I’ll be presenting the Gower Bird Quiz at Swansea Env Centre tonight at 7:30 – friendly questions suitable for all levels of experience. All welcome. £1 entry

    Alba Wagtail Roath Park lake 20th January 2016. Alba yarrellii or Alba alba what’s your 10p on? I think despite the Aa appearance it is probably yarrellii as the mantle has faint markings but, I would not bet too much on it!

The Bittern showed briefly again behind the gull posts in W lake bay late afternoon and there was a reasonably good murmuration of starlings. Eartlier in the day, Poppy the dog flushed 5 Common Snipe and what I’sure were 2 Jack Snipe from the wet, at the time partially frozen puddles at the far end of W paddock by the corner of the fenced in paddock. The Jacks were ID’d solely on mode of flushing – quick, low silent and straight into cover again. There were 2 small flocks of Siskin, 1 by the Med Village boardwalk and the other by the sluice on the other side of E lake, both in Alders. Few pix below. Got a record shot of the Bittern but not as good as Lol’s.

Pluck Lake: 13 Tufted Ducks and a Mute Swan.

Half Round Pond: 2 Cormorants, 1 Grey Heron, 3 Tufted Ducks, 1 male Goosander.

Bittern showed well for a few minutes at 12:35 – also 5 Wigeon, 6 Teal and 3 Snipe in addition to earlier sightings, Chiff Chaff still hanging around the concrete path close to the Med Village entrance.

2 Black Redstarts again (1 male and 1 fem/imm) in Penarth Marina.6 Common Gulls near the orange buoys.Cettis and simgimg Coal Tit showed well.

Quick visit this morning produced 10 siskin feeding on alder tree just off boardwalk near to feeding tables. Also, 19 pochard (17m 2f – ratio for BTO survey purposes), 2 gadwall, 1 little grebe, 2 gc grebe (displaying), 1 fieldfare, 1 redwing, 4 bullfinch, 2 green peckers. In Cogan wood, large numbers of tits around the dragon tree and another feeding location included 2 nuthatch (one very tame) and 2 marsh tits (unless it was the same bird seen at the two diff locations).

A couple of hours in the sunshine at Nelson Wern on Wednesday morning yielded great views of plenty of birds including Green Woodpecker, Nuthatch, Coal Tit, Jay, Bullfinches and Raven. Sadly though no Willow Tit, the second time recently I have drawn a blank here.

Better luck later towards the northern end of Llwyn On reservoir with a Willow Tit in roadside shrubs on the narrow road on the west side of the reservoir. The bird called as it flew over the road from the reservoir side trees and settled in view. Grid reference approxiamtely SO005126, where there is a small off road muddy ‘layby’ on the west side and an opening to the reservoir grounds on the east side. It flew off in the general direction of the Garwnant visitor centre.

On the reservoir at the north end a female Goosander and 3 Little Grebe. At the south end a Grey Wagtail foraging in the shallowest water on the outflow, a Grey Heron below the dam and a Dipper also below the dam flying out from one of the manmade openings in the riverside wall and heading off downstream.

Great views of a hunting Kestrel in the sunshine in the northern clearfell at Garwnant, but no luck with the Great Grey Shrike. Quiet here birdwise – there is treefelling ongoing in part of the visitor centre car park.

Despite recent sightings of up to 8 Great Northern Divers, I couldn’t find one today. However, the male Snow Bunting was showing well and a Purple Sandpiper was a pleasant surprise. Counts at the point included 125 Turnstone, 2572 Oystercatcher, 313 shelduck, 27 Eider, 4 Pale-bellied & 324 Dark-bellied Brents. There were a further 2 Pale-bellied & 490 Dark-bellied Brents at Pwll-y-Froga.

No sign of the Lesser Scaup this morning on either lake [post below explains why!!]. W lake had 3 Shoveler that I could see [1m 2f] although 8 I think had been seen yesterday. Also 3 Gadwall on W lake, and 18 drake Pochard and just 2 females. Also 3 Little Grebe, 2 GC Grebe, 1 Common Gull and many Tufties although I didn’t count them. Also 1 Goldcrest up the central path and Lol Middleton had seen a Chiffchaff near the Medieval Village.

The Lesser Scaup was back on the reserve today, viewed distantly from the boardwalk.

Three Goosander (one drake) on River Ely this morning.

At Pwll-y-waun pool a pair of Shoveler were present and across the road at Manor farm, 4 Curlew 30 Black-headed Gull and a large mixed flock of 300 + Carrion Crow / Rook / Jackdaw. It was pretty quiet at Salt lake car park 30 Black-headed Gull and Porthcawl Point – just 1 Oystercatcher, but the rocks at Hutchwns Point just south of Lock’s Common at high tide was more productive yielding a Shag, 2 Oystercatcher, 4 Purple Sandpiper, 2 Grey Plover, 5 Turnstone, 26 Herring Gull and an adult winter Mediterranean Gull.

9 purple sandpiper, 32 turnstone, ringed plover (no accurate count), 32 oystercatcher, 5 curlew, little egret, 4 shag and a Med gull on Sedger’s Bank

Chiffchaff in with a mixed tit and goldcrest flock at Overton STW.  Small roost of oystercatcher (12) and a little egret on the rocks.

2 Snow Buntings were still present at Whiteford, more towards the lighthouse than previously seen (SS444956). We also had 8+ Great Northern Divers (3 on the north shore and 5+ on the south shore) and 2 Slavonian Grebes. Also of note: 2 Jack Snipe on the walk out to the Point.  We had a good selection of other waders and wildfowl and, later, at Llanrhidian we had Great White Egret, 2 ringtail Hen Harriers, 3 Short-eared Owls and a female Merlin on a post. (DJJ/GJJ/RSPB Cymru staff).

Male and female Goosander on River Ely this morning.

High tide at Aberthaw produced 1 Arctic Skua (which I thought could be a Pom, but thanks to Mark Hipkin for ID help), 15 Golden Plover, 27 Brent Geese, 40+ Wigeon on the sea, ringed plover as well as the usual oystercatchers and turnstones. The snipe areas on the islands on the pool are now under water but I did manage to find a couple of birds hiding away on the reed edges.

Many thanks to Strinda Davies for leading this morning’s GBC walk at Kenfig. On a cold, crisp morning there were 20 participants and we saw or heard 40 species in total including Scaup, Goldeneye, Gadwall, Pochard and Teal.

The full species list follows:
Scaup, Goldeneye, Gadwall, Pochard, Teal, Mallard, Canada Goose, Mute Swan, Great Crested Grebe, Grey Heron, Moorhen, Coot, Snipe, Common Gull, Black-headed Gull, Herring Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Cormorant, Collared Dove, Woodpigeon, Starling, Mistle Thrush, Song Thrush, Blackbird, Robin, Wren, Dunnock, Magpie, Carrion Crow, Raven, Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Coal Tit, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Goldcrest, Pied Wagtail, Buzzard, Skylark, House Sparrow.

Great northern diver foraging off the point
2 chiffchaff in the reedbed
6 little egret in the roost
Details on the ringing session here: http://gowerbirdringinggroup.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/oxwich-marsh-16-january-2016-couple-of.html

Canada Goose(28),Mute Swan(3),Coot(5),Moorhen(3),Bullfinch(3, 1 male),Grey Heron(1),Common Snipe(4),Goosander(2, 1male), Little Grebe(1),Mallard(7),Black-Headed Gull(15),Blackbird(12),Song Thrush(5),Mistle Thrush(2),Redwing(4),Greenwoodpecker(1)