark-bellied Brent Goose 391, Wigeon 121,  Teal 30, Mallard 15, Pintail 440, Shoveler 53, Scaup 6 (the first I’ve seen in the estuary since May 2013), Red-breasted Merganser 6, Great Crested Grebe 21, Oystercatcher 1700 (a much lower number than usual!), Grey Plover 11, Knot 80, Dunlin 370, Black-tailed Godwit 594, Bar-tailed Godwit 118 (more than usual), Curlew 70, Greenshank 1, Redshank 402 & Carrion Crow 132.

100+ Winter Trushes flying South high over Pyle at 7.25am, mostly Fieldfare with   a good several of them calling.

Lavernock – a Short-eared Owl came in off the sea this morning – per Jeff Curtis.

Cosmeston – couldn’t connect with the YBW. Around 30-40 Redwing flying around over W paddock plus 2 Green Woodpeckers there, and 6 Long-t Tits plus a Chiffchaff and a Goldcrest in the hedge by the children’s play area.

The first ad.male Black Redstart this autumn around Plas Taliesin/Penarth Marina also with a fem/imm together. Another fem/imm in Roath Basin in the rear of the GloWorks on the wooden blocks. A Wheatear and a Stonechat on the barrage.

Yellow Browed Warbler still at Cosmeston at 10am. Just west of the Dipping pond as reported by Graham over the past few days. Lots of Goldcrests around.

A lot of goldcrests at the lower end of Pant Norton where it joins Pant Marie Flanders this afternoon. The count must have been well into double figures. They were with a mixture of tits. 7 redwing flew over.