30 Canada Geese on floodwater this morning on old Paper Mill site. First I’ve seen them “on the ground” in this locality.

A Whimbrel flying around near the Norwegian Church at 8:40 this morning.

Midday: Juvenile Cuckoo on Cardiff side of Green Lane being mobbed by Common Whitethroat, Chiffchaff, Robin & several Blue and Great Tits. Flew off across the border into Gwent.

Small passage of swallows >S

1-ad Med.Gull amongst the Black Headed Gulls close to the boardwalk.13h35

Quiet but quality this morning. Spotted Flycatcher 80 m beyond the dragonfly pond on the left. Male Goshawk over Cogan Wood then lost to view. Then to to top it all an imm Hobby seen from the main bridge circling around over the play area then drifted off west. Hobby and Gos I think new site ticks for me. 🙂

this morning during the heavy rain..

2 sandwich terns

And the first bird for me of the GCG flock… Autumn is here!!!!

Lots of bh GULLS… No commons to be seen

1 lesser bb & half a dozen or so herring gulls

Lots of oystercatchers scattered along the beach

A Little Egret was on Swansea Beach, moving between Singleton Park and St. Helen’s at 1.15 p.m.

20+ black-headed gulls including a Polish ringed bird T55U (reported to the scheme)

Only 3 med gulls which is a real surprise

1 oystercatcher

3 shag

Plus a lovely grey seal

Pair of Gadwall on the wetland reserve. Four Med Gull on Hamadryad Park (3 ad, 1 second yr).

Delayed WeBS: 250 Redshank, 1 Dunlin, 1 Common Sand, 2 Curlew, 200 B-h Gulls, 80 LBBG, 10 HG, 5 Cormorant and a Wheatear. At the Heliport just 200 B-h Gulls. Lots of Butterflies there including a Wall, which I haven’t seen for quite a while. Also lots of Common Blue, Gatekeeper, Meadow Brown, Small & Large White. The acres of Buddleia along the foreshore helps!

Juvenile whinchat this morning.

Also a grasshopper warbler, 2-3 tree pipit, kingfisher (1w), siskin, and a calling green sandpiper over

Ringing session returned 80 birds.  More info here: http://ow.ly/R41n3

This Wood Sandpiper, found by Alun Hughes, graced the main (studio) pool this evening.

Lol Middleton found an interesting gull on E lake this morning which seems to show characteristics of Caspian Gull although I’m not familiar with the species in early plumage stages. Any thoughts? It wouldn’t abandon the middle of the lake for me so these are the best two cropped pix I could manage.

1 green sandpiper on the E shore of Lisvane Reservoir this evening. Also around the reservoirs over the last few days; 1 common sandpiper, 2-3 kingfishers, 1 sedge warbler, 1,000+ swallows and hundreds of sand martins, 1 swift, 4 teal, 2x broods of GC grebes (including one brood hatched on the new floating platform), c30 little grebes (including youngsters), good counts of 141 coots and 206 tufties, 8 pochard, 19 mallards, 12 Canadas, 2 mute swans, 70 BH gulls, etc.

400+black h gulls 20 redshank 50+ curlew 2 peregrines 1 sparrowhawk a few common sandpipers were in the tidal dock per peter Murray

With Geoff Busby, we caught the dropping high tide this morning which had good numbers of waders out on the sands. A juv peregrine was out on the salt marsh plus whimbrel and med gull. A couple of tree pipit were heard plus a crossbill over.
On the sands good numbers of Dunlin (approx 680), ringed plover( approx 175), sanderling,30 and a knot. Highlights were single juv little stint and little ringed plover which was picked up as it headed off .
On the negative, a dead Barn owl was on the edge of the beach near the marram grass. It was fresh with no obvious wound marks apart from some flattened? Missing feathers off the crown. Don’t know how it met its end as no obvious signs of predation, just a real shame as there doesn’t appear to be that many around .

Spotted Flycatcher this morning at Cosmeston. Feeding in the sheltered area at the south east corner of the Dragonfly Pond. Viewable from the fence line that runs up the centre of the West Paddock.

Many thanks to Strinda Davies for leading this morning’s monthly Glamorgan Bird Club walk at Kenfig. There were twelve participants. In total 43 species with the highlights being Marsh Tit heard near the Reserve Centre feeding station and again near the South Pool Hide, Sparrowhawk, Common Sandpiper and a Chiffchaff watched feeding a juvenile.

Full list:

Black-headed Gull, Blackbird, Blackcap, Blue Tit, Bullfinch, Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Collared Dove, Common Sandpiper, Coot, Cormorant, Dunnock, Goldcrest, Goldfinch, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Great Tit, Greenfinch, Grey Heron, Herring Gull, House Martin, House Sparrow, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Linnet, Magpie, Mallard, Marsh Tit, Meadow Pipit, Mistle Thrush, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Pied Wagtail, Robin, Sand Martin, Sparrowhawk, Starling, Swallow, Swift, Whitethroat, Willow Warbler, Woodpigeon, Wren

Common redstart and 2 grasshopper warbler among a catch of 114 birds at Oxwich this morning.

Small numbers of tree pipit (2-3) noted.  More info here: http://ow.ly/QXJ6h

2 Lsr Whitethroats among the Reed, Sedge and Cettis Warblers; Water Rail calling.