Blaenhondon 4 red kites 2 sparrow Hawks 1 kestrel 3 Ravens 10 carrion crows and 28 mallards

Crumlyn burrows good count of oyster catchers an estimate about 800 with more joining them from Swansea bay as I was leaving tide was a bit distant about 40 sanderling 20 curlew 30 ringed plover 4 dunlin large numbers of gulls of the usuall species

3 Wheatear on the barrage this morning and a GBB Gull on the water just off the rocks. Yesterday 3 Stonechat were on the reserve.On Wednesday thousands of Swallows streamed across the bay heading east.

News from James Vafidis of a female eider at Blackpill.

News from me of a crossbill over Lisvane.

No sign of the black terns at Lisvane yesterday lunchtime.

Red-throated diver and grey plover at high tide this morning. Three whinchats were at Pink Bay pond and about 20 wheatear were about on the farm and point.

The 2 black terns remained on Lisvane Res until dusk. Also 1 wheatear, 1 white wagtail and 2 noctule-sized bats around the reservoirs.

Roath Park Lake now has 5 shovellers, and 14 teal. The recent wigeon seems to have moved on.

43 redshank in the tidal dock , 95 black h gulls in the paper factory field a further 250+ in the river and Crumlyn burrows side also 28 curlew 5 heron 4  little egrets  4 wheatears at baglan bay a few linnets and swallows over a common sandpiper and 11 mallards and stonechat

Goshawk just flew over  heading NW ‘accompanied’ briefly by 2 Common buzzard-Goshawk a garden tick!

juv\ 1st winter grey phalarope on Broad pool caused an emergency stop in the car. could see a small bird on the pool and bingo! driven past the pool on enough occasions after a storm hoping for something to plop down there.

There was cracking numbers of spotted flycatcher around Port Eynon, with 3 toward the point,

3 blackcap and a Dartford warbler.

overton valley had 8 spotted flycatcher, 6 blackcap , 5 chiffchaff, approx 30 pied\white wagtail of which 4 seemed def. white.

At both sites a good presence of more “common” species like robin,dunnock,blackbird,blue and great tri

Quick visit this afternoon 1 juv spotted flycatcher 2 chiff chaff 2 long t tits 3 blue tits 4 goldfinch 3 chaffinch 2 mute swan 1 coot 4 magpies and a green woodpecker

Seawatch this morning: Storm Petrel, Red-throated Diver, Manx Sheawater [3], Common Scoter [9], Fulmar, Kittiwake.

Best day of the autumn so far… At Sker the wader roost held 1 Ruff, 2 Grey Plovers, 2 Bar-tailed Godwits, 3 Sanderlings, 23 Curlews and 293 Oystercatchers, while 9 Kittiwakes were offshore and a Peregrine was constantly patrolling the beach.

Kenfig Pool had two Black Terns until 10.15 at least, 11 Knot flew over going west, while a female Pintail, 2 Wigeon, 4 Teal, 6 Gadwall, 1 Dunlin, 1 ad winter Mediterranean Gull, 1 Wheatear, 2 Garden Warblers and a Lesser Whitethroat, 3 Kingfishers, 50 Swallows & 3 Great Spotted Woodpeckers were also present.

Graham just phoned me to say he saw a juv. Black Tern over north lake (adjacent to Nantgarw Rd) at 10am. Bird still present when he departed at 10.20am.

2 juv Little Stints were on the sands with approx 50 each of Dunlin and Ringed plover. These could have wandered over from the Llanelli side as a couple have been around not too long ago.
A pristine juv. Marsh Harrier was over the salt marsh drifting off toward the point. Again, quite possibly a wanderer from up Llanrhidian. A couple of tree pipits and approx 20 each of skylark and meadow pipit were on the move.

Today: spotted flycatcher

Yesterday: goshawk (2), red kite, whinchat, grasshopper warbler.

The BTO’s Welsh Ringing Course was held at Oxwich (and WWT Llanelli) over the weekend.  More info available about the species caught here:  http://gowerbirdringinggroup.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/the-welsh-ringing-course-11-14.html

2 more alba wagtails.. I’m amazed that so many are appearing on Gower at the moment

Penclawdd pill

135 redshank and the usual gulls

fenrod lake 30 mute swan 140+ herring gulls 80+ black headed gulls usuall mallards coots and a few common gulls.

Wernfrydd a mobile flock of about 300 starlings a few pied wagtails 2 wheatears lots of swallows about                                  Swansea vale a flock of 52 wood pigeons over                                                                                                                     Brunel tidal dock 32 redshank and 2 common sandpipers

A quite vocal willow tit was along the track from Grovesend to Gorseinon this afternoon which was great to see. My last local record was 2012 so, I’d assumed they might have disappeared locally. Goes to show how easy they are to miss unless calling.
Gower over the last few days… Few long distance migrants ( apart from hirundines) 2 yellow wag at Rhosili, 1 whinchat and 4 wheatear at Loughor bridge .

A Spotted Flycatcher in the trees immediately to the east of the Harbour Authority compound at 09:00 was a bit of a surprise, otherwise the bay seemed quiet.

Hi all,

It’s that time again. I’m putting the next GBC newsletter together and am in need of some photographs. Please get in touch if you’ve got anything suitable (ideally taken in East Glamorgan).