From Facebook [which some people don’t use and therefore miss news] per Steve Howcroft:

Hayes point. 2 blackcap .2 whitethroat .1 wheatear. Plenty of swallows and house martins .
Lavernock. Vis mig quite good plenty of mipits a dozen or so skylarks linnets and phylloscs also stonechat and 17 jays. Spot fly seen earlier by Wayne strong and lol Middleton.

Nice little session at these two this morning. Probably counts as a ‘fall’ of passerines, but not up to E coast standards!

Hamadryad – Chiffchaff 10+ in trees around the pool, also 2 Little Grebe and 4 Tufted Duck, and 12 Goldfinch

CBWR – 10+ Reed Bunting in bushes by the ‘mountain’, 3 Whitethroat, 2 Blackcap {m + f}, 20+ Chiffchaff, 2 Wheatear, 1 fem/imm Redstart, 1 Reed Warbler, 4+ Cetti’s calling, Lesser Scaup drake [distant], 11 Wigeon, 70 Canada Geese, 8 Little Grebe, 21 Gt Crested Grebe.

Plus this odd hybrid? Pposs has been reported b4 but can’t remember if anyone suggested it’s ID.

Two Sandwich terns and 3 common terns were hanging around the point and beach this morning. A shag was feeding off the point and a few whinchats were mixed in with the many wheatears, stonechats and meadow pipits.

Chiffchaff and a Goldcrest in the church yard. Vis mig albeit of just Swallows and Mipits. The latter around 50 per min perhaps more, for a couple of hours at least. Meadow Pipits not so many but a couple of flocks of 30 flew over and 100 flew up from the N end of the big stubble field. 1 Kes and 1 Buzzard, and a few House Martins with the Swallows.

Good number of migrants around today with 6 species of warbler seen in or just outside the garden. Totals:
Chiffchaff c.20
Blackcap minimum 7
Willow Warbler 4
Garden Warbler 1
Common Whitethroat 1
Lesser Whitethroat 1

Teal seem to be popping up everywhere at the moment; five were on Roath Park Lake this afternoon. Also, about 1,000 wood pigeons on the move over Pontprennau this morning.

An immature male Merlin chasing Meadow Pipits and Linnets this morning.

On the barrage 2 Wheatear. In the reserve Lsr Scaup, 8 Wigeon, 2 Shoveler, 2 Teal, 76 Tufted Duck, 24 GC Grebe, c.80+ Canada Goose. Clouded yellow, Small tortoiseshell, Red admiral.

Four Juv. Curlew Sands still present, about 300m downstream from the house.

A black-tailed godwit flew up from rocks between Sker and Pink Bay, over my head and away overland towards Porthcawl mid-morning. Five whinchat were on a wire fence near Sker Pool and there were a handful of yellow wagtails among the cattle and on the Royal Porthcawl Golf Club. Lots of meadow pipits seemingly everywhere!

On Sunday 12th October GBC will be hosting a birding event at Kenfig. (10 a.m. – 4 p.m.) Please come along. There will be ringing demonstrations, bird walks, book sales plus Mrs Wilson’s exceedingly good cakes.This year we’re targeting younger birders. There will however be plenty of activities to suit all ages.
P.S. The first ringing session will be down by the pool, starting at dawn. If you wish to see the team in action, please be there by 7.30 a.m. There will be another ringing session near the centre in the afternoon.

Loads of visible migration this morning, especially Swallows, Pipits and Larks. There were 3 Med Gulls in with the Black-headed flock (2 x adult, 1 x 2nd yr), 3 Yellow Wags flew over. Whinchat on fence line. Large mobile Linnet flock (50+) plus Stonechat and Whitethroat. On shoreline there were 18 Oystercatchers and a single Curlew.

Redstart in back garden in Clive Crescent yesterday afternoon.

Lisvane: An eclipse male teal was on the floating platform, a big roost of 185 LBB gulls, 7 pochards, 67 tufties, 57 coots, 12 little grebes and 2 GC grebes, 3 cormorants, 3 mallards and 10 Canadas. 2 ravens and some very vocal tawny owls around Coed y Felin at dusk.

Llanishen: 7 snipe calling and in flight were the first of the winter here. Male gadwall still present, with 2 shoveller, 3 teal, 3 pochards, 6 tufties, 7 mallards, 6 little grebes, 13 coots, ad and juv GC grebes, 1 heron and a meadow pipit. Buzzard, jay, blackcap, chiffchaff, linnet, grey and pied wags, etc.

Hobby chasing the hirundines lots passing through. And a Wheatear perched on a hay bail in the middle of a field.

Another fem. Wheatear next to the fish pass.

4 curlew sandpipers, all on the east side of the river this morning. At times feeding together.
Whinchat at the beach car park.

Heavy passage of hirundines over the bay again this morning. Mainly Swallows but also good numbers of House Martins and a few Sand Martins. Saw perhaps c.6,000 Swallow, c.800 House Martin and 100 Sand Martin heading east between 9:00-10:30

The three Curlew Sandpipers at Ogmore show large variation in colour from rusty to colourless – the more advanced juv/1st winter is quite frosty looking whilst the less advanced juveniles are warmly coloured – all three are in fresh plumage.

Had a quick look this evening -the drake gadwall is still present.