Hooded Crow – view from the footpath between the Royal Porthcawl GC and the fields. This morning it was in the largest field just past the small pond. 

No sign of the Woodchat Shrike when I checked before work this morning (6:30 – 7:30).

First family party of stonechat for the year at the WW2 gun emplacement / obs point.
Tree pipit over and a stock dove singing from trees near Fernhill Cottage.
An imm male eider off the Knab on the way home.

Good shot of male Bullfinch this morning

http://andyburnsphotography.zenfolio.com/passerines/h151b6979#h151b6979

and also a Blackcap in full song

http://andyburnsphotography.zenfolio.com/passerines/h151b6979#hba4a8d

…..also the usual warblers heard but not seen and ………

….an Otter??? Lol spotted it as it swam from near the bridge across the west lake to the reed bed on the other side of the lake. It was big and very dark, perhaps a body two foot long and a tail half that size. It was swimming on the surface as we saw it but submerged quickly and then broke the surface with it’s nose every 30 foot or so. It vanished once it got into the reed bed. I have seen many otters in the wild and this looked like one. It was too big (both long and wide) for a mink. It was too quick to get a shot of it. Other than a escaped Croc, I can’t think what else it could be. Any ideas? We haven’t got Otters at Cozzy have we?

Reed Warbler singing (at last) further up-river Ely in breeding habitat.

The Woodchat Shrike from y’day is still reported as being present this morning – see Tweets in the RH column.

Absolutely appalled to read Gareth Pryce’s news [further down the page] that a swans nest [the swan was sitting a few days ago when I was there] in the inlet pool on Hamadryad Park, has been burned out. What morons can do this sort of thing?

Don’t forget the AGM is tonight at 07:30 in KNNR centre. After the formal proceedings there will be a short quiz and refreshments. Please come and support us.

Lesser Whitethroat at Foxhole.
2 Eider offshore at Deep Slade (2 in Bracelet Bay yesterday)
Lots of whitethroat, nest-building linnets, stonechats etc.

On our Rudry Common Trust woodland site  (outskirts of Rudry village)  this eve a couple of juv Mistle thrushes and a juv blackbird.Cuckoo on the common and mating willow warblers.Now have 100 nest boxes on the site being monitored by our volunteers for BTO nest box scheme.

Red-throated diver (non br/pl) off Nicholaston Pill on the high tide this evening.
Siskins still present around the marsh.
On the pool a female mallard with 6 ducklings, gadwall, little grebe (2) and mute swan.

In CBWR a mink in a tree (seen with Eileen Y,Peter H,3 Park Rangers and the 2 MOPS who found it); great excitement at first thinking it was an otter but wiser heads eventually prevailed. Also 33 GCG. No sign of yesterday’s Gadwall pair. 9 Reed Warblers, and 1 Sedge Warbler singing briefly and intermittently.
In Hamadryad inlet pond, the swan’s nest was burned out last night; no sign of the swans.
In Grangemoor Park, a Lsr Whitethroat singing for the second day close by the thick metal chimney stack and another LW 400m away singing just over the IKEA boundary wall.
5 Shellducks yesterday on the mud by the barrage rocks engaged in a strange neck-rolling mating ritual.

No Garden Warblers today (!!) but plenty of activity.

A good shot of a whitethroat

http://andyburnsphotography.zenfolio.com/passerines/h28d9e979#h26f84842

Lots of reed and sedge warblers heard but few seen. Cetti’s in at least 3 locations.

Also the first cygnets of the year at Cozzy – on the west lake, with the Male of the adult pair chasing off all the dogs that turned up

http://andyburnsphotography.zenfolio.com/waterfowl/h32ccc051#h32ccc051

highlights am today 3 drake Garganey plus first Swift of the year (JD & TA)

Franklin’s Gull, Spoonbill and a Black Swan on the marsh at dusk, all Glamorgan-side. Black-wits up to 263, otherwise wader numbers down a little.