Highlights of GBC trip today. Blackpill – tide out so nothing too exciting but a Goldcrest in a tree near the nature centre; Mumbles – ad Med Gull & Turnstone and v nice coffee!; Oxwich in addition to Barry’s observations, quite a few Sanderling on the beach, 1 Shag on Oxwich Pt rocks, the GND was at RH side of the bay then flew across to the left, and we reckoned around 200 Comm Scoter when they all flew across the bay at one point; from the hide at Oxwich, Shoveler Gadwall Teal, 2 Little Grebe, 1 Heron, and in the air 1 Red Kite, 2 Buzzard, 1 Sprawk, and 1 Pere briefly; Overton – in the stubble field 1 Red-legged Partridge, 6 Song Thrush, 50 poss more Chaffinch and 1 Brambling, and quite a few Linnet and a Reed Bunt. A male Kes nearby and one of our group flushed a Snipe from the coast path there and Alan Rosnet had a couple of Kittiwake fly past. All in all a nice day out.

Great Northern Diver still present. Also 24 Great Crested Grebe, 40 Cormorant, 150+ Common Scoterand an imm. male Eider.

Firecrest still showing well at Ogmore this afternoon, feeding actively near horse pass. Also kingfisher, curlew, grey & pied wagtails, teal, shelduck and long tailed tits.

Female in Canton, Cardiff garden again today.

Common Gull on R. Taff at Hamadryad Park. Also amazingly a pair of summer plumage GC Grebes nest building in the lagoon.

At the Bay Wetland Reserve, drake Lesser Scaup present [all ducks at far end viewed from boardwalk] – couldn’t see the hybrid but no ‘scope. 2 Linnet and 2 fem Reed Bunts feeding on the grass. Forgot to say, nice to meet Mike O’Leary from Abertysswg – hope you got better views of the Lsr Scaup from the boardwalk Mike.

Oxwich Point.  Great northern diver still present.  Large common scoter flock close inshore but towards Tor Bay.

Oxwich South Pond.  Duck numbers up.  58 teal, 10 shoveler, c. 30 gadwall.

On the River Taff today between Gwaelod-y-Garth and Upper Boat, 5 Teal, 7 Goosander, 3 Grey Wagtail, 1 Dipper, 2 Grey Heron, 2 Cormorant, 1 Moorhen and 44 Mallard (including 33 together at the southern end of Treforest Industrial Estate).

At Llantrisant Forest car park this afternoon at least 2 Brambling with a flock of 100+ Chaffinch feeding on Beech mast. ST024847.

 

Hawfinches showing well at 1pm, at least 10 seen. Peregrine over.

In the west paddocks a mixed flock of Redwing and Fieldfare totalling around 100, Redwing outnumbering the FF, plus about 6 Mistle Thrush with them. A single Snipe visible in the Snipe ‘paddock’ behind the dragonfly pond. No sign of Marsh Tit by the dragon tree in Cogan Wood, but Nuthatch there. On W lake 3 Wigeon, 8 Gadwall and in total on both lakes around 150-200 Tufted, ~30 Pochard, and 4 G C Grebe. Ad Yellow-legged Gull and the usual v pale imm Herring Gull middle of E lake.

A Greylag Goose, Common Gull and Yellow-legged Gull were at the East Lake at Cosmeston late Tuesday afternoon. At Swanbridge/Sully Island with the tide well out, there was a Little Egret,  36 Oystercatcher and 4 Curlew.

Oxwich Bay: Great northern diver off the point and a very distant diver spp in the bay.  Large flock of scoter well offshore. 9 great crested grebe.

Oxwich Pond: Barn owl roosting on the top of the door of the hide plus usual duck species.

Porteynon: group of 7 purple sandpiper, red-throated diver west.

Rhossili: relatively small numbers of common scoter (2 flocks – 151 birds), 4 porpoise, 2 grey seal, 2 chough

Llanrhidian: 2 great white egret, 2 ringtail hen harrier, sparrowhawk.

2nd winter (3rd cy) Med. Gull around the barrage again today. This bird has been around all winter, seen at Channel View back in November. Interestingly it has lost both its feet (old injuries, wounds well healed) so seems to be surviving ok.

After checking the rocks for over a week with no success, I finally caught up with the Grey Plover at lunchtime today – 4 of them 🙂

Ringtail Hen Harrier still around..nice views of it hunting over bogs this a.m. Also, Red Kite x2, Buzzard x4, Raven x2, Snipe x3, Golden Plover (heard). Fieldfare x20, Mistle Thrush x2 and a male Stonechat.

6 goosanders on the river tawe  3 male 3  female with bob anderson

Best of the bunch today were two adult Med gulls, one on the east lake and one on the west (head pattern was different on the two birds).
The east lake one came close enough for a good shot
http://andyburnsphotography.zenfolio.com/medgull/h338f3799#h338f3799

(with Lol + Ceri)

An ad male and a female Black Redstart on the roofs at Plas Taliesin this morning. A 2nd yr Med Gull with some black spots in the primaries was around the entrance to the outer harbour of the Barrage, by Penarth Head. There were 2 ad GBB Gulls on the harbour wall there. North end of the barrage had 5 Rock Pipit, 1 Meadow Pipit and about 6 Pied Wags.  Didn’t go far enough round to look for the GND.

2 ad.male Black Redstart seen together yesterday and today with 2 fem/imm types. A 2nd yr Med Gull and 2 GBB Gulls f/o by the harbour entrance (thanks to JDW).

The Great Northern Diver was still around this morning between St David’s Hotel and Norwegian Church. The Lesser Scaup was showing really well in the small bay in front of the hotel but flew off back into the reserve. Hybrid was also still present on the reserve. Five Goosander in total, 3 on the Taff just down from Channel View (tucked in close to the west bank) and another pair on the rocks near Prospect Place. Sadly the female of this pair has an injured wing and is unable to fly – although seems healthy otherwise.

Lesser Scaup

Goosander