2 Little Egrets feeding  at floodwater on field for thirty minutes. One Whitethroat singing.

That should be river afan

Female mandarian  under the steel bridge in the river Avon

Red Kite over the garden in Caerphilly this evening; first record for me in over 19 years of living here.

Late visit to this square for BTO BBS. 48 species were recorded today taking the total to 54 species for both early and late visits – the best recorded for this square according to BTO database. The highlight for me was 6 Stock Dove in two different localities with 2 displaying males, plus a healthy Sand Martin colony of 20+ nestholes. There were also plenty of feeding House Martin between Ewenny and Verville. Watermill (Ogmore est) was quiet with only 5 Canada Geese, a Mallard and a Moorhen though nearby along the Ewenny were singing Dipper, 3 Sedge Warbler, 2 Whitethroat and a Lesser Whitethroat holding territories. Also noted were singing Goldcrests, Coal Tits and Treecreeper and Kingfisher and Grey Wagtail observed on the Ogmore near Merthyr Mawr. Notable absentees for me were Bullfinch and Green Woodpecker.

1 pair Great Crested Grebe performing elements of courtship display about fifty metres offshore, Monday 23rd May, am

Singing whitethroats, blackcaps and chiffchaffs. A kingfisher up and down the river.

Lesser Whitethroat singing; Little Owl on roadside–possibly injured.

Caerau, Skylark singing as usual.

Despite the rain, there were 9 participants on the Saturday morning monthly walk today. Thankfully the weather quickly cleared, enabling us to identify 38 species which included 2 heard-  cetties and sedge warbler-. Highlights were jay, lesser whitethroat, coot wth one chick, and greylag with two goslings. Lots of birdsong and spring flowers made a special show. Many thanks to Strinda Davies.

still good numbers  out at Whiteford:

145 Dunlin, 140 ringed plover counted. An est 500+ calidrid flock out by the lighthouse. Too spooked to get close enough for a good look. This was y’day.

today at Weobley, 405 Dunlin, 95 ringed plover, peregrine and 1 sanderling

would liked to have checked through the large flock out by the lighthouse

I joined MH and GL at 0620 for a seawatch and noted the following 0620-0900:- 3 Gannet d/c, 3+ Fulmar d/c, 70 Manx Shearwater d/c, 6+ Storm Petrel lingering offshore, 1 Cormorant d/c, 1 Shag on sea, 25 Dunlin and 1 Harbour Porpoise. The Storm Petrels were seen the whole time flying up and down sometimes a few hundred yards offshore at high tide – at least 2 were still present when I left.

The Gull-billed Tern was seen by Christopher Onn on the north side of the bridge on the morning high tide, but it relocated to the south side as soon as the tide started to drop as was present pretty much all day it seems, though there was no sign of it on the evening high tide in the rain. Well done to the Spoonbill spotters (Darren & Terry I believe) – I was chuffed to catch up with them at lunch time. Other bits and bobs I saw during my am and pm visit were 100 Oystercatchers, 79 Black-tailed Godwit, 1 Bar-tailed Godwit, 13 Sanderling, 12 Dunlin, 1 Curlew, 8 Whimbrel, 1 Med Gull & 250 Black-headed Gulls.

Two great northern divers flew down channel just after 9am. Otherwise very quiet at Sker.

Somebody’s Harris Hawk has been spotted several times today in Wenvoe, in the general area of the garden centre.  Last seen causing mass panic amongst the birds in my back garden!  As hard as I tried, I couldn’t turn it into a Lammergier 🙂

Myself and Steve Howcroft watched the bird roughly from at least 1200h and it was still there 1230 when I left. It was sitting on a sandbank just upstream in the Lliw river at approximately SS566974.

2 singing Whitethroats Sanatorium Park and another over the river in Trelai Park. 4 Canada Geese on floodwater still not drained away from fields.

Leckwith Hill, 1 Cetti’s Warbler singing; another singing half a mile down river towards Penarth Road.

Dunnock bred and young flown in Canton garden.

A rather splendid Gull-billed Tern entertained Chris Brewer, Neil Edwards, Sandra & myself this evening. It was feeding with a scattered group of Black-headed Gulls and eventually headed off to Morfa Baccas (Carms) where we left it on the sandflats at 20:20hrs. There’s limited parking between the rail and road bridges on the east side of the Loughor, where you can pop through the tunnel under the rail bridge to view the mudflats.

Seawatch started in blustery southerly winds 0540-0850 when winds had eased and veered SW’erly (all birds down-channel unless stated):- 4 Storm Petrel (up-channel), 1 Gannet, 6 Manx Shearwater, 2 Fulmar, 2 Cormorant, 1 Shelduck, 4 Common Scoter, 1 Ringed Plover, 27 Dunlin, 13 Sanderling, 1 Common Tern, 1 Swallow. One of the Stormies lingered to about 0800 giving nice views a few hundred yards offshore.

 

1 pair bullfinch, singing blackcap 4, female 1, sedge warbler – pair seen with nesting material, whitethroat 2 male, reed bunting calling, long-tailed tit 2, great tit feeding nestlings, tufted duck 2, cormorant, green woodpecker, 3 heron, 2 canada goose. plus blackbird, song thrush, missel thrush, robin, wren, chaffinch, goldfinch