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.

Very quiet this morning: Tree Pipit (1), Meadow Pipit (24 f/o) and a few Blackcaps, Chiffs and Swallows. The Whitethroats appear to have cleared out.

As I dragged my aging corpse up Oakland Road, Bridgend on my morning run, I was surprised to hear, then see a Kingfisher flying up into the houses on the north side. I assume it has been investigating garden ponds. Never seen one so far away from the Ogmore.

There’s a nice photogenic flock of 8 Chough frequenting the Broughton area at the moment. Emma captured this shot in the vicinity of our caravan.

A greenshank in the Dock 70+ redshank on the Crumlyn burrows side of the river along with 6 dunlin a ringed plover 15 curlew 1 whimbrel usual gulls and a heron flushed a small bird by the sub station it flew into cover I think it was a grasshopper warbler by the jizz 10 Canada geese flew over

Dean’s Curlew Sandpiper from this evening. What a peach!

A Curlew Sandpiper was on Portobello Island this evening along with the long staying Greenshank. Another Greenshank flew over Newton Burrows this morning .

Eight wigeon on the pool and three great crested grebes.

This morning 21 blackcap (20 captured), 2 sedge warbler, 1 reed warbler and 7 chiffchaffs.

We are now on the brink of ringing 2500 on the marsh in 2014.  More here: http://gowerbirdringinggroup.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/oxwich-march-13-september-changing-of.html

Lsr Scaup, 5 Wigeon, 3 Teal, 2 Shoveler, RC Pochard, 67 Tufted Duck, 14 Little Grebe, Kingfisher.

Our second Grasshopper Warbler of the autumn was this morning’s highlight. Also Tree Pipit (1) and lower numbers of Blackcap, Chiffchaff and Whitethroat than of late. Light Swallow and Meadow Pipit passage overhead. (DJJ/GJJ)

Spotted Redshank, Greenshank, 2 Red Kites, Kingfisher all by the car park yesterday and off Dalton’s Point a Curlew Sandpiper was with the wader flock that included 364 Black-tailed Godwits and 127 Knot.

Wildfowl & Waders this am: Teal [24], Pintail [11], Shelduck [14], Curlew [29], Lapwing [100], Little Egret [4 RGW, with 5 more on PGW], Greenshank [2, both later on PGW], Bar-tailed Godwit [1 @ 09.45 >E], Black-tailed Godwit [1 @ 11.10 >E], Oink [1] & Jack Snipe [1]. Passerines: Swallow [c500, all >E], Goldfinch [c100], Chaffinch [40], Pied Wagtail [14 all >E], Reed Bunting [2] & Reed Wbr. [1]. GBB Gull [13, mixed ages].
RGW = Rumney Great Wharf (Glamorgan) & PGW = Peterstone Great Wharf (Gwent).

Q – If Scotland secedes from the Union, will we lose all our Scottish species from our GB list?

Large number of hirundines over the Bay this morning as well as birds passing through. most of the birds hanging around the Bay were House Martins while the birds passing through were largely Swallows. Rough estimate of c.1,500 House Martin and 500 Swallow.

At least 2 Water Rail starting to call this morning.

Good passage of Swallows heading east along the barrage and across the bay this morning. Only spent a short time counting but saw 800+ in less than an hour.