A nice variety of wildfowl present this afternoon, highlights being the Ring-necked Duck, Lesser Scaup (from the Ice Arena), 30+ Tufted Duck, 3 Teal, 1 Shoveler, 1 Pochard, 1 Goosander, 10+ Mallard plus large numbers of Coot, Canada Goose and Black-headed Gull. (GJJ)

A single Swallow over the Taff by Hamadryad  pond.

An hour or so before dusk: great views of 1 ringtail hen harrier, 1 distant short-eared owl, 10+ little egret going to roost, 1 kestrel hovering over-head and a good sized starling murmuration. One green woodpecker also heard in trees behind.

Chiffchaff in garden (present daily this last ten days).

At a wild guessimate, c.4,500 Starlings went up in CBWR at about 07:00. Also there were Rn Duck, Lsr Scaup, m.Shoveler, Pochard, Kingfisher. By the barrage, a Goldeneye and a Curlew, a Perregrine was over Penarth Head. The hybrid Tufted Duck, recalling Lsr Scaup, was by Hamadryad Park with a m. Kingfisher in the pond.

A Firecrest in pines by the walled garden this morning.

Firecrest, 14 goldcrest, chiffchaff this morning.

Just had a call from John Wilson who is on his way to Cosmeston now (4pm 23rd Oct)

Here are some rather nice flight shots of the Short Eared Owl from this morning with Lol Middleton and Ceri Jones.

http://andyburnsphotography.zenfolio.com/raptors/h5e20ab85#h5e20ab85

Andy

Managed to catch up with the Short-eared Owl this morning – roosting at the base of a Hawthorn hedge at the top of the big stubble field. Also male Stonechat, 30 Skylark, 2 Kestrel, Peregrine, 3 chiff-chaff and at least 30 swallows

pretty quiet this morning. Highlights were 2 Swallows heading west, and 2 very active Green ‘Peckers, and a Lesser B-b Gull 1st yr with blue darvic left leg with characters in white F.281 which I think is a Flat Holm bird.

Apologies for non-sighting post, but I thought some may be interested in attending the free Gwent-Glamorgan Recorders’ Forum in Cardiff on Saturday 21st Nov. The programme includes Dr Rob Thomas speaking on long-term monitoring projects in the world of birdwatching.

More details, including full programme & booking info, is available on the SEWBReC website here: http://www.sewbrec.org.uk/event/events-calendar/gwent-glamorgan-recorders-forum.page.

PS. Heard redwing over Canton earlier in the week 🙂

Jack snipe ringed this morning (photo by Charlie Sargent below of bird squatting on release).  30-40 common snipe present.

20 redwing also ringed there.  Crest numbers lower than a week or so ago, but 11 goldcrest caught and ringed, taking the total to almost 120 individuals in the past two weeks.

Lesser redpoll present in small numbers (groups of 1-3) around the marsh, and small flocks of siskin also around.

More photos and information: http://gowerbirdringinggroup.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/oxwich-marsh-16-20-october-early-winter.html

Athough we’ve got Nyger seed feeders in our garden (Llansamlet) regularly attended by Goldfinches, I have just watched a Goldfinch feeding on a peanut feeder for about 15 minutes, which I thought was a bit unusual?

i was just out my back garden and i heard a flock of geese flying towards resolven way so i grabbed my binoculars because they were quite high and i noticed they weren’t the usual geese i see flying these ones were qyuite particular!

the underbelly was white and they had black tips on the end of their wings and whilst i kept watching them they decided to take a sharp U turn and head towards Cimla / east brecon way and i caught a glimps and their bodies where completely white and only the wing tips were black ! there were about a dozen of them i seen them flying around 4:30 i dont know if anybody else have seen these but im almost sure they were Snow Geese! is this a common occurrence in wales?

Great Spotted Woodpecker over and fem Goldeneye with group of Tufted Duck close in to barrage.

Record shot of the Goldeneye this morning.

Also had one of the Tufted Duck hybrids in with the flock of Tufted Duck below the Taff bridge a bit later. Photo below for the record.

Lsr Scaup back on the reserve.Also pair of Shoveler, 2 Wigeon, Pochard, Teal, Kingfisher, Stonechat (3/4). With Dean Tabor.

no sight or sound of YBW at recently reported location but 4 Chiffchaff and a male Blackcap there [mid-late afternoon].

delayed WeBS: highlights – 1000 Redshank, 100 Dunlin, 220 Shelduck. 40 Pintail, 7 Shoveler, 7 Teal, male Stonechat, 3 ad GBB Gulls. At the Heliport, 10 Turnstone, 2 Curlew, 7 Oyc,  24 Shelduck.

3 avocet reported there this morning per Neil Donaghy. Prob still on the reserve in slacks or saltmarsh.