Don’t forget it’s the GBC AGM tomorrow, Tues 26th. PLease come along and support your club.

7 White Wagtails on the outer rocks, a Whimbrel fly over and 10 Swift with 40 Swallows and 10 House Martins over the Bay.

Grangemoor Park (on opposite side of the river), one singing. Another on the Ely Trail towards Leckwith.

A Swift over the Taff near the A48 road bridge this morning. Also, further downstream, a *possible* Wood Warbler singing at ST171778 (I was rushing through on my bike to catch a train and couldn’t stop to confirm).

Whinchat in main reedbed in front of St Davids Hotel by the gravel path.

A cold northerly wind today but gloriously sunny as we performed a 3 mile circuit. Plenty going on, 4 male Wheatear, 6+ Whitethroat and a Lesser Whitethroat at the Burrows between Broughton and Llangennith Burrows where we heard singing Sedge and Cetti’s Warblers. Nothing much on the beach at falling tide, but Burry Holms held 2 Whimbrel as well as resident Rock Pipit and a mainly immature gang of 300+ Herring Gull which were spooked by a scavenging Red Kite, another for my burgeoning BH raptor list! Two pairs of Fulmar performed admirably above Spaniard’s Rocks and we ran into the Red Kite again back at Broughton Bay. Later on as we left the caravan park a few Sand Martin and Swallow trickled through.

Highlights from this morning’s visit to my BTO BBS square at Blackmill: Wood Warbler (3+); Pied Fly (1); Redstart (3+) and plenty of Willow Warblers.

Yesterday (Saturday 23rd), there was a singing Lesser Whitethroat at Radyr Floodplain and my father saw a female Pied Flycatcher in the line of trees along the disused railway line at Coryton.  (Gethin JJ).

Took a long walk in the hills above Swansea.Nice mix of residents and migrants.Red Kite(4),Raven(2),Buzzard(6),Skylark(25),Meadow Pipit(43),Stonechat(2),Wheatear(2),Linnet(46),Goldfinch(16),Willow Warbler(8),Chiffchaff(6),Blackcap(2),Reed Bunting(2),Cuckoo(2 calling) and a nice surprise of Lapwing(2 pairs)

Very quiet on the migrant front this morning, but a pair of Red-legged Partridges was still around.

Apart from a Lesser Whitethroat singing and showing well, about 50m up from the sea watching shelter, on the right, and a few Blackcap, and a Green ‘Pecker, it was incredibly quiet. I walked thro’ the reserve and down to Swanbridge and back and at times it was uncannily silent with no birdsong at all. Where are they all? Is it still too cold?

At least three reeling grasshopper warblers, a lesser whitethroat and small numbers of sedge warbler present this morning.

Photo of a gropper captured during the ringing session is below (credit Keith Vaughton).

For a summary of the ringing session and further photos see: http://gowerbirdringinggroup.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/oxwich-marsh-23-april-2016.html

A very enjoyable walk doing both transects from Merthyr Mawr Village, adjacent farms up to Broadlands and back down New Inn Road to the ‘dipping bridge’ at Newbridge Farm fields. I logged 39 species which appears to have exceeded all previous survey counts by some margin. The highlights were 2 Whitethroats plus Sparrowhawk, Buzzard, Raven, 2 pairs of Dipper, a few pairs of Pied and Grey Wagtails and plenty of commoner woodland species and farmland finches. As I left the square to return home through Newbridge fields, as well as 2 pairs of Dipper actively returning to nest sites, I was delighted to find a Common Sandpiper feeding quietly along the bank of the Ogmore in amongst all the rubbish there- a new species for me on my adjacent home square SS8979.

Non-singing Lsr Whitethroat along the boardwalk.
Lsr Scaup still present.
Several House Martins over Penarth Marina.

The Broad-billed Sand is reported as still present this morning.

News just rec’d @ 18:53 – Broad-billed Sandpiper at Goldcliff lagoons now, from first hide.

The run of Yellow Wagtails continues with a fourth bird this morning – another lovely bright male.

A sandwich tern flew up channel and a distant fulmar flew down channel this morning providing 4 much needed patchwork points. An immature shag was still present on the rocks. Earlier Dean Bolt counted 6 summer plumaged grey plovers, 15 whimbrels and several dunlins.

A Razorbill was an unexpected PWC bonus in ultra-calm conditions this evening, the downside being the swarms of biting midge. Linnet and Greenfinch were also patch additions for the year, more a reflection of how much effort I’ve put in than scarcity. 3 D-b Brent were still present along with 14 Grey Plover, 11 Whimbrel, but no hoped-for early terns / skuas.