An hour’s vis mig watch at Dunraven this morning saw two Yellow Wagtails, eight Grey Wagtails, 230 Siskins and a steady stream of hirundines among the passage. A Whimbrel was roosting on the beach with a few Curlews and Oystercatchers at Temple Bay.

At Ogmore Estuary three Pintail flew up the river but declined to come down, two Shoveler were at Portobello, six Dunlin were on the estuary and a Sedge Warbler was in bracken at Portobello.

Pretty confident of just having seen a Goshawk over Penarth Head area just a moment ago. Gulls crying usually an indication of something unsettling them.  Yesterday c100 linnets in farmer’s field on Fort Road Lavernock and c50 Goldfinch nearer the point. Quite a few grey wagtails over as already mentioned.

A male sparrowhawk and 3 whinchats were the best sightings on a stroll to Sker Point and back. One whinchat was near Pink Bay pond and the other two were close to Sker farm pond.
Also, 7 wheatears, 2 white wagtails, c70 linnets, c50 goldfinches and 2 skylarks.

Despite the mini-heatwave, plenty of winter wildfowl around N Cardiff. Today at Roath Park Lake there were 13 teal, 3 shovellers and a wigeon. At the reservoirs, a sub-ad mediterranean gull and a clouded yellow were the highlights.

Swallows moving through at a rate of about 1000 an hour for two hours this morning, together with maybe 100 sand martins, a few Grey Wagtails and the first Skylark of the autumn. Still a few warblers around including a Lesser Whitethroat. A notable rarity for Lavernock was a Nuthatch (my second in the last few weeks) and a new bird for the area for me, a Ruff, went through quite quickly. The Ruff looks like a juvenile male to me, in the (not surprisingly) grainy photos that Andy Burns managed to get.

A bit more action this morning, although quality not quantity: Whinchat (1); Lesser Whitethroat (1); Redstart (1); Whitethroat (1); Chiffs and Blackcaps (GJJ).

A pair of Wigeon were on the West Lake at Cosmeston early this morning – the first I’ve seen here since early February. Earlier in the week a Little Egret was on the shoreline near Bendrick Rock with the tide well out.

Good bit of vis mig along the barrage and over the bay this morning 9-11am: Swallow 865, Siskin 54, Grey Wagtail 26 and Tree Pipit 4. I’m sure there were quite a few Sand and House Martin moving too but impossible to judge as there are still lots of the local breeders knocking around over the bay to confuse the issue. Most of the Swallows went through in less than an hour between 10-11.

120 sanderling, 100+ringed plover 20 dunlin, 1 bar tailed godwit, 400 oyster catcher est counts as a female sparrow hawk then a helicopter put everything up also seen were a stonechat, 2 linnets, a few skylarks, gulls were 4 common,30+herring, a few lesser b b gulls, and a juv great black backed gull a few carrion crows, and a cormorant

28 redshank a common sandpiper and a kingfisher in the tidal dock,by the reed bed dock a mixed flock of 8 long tailed tits,10 blue tits,and 2 chiff chaff .on the Crumlyn burrows side there were 42 curlew 40 oyster catcher, 5 bar tailed godwit one with quite a bit of red s\p still 62 black headed gulls, also seen 2 stonechats, 1 wheatear, 14 linnet, 2 little egrets, 1 heron, and a male sparrow hawk

Small numbers of migrants heading E along the Barrage into the wind: Siskin 100+, Meadow Pipit 35, Swallow 12, Chaffinch 2, Tree Pipit 1. Two Raven and a Peregrine also over the Barrage. Elsewhere there were at least 54 Pied Wagtails dotted around the Bay, 16 on Barrage, 10 around Norwegian Church/Britannia Park and 10 on the grass behind the Oystercatcher pub were largest groups, no sign of any Whites today. There were also about 170 House Martins feeding over the water.

Last night 5 white wagtails roosted in the marsh, along with 200 swallows and a few sand martins

Tree pipit 1 (3), 13 reed warbler, 5 sedge warbler, 20 blackcap, 6 willow warbler and visible overhead movement of siskin (west) on Sunday

Aerial activity was very evident today, a Goshawk joining a flock of 26 Ravens tumbling about in a thermal providing two unusual sightings for this site. Buzzards were also evident in the sky along with ant-eating gulls, mostly Black-heads, 479 being counted in this section of the Burry. Little Egrets appear to have increased suddenly, 95 being visible from the bridge alone. Yesterday evening one of the two juvenile Marsh Harriers seen last week was still busy hunting over the saltmarsh (photo here) at Llanrhidian, where counts have included 158 Teal & 117 Greylags. However, it is Penclacwydd that is providing the best wader watching at present, with counts when we were there yesterday including Black-tailed Godwit 584, Knot 537, Greenshank 48, Redshank 213 and Spot-shank 2, though I know Wendell has had bigger counts for most species.

Little Egret present again at lunchtime.c.800/1000 Starlings went up 6.45/7.00am.  Reed,       Sedge and Cettis showing well. Sprawk f/o. Water Rail squealing. 1 White Wag on Plas Taliesin.

2 yellow wagtails, 1white wagtail, 5 wheatears, 8 stonechats, 4 rock pipits, 2 skylarks and a mixed flock of mainly linnets with some goldfinches

Five Chiffchaffs (one singing) 2 Blackcap, two Lesser Redpolls over.

2 Spotted flycatchers around the pond area on Rudry Common over past couple of days also a few  blackcap, whitethroat and lots of Chiffchaff feeding up in the willows.

A Spotted Flycatcher this morning near the south-west corner of the West Paddock at Cosmeston. It was perched in a shrub on the right hand side of the path running up the east side of Cogan Wood, about 30m north of the gate.

Further along the same track at the open area beyond the dragonfly pond, a Feral Pigeon had several feathers removed in flight by an attacking Sparrowhawk, but managed to get away.

Quite a few migrants around the Wetland Reserve/St David’s Hotel this morning – by Bay standards anyway – 20+ phylloscs, mainly Chiffchaff by the look of it, 8 Blackcap, 1 Garden Warbler, 2 Kingfisher (might well have been another two on the barrage side as well), 6 Goldcrest. Highlight for me was out on the Barrage earlier – a Whinchat (first I’ve seen in the Bay), 6 Yellow Wagtails, 5 Grey Wagtail along with 32 Pied Wagtails and at least 1 White.

Silurian Park also had quite a few migrants, best was a Spotted Flycatcher (second this autumn after one on 26/08), 4 Blackcap, 6 Willow Warbler, 4 Chiffchaff, 3 Coal Tit (first around here for a couple of years) plus Siskin and Peregrine overhead.

A very nice morning, calm and sunny:-

2 Sandwich Tern, 2 Gannet, 107 Oystercatcher, 3 Ringed Plover and 2 Turnstone in Broughton Bay. Up to 8 White Wagtail were in and around Broughton yesterday and the caravan park and flew off this afternoon.

Overhead we recorded 5 Tree Pipit, 5 Grey Wagtail, 6+ Siskin, 1 Skylark.

Two Chough repeated yesterday’s routine by flying over to the top of Llanmadoc hill and flying back down early afternoon via Broughton Burrows / Little Broughton.