An Avocet was seen by the R. Rhymney by Lamby Way this afternoon.

Red Kite over Tesco this morning being mobbed by gulls

A Wood Sand has been seen at Goldcliff today – first reported on BirdGuides as present this morning, and seen again this eve by Alan Cripps, from 1st hide.

31 redshank 2 common sandpipers 15 black headed gulls
At least 200+ herring lesser b backs and black headed gulls over briton ferry after flying ants this afternoon

Not much bird wise apart from a few Blackcaps singing and a couple of Green ‘Peckers. Biggest surprise was a large, presumably adult, Eel, swimming about in the muddy water by the cafe boardwalk where people feed the ducks. Never seen one at Cossie before.

Choughs in small groups, maximum 6 together. No rings visible.

A relatively interesting seawatch for the time of year and given the settled weather.
The highlight was three Arctic skuas (1dk and 2 pale morph) all persuing the same herring gull at 06:10. The gull dropped some food, which was picked up by one of the skuas, which then disappeared further offshore almost immediately.
Common scoter movements were quite notable for the Tutt: 39 over the watch (27 west, 12 east). Including a flock of 19 (looked all / pred female).
Otherwise 6-8 gannet constantly present, with 20+ seen over the hour (no reliable count).
2 guillemot
1-2 porpoise seen regularly foraging.
Manxie passage mainly very distant (beyond effective viewing range) – only 110 (90% east) in 1 hour.
There were 39 Med gulls on the lower shore at Bracelet earlier in the week, but numbers seem to have dropped back to the 8-14 birds that have been typical of the past 2 weeks.
The scarlet tigers were still flying on Rams Tor at the weekend, and there are 2 grey seals regularly off Limeslade.

Only birds of any significance were willow wblr, Chiffchaff and Blackcap. Small and Large Skippers were about. Also 50 B-h Gulls on the beach as St Mary’s Well Bay.

A quail was calling from the large weedy field at Sker early this morning. Heard again by DGC at 0845 at the same time as the farmer started mowing the field!

Red-crested Pochard present until  at least 10:00, outside the reserve along east fringe of vegetation between the floating barrier and St David’s Hotel. Visible, albeit distantly, from by the first picnic benches on the barrage walk just past the drydock.

The first LBB gull of this years brood turned up a Cosmeston yesterday (Lol Middleton) and we took this shot this morning
http://andyburnsphotography.zenfolio.com/lbb/he142bee#he142bee

Perhaps it is one of the Flatholm ‘chicks’ that we saw last week. I guess it’s not much more than 7-8 weeks old. Still, it was holding it’s own (almost) in the scramble for bread. There was also another baby LBB on the lake.

There seemed to be a few more birds around than what we have been seeing with a couple of common sandpipers, goldcrest, long tail tits and reed warblers etc. There were still 3 chicks with the moorhen pair that Lol spotted for the first time yesterday at the north end of the west lake- the Herons must be keeping well fed on fish!

Andy

Red-crested pochard (fem type) found early morning, loosely associating with tufted duck flock. It was viewable distantly from the boardwalk. Also good to see at least 3 broods of tufted duck.

John, in response to your concerns about the ditches and pools vegetating over. This work is scheduled in the near future.

Hamadryad – Ad GC Grebe with fully grown juv, Coot sitting, Grey Heron being mobbed by LBBGs, Reed Warbler singing.
CBWR – Whitethroat singing by Yacht Club, several Reed W seen, 22 GC Grebes and a fem Tufted Duck with at least 6 ducklings in the lagoon. No sign of Red-cr Pochard reported on the Twitter feed.
CBWR is getting more and more overgrown. The small lake on the LH side is now a fraction of its former size and by next year or the year after will be completely invaded by Reed, if left. Also the ditch on the RH side that used to be good for Dragonflies & Damselflies is now completely overgrown with reed and other vegetation. Not sure if this is due to cuts or whether suitable habitat management is planned.

Little Egret and Curlew present this evening.

This weekend saw the annual gull ringing trip. Haven’t toted up the totals from the ringing teams yet but its roughly 140 lesser and a dozen or so herring gulls. Billy Whiz also caught three meadow pipits and a rock pippit

Other species recorded – woodpigeon, shellduck, oystercatcher, blackcap, robin, dunnock, swallow, raven, magpie, greenfinch, blackbird, wren, meadow and rock pipit and pied wagtail.

20 plus BH Gulls and a Curlew on Barry Harbour at high tide

hi all can u identify this butterfly im sure its a fratillery or some sort but which one, taken down aberavon sanddunes by the old BP

 

 

 

 

Female tufted duck with 10 young mallard with 6 young coot with 2 young a pair of little grebe

7 Sandwich Terns off the point this morning. 2 juv Wheatear, Golden Plover also seen along with 20+ Sand Martin and a few Swifts heading east.

Lots of very nicely plumaged linnets this morning giving close-up views from the car