This morning at Cosmeston a Sparrowhawk putting up Meadow Pipits and Goldfinch in the West Paddock, Water Rail calling from the West Lake reedbed, 2 Wigeon on the West Lake, 2 Shoveler on the East lake, and a Cetti’s Warbler calling from the cafe reedbed. At Sully Island this afternoon 5 Stonechat, 1 Wheatear, 25 Greenfinch, 4 Curlew, 9 Ringed Plover and 7 Dunlin.

Jack Snipe in flight in the reserve from the boardwalk at 09:00. At least 4 Stonechat this evening. Yesterday am a Little Egret flew in again but remained out of sight for most of the day.

Managed to get out for an hour – Swallow numbers well down – estimated about 100 and only ONE House Martin – A Firecrest was in the travelling party of long-tailed tits and a male Yellowhammer on the wires both seen from my usual spot. Kestrel, Buzzard, Skylark (10), Mistle Thrush (8), Great Spotted Woodpecker and Green Woodpecker made it all interesting.

I got a speculative shot of a bird in the bush where I saw the Firecrest – but can’t even be sure if this was the same bird 🙂

Hobby showing well at knnr south pool

Nowhere near the same amount of birds today as yesterday. It was cooler and the wind was a NE with thicker mist & sea fog. More thrushes today with a few Mistle Thrush & Blackbirds in the bushes. A Stock Dove, Kestrel and probably 200 mipits & swallows. On the reserve a common whitethroat & chiffchaff plus a large mixed flock of tits. Otherwise pretty quiet. The highlight was Matt Meehan, a rare passage migrant at the Point these days!

Roath: Whilst emptying the moth trap this am, 11 Crossbills f/o >NE

I’ve always hoped of finding a Wryneck in Gower, imagining the best place to look would be along the coast path towards Rhossili. So a chance encounter at 16:20 today on the east end of Cefn Bryn whilst looking for mosses was totally unexpected. The bird showed really well for the 5 mins or so I was there at SS52618889. Park just before the fork in the track and the bushes where the bird was showing are those in the fork of the V.

PS. There are some nice patches of Ciliated Fringewort which are worth looking out for too 😉

Nice selection of raptors seen by Graham this morning, highlight being the site’s first Hen Harrier (ringtail) of the season. Others – 2 Red Kites, several Buzzards, Sparrowhawk, Peregrine and Kestrel. Also, a single Redpoll.

Passage migration was in full evidence this am (09.00-11.30) with thousands of birds flying east in the mist/fog. Swallow (2000), Meadow Pipit (1000), Chaffinch (1000), Sky Lark (61), Goldfinch (150), Linnet (90 – JDW had over 1000 just inland), Pied Wagtail (13), Grey Wagtail (4), Siskin (10), Redpoll (2), Crossbill (4), Coal Tit (6), House Martin (2), GS pecker (1), Nuthatch (1, flying out to sea with mipits – very strange!). In the bushes: Chiffchaff (16), Blue Tit (40+), Robin (20+), Collared Dove (3), LT Tit (20) & Greenfinch (10). A really good autumn day’s birding. Although our good weather is now behind us, which reminds me of Kipling’s poem – Over then, come over, for the bee has quit the clover, And your English summer’s done. You get more for your money with the GBC!

Vis mig also at Lavernock although I was a little late arriving so didn’t do a count. However many Meadow Pipits were flying over together with Chaffinch and Swallow. David Gilmore was already there so no doubt he will put up some totals. In two stubble fields adjacent to the Lavernock reserve entrance and behind the house along the road, there was a total of around 1000 Linnet. No birds in the stubble at Rowlands Well fields tho’. Also at Lav. Pt, Sparrowhawk, Kestrel, 20 Goldfinch and a few Skylark and also a few Chiffchaff by the church.

A Ring Ouzel was in gorse at Ogmore-by-Sea SS 868 744 at 11am.

Busy earlier at Dunraven with Merlin, Spotted Flycatcher, Whitethroat, 2 Wheatears, 20 Blackcaps, 35 Chiffchaffs, 15 Coal Tits and a fair bit of visible migration, including 60 Crossbills.

Another good morning of vis mig east over the Bay and Barrage. Watch from 07:15-11:15 produced the following counts:
Swallow (a mere) 1500
Goldfinch 700
Linnet 330
Meadow Pipit 270
Pied/White Wagtail 125
Siskin 87
Crossbill 9
Chaffinch 8
Skylark 6
Yellow Wagtail 2
Black-tailed Godwit 4 flew east roughly over Mermaid Quay at 10:05 (difficult to tell as I was watching them from the barrage but they passed in front of the Pierhead then Atradius). I thought there was a 5th godwit-sized bird without wing bars with them but couldn’t see any sign of it in the record shots I grabbed as they flew off.

Highlights this morning: 2 Red Kites over the edge of Cogan Wood by the dragonfly pond, then drifted off S. Also 1 Buzzard there, and a fly-over G S Woodpecker. There appeared to have been a small ‘fall’ of Meadow Pipits with around 40 in total, most of which were in the large field behind the play park, with about 20 Goldfinch. Green ‘Pecker vocal there too. 2 Little Grebe on W lake and a few Swallows going over.

The cafe is closed now until Monday, for refurbishment before new management takes over.

This morning 2 reed warbler, 2 sedge warbler and a whitethroat

Chiffchaff and goldcrest now more common around the marsh

Redpolls (8+) in with the siskins and more abundant goldfinches and greenfinches

A record shot of Neil’s fantastic cattle egret with sheep this afternoon. Many thanks to the hard working foot soldiers who tracked the bird down out on the dunes.

It was a step too far for my mediocre photography skills but here are some attempts at pictures of one of the two hobbies that spent much of the day hunting dragonflies on the west side of Kenfig Pool.

Another interesting morning. Three Red Kites turned up at 11am and hung around for a while.

About an hour later as I was driving through Sully I saw two over the road – presumably the same birds.

An adult Cattle Egret flew in from the south east and landed in East Pool Marsh at Kenfig Pool at 09.30. The bird was settled until flushed by 4 Moorhens that dashed out of the reeds on to the stony area where it was resting. It flew off high north west but circled and landed somewhere out of sight behind the north pool hide. The juvenile Hobby as still present on the posts in the East Pool Fields and a Dunlin and 4 Lapwings went over. 22 Blackcaps, 9 Chiffchaffs, 8 Song Thrushes, a Willow Warbler and 3 Goldcrests were of note in the bushes and 13 Teal, 4 Wigeon, 2 Shoveler, 2 Gadwall and the long staying female Pintail were on the pool. Very little visible migration noted other than 16 Pied Wagtails, 112 Swallows and 22 Meadow Pipits.

A great morning of vis mig with a 4 hour watch between 07:35-11:35 producing counts of:
Swallow c.8,000
Goldfinch 776
House Martin c.400
Meadow Pipit 330
Linnet 266
Pied/White Wagtail 194
Siskin 117
Sand Martin 30
Crossbill 15
Chaffinch 11
Skylark 4
Reed Bunting 2
Tree Pipit 1
Yellow Wagtail 1
Undoubted highlights of the day for me though were a Hobby and a male Ring Ouzel.

There was also what was very likely a Nuthatch east too but it was a way offshore and just a silhouette so no more than a probable.

Broadly similar numbers of birds in the two hours following sunrise as yesterday, but even more Crossbills today, with a remarkable 290 through. I can’t ever recall these sorts of numbers on passage in Glamorgan.

Plenty of wildfowl around at the moment, including 10 teal and 9 shoveller on Roath Park Lake, another 2 shoveller on Lisvane Reservoir along with 150 Canada geese, and a red-creasted pochard in the area too.

Juvenile hobby on a post at the ‘boathouse’. After doing a couple of widths of the pool it was chased off by a kestrel.