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.

Just a heads up that the first GBC indoor meet of 2015 is Tues week Tues 6th Oct. I’ll be giving a presentation on a trip a few of us did to Sri Lanka in March 2014. It’s a cracker! Lots of endemics!

Four redwings flew over my garden early this morning.

The last few days has seen what may be the last reed warblers and willow warbler of the year, an influx of reed buntings and some meadow pipit passage

More info here: http://gowerbirdringinggroup.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/oxwich-march-23-26-september-2015.html

A vis mig watch this morning from 07:15 to 09:15 saw around 4000 birds coasting past east, most notably 163 Crossbills. Further totals were 1450 Swallows, 420 House Martins, 18 Skylarks, 90 Meadow Pipits, 46 Pied Wagtails, 2 Grey Wagtails, 370 Chaffinches, 430 Goldfinches, 420 Linnets, 470 Siskins and 3 Redpolls.

Visible migration today at Broughton between 0830 and 1100, dripping with birds. First bird of the day was a very purposeful Great White Egret heading straight through and down towards Hillend / Llangennith burrows – first Gower one I’ve ever seen outside the marshes of the Burry Inlet. A Grey Heron, Little Egret, 500 Oystercatcher and 23 Ringed Plover were on the beach, but the busiest areas were the fields of Broughton Farm and extensive gardens and scrub around Delvid Farm / Burrows:- Common Sandpiper south overhead calling, 70 Meadow Pipit, 1 Grey Wagtail, single calling Green and Great Spotted Woodpeckers, 8 Skylark, 2 Blackcap, 6+ Chiffchaff, 3 Goldcrest, 6+ Song Thrush, 17 Coal Tit (4 different groups moving through), 1 Nuthatch, 1 Redpoll, 3 Siskin, 1 Greenfich, 9 Goldfinch and a Reed Bunting. Also there were a few dozen Silver-Y moths and several migrant Hawker dragonflies around the vicinity. Strangely quiet by 1100h, with a nice moderate SE wind in lovely sunny clear conditions moving stuff on. We finished the day there at 1500h with a pair of hunting Peregrine Falcons.

Two kingfishers flew out of the stream next to Wilko’s Colchester Ave and flew south east towards the coast. Two grey wagtails followed and there was a nice mixed flock of Great, Coal, Blue and Long Tailed tits with three or four Chiffchaffs.

I saw another kingfisher about 10.00Pm but that was after the rugby.

Jan Scheeres

Bit of easterly vis mig this morning between 08:00-11:30: Swallow 420, Goldfinch 310, Linnet 115, Meadow Pipit 75, Pied/White Wagtail 40 (over), Pied Wagtail 36 (on ground), Grey Wagtail 10, Skylark 2, Redpoll 2, Yellow Wagtail 1 (on ground briefly).

The Watermill. Goshawk – 1 had a go at a buzzard, a few hundred hirundines (mainly swallows) over river.

Portobello Island. Canada geese – 400, Little Egret – 2, Peregrine – 1.

Ogmore Beach. Med. Gull – 1 adult.

Continuous passage of Swallows and House Martins and a few Sand Martins amongst them. Also plenty of Mipits, and a few Skylark. Flock of c.40 Linnet. Lol Middleton had been there b4 me and had several Blackcap, a juv Whitethroat and a few Chiffchaff, a flyover Siskin, and a few Alba wagtails. A Grey Wag was on the road by the church and a Peregrine was sitting in the trees overhanging the beach towards Penarth. Oh, and a Sprawk flew through over the first field. I was not there long enough to count the vis mig.

Spotted Flycatcher still present along with c. 20 Chiffchaff, 1 Blackcap and 4 Pied Wagtails, also 3 Mistle Thrush west overhead.

100+swallows feeding over the saltmarsh and dunes a few house Martin amongst them, a female wheatear, 12 greenfinch,2 goldfinch, 4 linnet, a little egret,45 oyster catcher,10 curlew,2 dunlin,2 stonechats 1 juv, single pied wagtails meadow pipit and sparrow hawk