Puffins

A morning visit very productive a family party of Redstarts male female and three young plus another male,Tree Pipit Stock Dove Red Kite Buzzard and lots of common Spotted Orchids

A few birds from recent days. The Tawny Owlet has been around for a while and has been rather too confiding, but now seems to be more mobile and is not so obvious. Jays are usually pretty hard to come by in mid summer. The adult Great Black-backed Gull was also a fairly unusual visitor at this time of year. The Whitethroat was being very active by the dipping pond and in the couple of shots I managed to grab it looks like it’s carrying food, so must have a nest there.

Asda Tower – Poole

With my skill of point and shot

Add RSPB Radipole

Great walk and especial hear the spinning Coin twice (Wood Warbler)

We had a successful and enjoyable walk at Pontneddfechan this morning, with 15 participants, in initially chilly conditions until the high cloud burned off. We didn’t expect a huge list but 26 species wasn’t too shabby. Gold star goes to Alastair Flannagan who first spotted the two flycatchers – A Spotted and a very brief female Pied. In the end we definitely saw 2 Spotted Flycatchers. Dippers and Grey Wagtails amounted to approx 6 of each. Those with decent hearing, heard a few Wood Warblers. We also saw an active Great Spotted Woodpecker nest and a Mistle Thrush nest with 2 chicks being fed. The latter provided a sad note as immediately following a visit by an adult, one of the chicks fell out of the nest, which was quite high up in a tree, and fell into the river. It managed to struggle out and ended up on some rocks by the rivers edge, way below the nest. We thought its chances of survival were probably fairly low unless the ads could find it.

An unexpected sighting was a female Goosander resting on a mid-stream rock – she eventually flew off downstream. Link to the list is here – it’ll be updated if I’ve missed anything.

Had a brief walk at Cosmeston this morning after a long tiring weekend away in Portsmouth. A Cormorant was looking rather regal drying its wings by E lake, and there were 2 Blackcaps actively foraging behind the dipping pond, so I suspect they have a nest with young nearby.

Also seem drinking the sap

no Goshawk today

This trip had 14 participants and was led by club member Ceri Jones [many thanks Ceri]
It comprised a linear walk from Castell Nos car park to the miners’ memorial at Maerdy. Forestry tracks to Castell Nos and Tarren y Bwllfa, before crossing moorland to the Rhondda Fach at Pont Lluest-wen. It then followed the river downstream along a mostly surfaced track to Maerdy.
Highlights of the 47 species seen, as suppliued by Ceri were: Whinchat (1 seen – found by Barrie Gardiner), Cuckoo (2 seen at same time, quite possibly more there as heard numerous times – but hard to be certain as they are mobile up there), Wheatear (1 seen), Spotted Flycatcher (1 seen well by everyone – it was flycatching over the Rhondda Fach – found by John Western), Crossbill (heard only), Garden Warbler (heard and seen – found by Barrie) and Raven (scope views of young in nest).
Click here for the list.

I visit Westhay moors on grey skies afternoon, long distance shots and the pair was really fast and big luck more then skill plus i was also told 8 more at Ham Wall – maybe feeding on bee’s instead of dragonfly’s

Interesting sight this morning [at least I thought so anyway]. House Martins and a couple of Sand Martins, landing on the verge right by the road by Penarth Marina/R. Ely mouth, collecting dry bits of grass. Obv for nest material but [a] one usually sees HM collecting mud [of which there isn’t any atm] and [b] the Sand Martins were a long way from their nest site on the other side of the bay, where I did get a pic of one collecting grass the other day.

There was 1 Rock Pipit by the R. Ely embanment there. Sadly no sign of any Swifts altho’ it’s early days.

We had a successful sunny trip to Penderyn this morning with 16 participants, led by Ceri Jones [many thanks Ceri]. We walked part of the old mineral line and then basically did a circuit of Moel Penderyn. We did well, with 45 species [link to list below], highlights being singing male Redstarts, Cuckoo, Tree Pipits, Stonechats, Willow Warblers galore, a Grasshopper Warbler heard [not by me!] but not seen – well picked up by Julia Banks. Birds all distant for photos but some heavily cropped record pix below. Photos captioned individually. {Edit – I forgot to link to the trip list. Click here now to see it.

During this morning’s circuit:
Around the dipping pond: A Common Whitethroat sang a few times and did a brief song flight, and Blackcap and Cetti’s Warblers were singing.
Upper Dovecote field and the plantation: 2-3 Common Whitethroats singing incl another song flight in the big island of scrub on the slope; Lesser Whitethroat singing in dense scrub on the far side of the plantation by the new fence.
Sully Brook: 2-3 Reed Warblers singing, and Cetti’s, and a v brief snatch of Sedge Warbler song. [confirmed by Merlin].
The stiff chilly breeze was keeping birds hidden.