This evening: Canada Geese 80 on east lake, Swallow 300 over west lake feeding. Yesterday there was a Teal (f) on the west lake.

Spotted flycatcher and about 10 chiffchaff around the pond this evening ,also a small flock of 21 linnet over.

This morning 1 sedge warbler, 2 reed warbler, 1 whitethroat, 1 willow warbler, 9 blackcap and 9 chiffchaff were caught (among the resident species) during the ringing session.

More info here: http://gowerbirdringinggroup.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/oxwich-marsh-16-september-2014.html

Cannot compete with Paul’s digiscoping at this distance!

Also a small 3-5 flock of what appeared to be peeps (Little Stints?) flew down river mid afternoon.

Two still around first thing this morning at Ogmore Estuary, later joined by a third bird.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not much wader/wildfowl passage: Greenshank [1] & Pintail [3] being the highlights. Much better in the border hedgerow with a nice variety of small passerines: Whitethroat, Garden Warbler, Chiffchaffs, Blackcaps and LTT. Good passage of swallows [500+] with a few house martins.
Went down to the Ogmore, saw 2 juv Curlew Sandpipers & Common Sandpiper. Unfortunately birding ceased at 13.25 because two idiots in blue dingys came floating down the river and all the birds flew off. Pity my scope didn’t turn into a SMLE .303!

2 fem. Wheatear on the barrage grass bank. In CBWR 5 Grey Heron over, Kingfisher, Whitethroat, Blackcap(2), c.10+ Chiffchaff, 1 Willow Warbler, Sprawk over..

A Hobby passed purposefully down the estuary this evening and 20 Canada Geese headed the other way. These geese are still relatively scarce in the Loughor Estuary, for the time being at least. Perhaps they are part of the Ogmore flock looking for a safer haven!

A fem type Wheatear on the barrage grass bank mid-day. A light passage of Swallows over. Now 7 Wigeon in CBWR.

Reserve – 1 juv Whitethroat.
Churchyard – at least 6 phylloscs in the big Sycamore, mostly chiffies but 1 definite Willow Wblr. Also 2 Blackcap. Steady but light continuous passage of Swallows with a few Sand and House Martin mixed in. No sign of y’day’s Firecrest.

31 Chiffs, 2 willwa, 9 spotted flys, 115 house martin and 8 sand martin made up the migrants moving through this morning

Lisvane: 16 little grebes, 5 GC grebes, 6 pochard, 67 tufties, 58 coots, 5 mallard, 4 cormorants, a big roost of 146 LBB gulls, with 9 H gulls and 8 BH gulls. 2 swallows, pied and grey wags.

Llanishen: No sign of the recent BN grebe, but a male gadwall was a good record here. Also, 6 wigeon (photo), 1 teal, 2 shoveller, 1 pochard, 6 mallard, 5 tufties, 8 coots, 2 moorhens, 2 little grebes, 2 ad GC grebes and the large chick.

Per Jeff Curtis and Tony Messinger: 500+ house martins passed through in a single flock late this morning. At Sker there were two wheatears showing characteristics of the Greenland race and a single golden plover among the commoner waders.

Curlew Sandpiper still around this evening on the Bridgend side of the estuary (had to break the waders out to photograph it). Also several White Wagtails  and Yellow Wagtails noted, plus two Wigeon on the Watermill.

I checked out the pre-roost gathering of Pied Wagtails noted by Chris Brewer a few evenings back and in one sweep I counted 191 on the ground. Birds coming and going all the time heading off to roost toward Pentre Farm Marsh and an estimate of 250+ is probably more representative of the total. 2 Yellow Wagtails were also present feeding up until 19:15hrs when the bulk of the birds headed off to roost.

Earlier the Marsh Harrier was seen at Penclawdd, Penclacwydd & Llanrhidian (it gets about!), it came close enough at one point to read the wing tags, so hopefully details to follow…

Area around the carpark swarming with birds between 5pm and 6pm .Concentrated around the willow and birch copse below the carpark- conservative estimate of 50 chiffchaff and at least 40 LTT , accompanied by 6 reed bunting , 4 common white throat ,a blackcap, a goldcrest and 10’s of blue and Great tit.Don’t often see so many birds in such a confined area -made for quite a show!There have been a few spotted flycatchers and redstarts around the carpark in the past few days but none today.

Whinchat on Common Cliff (1) and in scrub above The Knave (3).  Spotted flycatcher at Foxhole Slade.

Also: 2 willow warbler, 7 grey wagtail (all on Overton STW), red kite, peregrine (being mobbed by kestrel at Longhole Cliff), whitethroat (3 at Longhole, 1 Ram Grove), chough regularly recorded in small numbers.  Commonest migrants were blackcap and chiffchaff.  Overton Valley is moving with blackcaps at the moment.

Flocks of meadow pipits of up to 60 birds, small passage of skylark mid morning, a few grey wagtails moving etc.

4 juv curlew sandpiper and a juv little stint were down at Whiteford sands around 9.00 mixed in with approx 160 Dunlin and 110 ringed plover.
I went out to Weobley for the high tide expecting plenty more waders.only a handful of Dunlin/ ringed plover.prob the main reason was 2 rather healthy looking peregrine plus a few piles of feathers here and there.Though numbers of Dunlin and ringed plover seem less so far this year…whether smaller flocks are dotted around other parts of the estuary?
Approx 180 pintail and 30 wigeon on the edge of the salt marsh/ burry pill.first golden plover of the autumn.nice sight of 4 whinchat feeding along the top hedge/fen area at the base of the castle.single sedge warbler and 2 sandwich tern also………..plus castell du Thursday evening, 134 pied wag, 6 white and 1 ad yellow

Crowd down at Lavernock today (Wayne, Graham, Alex, Lol etc). A Firecrest was the main excitment. Well done to Alex Bevan for spotting it and Lol picking it up again. Fairly poor photos at

http://andyburnsphotography.zenfolio.com/p1065471617/h6afde99#hf17168e

Keen to see if Graham and Wayne got any good shots.