A quick walk round with Poppy the pooch this morning. Couldn’t relocate the Jack Snipes of yesterday. There were a lot of Blackbirds about including the very confiding pictured one by the Mile Road [those pix are as taken and not cropped]. The cold snap had brought in 57 Tufted Ducks on E lake – all drakes excepot for 7 females. I saw just a single Fieldfare in W paddock.

Great excitement yesterday at Cosmeston when local birder Graham Smith found a Jack Snipe roosting on the ground using a thermal imager. I went down to try & see it but typically it was so well concealed and camouflaged I couldn’t find it. Remarkably today he found there were 2 there! Another visit and another local Penarth birder Annie Irving was at the spot and eventually got me on to the more visible one and then finally the well hidden one. My 2 best cropped images below plus the uncropped versions for comparison. Both the uncropped ones were taken at equiv of 600mm . In the one with the arrow the birds head is just belwo left of the arrow head, in the gap in the blades of juncus. Having seen the more visible one today I realised that I had seen it yesterday, but only the two parallel straw coloured stripes which I thought were dead vegetation! As I walked through teh open aprt of W paddock there were a few Redwing and Fieldfare feeding but they soon cleared off, but I did manage a couple of shots of a Fieldfare – such smart birds. Click each image for a bigger one.

A leucitic Black-headed Gull bill and primary colour normal wings and mantle snow white. A Ringed-neck Parakeet was making its presence known by calling continuously. Also, Water Rail Great Crested Grebe and 14 Tufted Ducks

Had a walk through Cogan Wood this morning to keep out of the chilly easterly. Good decision as it happens. I was kneeling down taking some pix of the Turkey Tail fungus shown, which was on a stump that is also used to put down seed for the tits & finches. Suddenly I heard a strident “pitchü, pitchü” call and looked up to see a Marsh Tit flitting about in the bushes a few feet away. It was very insistent and clearly expecting some seed, which I didn’t have. I last saw one there in Jan this year. The light was pretty poor so I was glad to get some half decent shots The Great and Blue Tits along the path thru the wood are very tame and will come and sit on your hand if you have seed.

Kestrel hovering over B4265 quarter of a mile west of railway bridge on west side of Llantwit 10.30 Saturday.

Yesterday there were 2 pairs of Gadwall on E lake, but not seen today. There were also c.50 Tufties recently but now only a few remain. Wayne Strong had 3 Wigeon this morning but they weren’t showing when I was there at around 11:45, but poss skulking in the W lake reeds? A Gadwall appeared to be ‘walking in water’ in the W lake bay [actually standing on a part submerged one of the posts]. Mowing of W paddock was in progress and a few Redwing and Fieldfare were watching from trees lining ther Mile Road, presumably waiting to drop down to snaffle disturbed worms etc. In a finished area there were around 20 Pied Wagtails and a few Meadow Pipits feeding. In the already mown E paddock a Green Woodpecker was foraging. A couple of shots below of that bird – they are very wary on the ground so difficult to approach even with extreme caution. I got to within about 80m before grabbing some pix, but even these are biggish crops. This is a female [no thin red stripe in the moustache].

Kingfisher under the pier to the newest Lifeboat Station 11am

I see why they known as the Sea Swallows

Between 4:10 and 4:30 this afternoon, a minor murmuration of around 400 Starlings over E lake that finally settled in the lake side edge of the E lake reeds by the boardwalk.

A Grey Wag is still frequenting Sully Brook by the Medieval Village and 20 drake Tufted Ducks were on W lake before the rain stopped any birding. Later after the rain eased there were a few Redwing in E paddock.

Saturday’s Glamorgan Bird Club Public Monthly Birdwalk, on a beautiful crisp, sunny, Autumn day,was quite special!

We saw 56 species, the highlights were- a Mistlethrush ( a first to be ringed at Kenfig-)and a Goldcrest in hand, caught by the ringing group, a Bittern in flight, a flying Glossy Ibis, an Arctic Tern, seen by two members, photographed by Martin, and a skein of about 40 Greylag Geese. There were also lots of predated Swan Mussels on the East shore

Canada Goose , Greylag Goose , Mute Swan , Gadwall,  Wigeon ,Mallard , Teal , Goldeneye, Stock Dove, Woodpigeon, Waterail, Moorhen,  Coot , Great Crested Grebe,  Redshank, Carrion Crow, Black-headed Gull,  Common Gull , Herring Gull,   Lesser Black-backed Gull, Arctic Tern ,Cormorant, Bittern, Grey Heron, Buzzard , Blue Tit , Skylark ,Great – Spotted Woodpecker  ,Kestrel, Jay,  Magpie , Jackdaw, Rook, Cetti’s Warbler, Long -tailed Tit, Chiffchaff, Goldcrest, Wren ,Starling ,Song Thrush , Mistle Thrush,  Redwing,  Blackbird, Robin, Stonechat , House Sparrow, Dunnock , Pied Wagtail,  Meadow Pipit, Chaffinch ,Bullfinch,  Linnet , Goldfinch , Glossy Ibis.

Many thanks to Alan and Rhos, and Colin with the Ringing Group

I had an amazing experience this morning whilst driving up three steps hill Tythegston, near Porthcawl. A female Sparrowhawk flew parallel with my van at eye level on the opposite side of the road for at least 6 seconds before flying up and over me due to an oncoming car. I was doing about 40mph , so she was shifting.

On bank opposite Portobello House, 1st w Little Gull. 5 Common Gulls in Gull flock, 7 Goosanders (4m 3f) 3f Goldeneye, Grey Wagtail, Dunlin, 2 Common Sandpipers 3 L. Egrets 2 Ravens feeding on bank

Kestrel hovering over the road seen both Thursday and Friday morning.

The Bird of the day – Kingfisher

We had a successful trip to Parc Cwm Darran today. We even managed to avoid the rain. Perhaps the stand out was a really confiding male Kingfisher, which gave us cracking views. Overhead we saw Red Kite, Buzzard and Sparrowhawk plus a couple of Ravens. Passerines were thin on the ground due to the strong wind. We did catch views of Jay, Mistle Thrush and Redwing though. Redpolls were heard but not seen however.
At Rhaslas we saw 2 Great Crested Grebe, c.20 Wigeon, 3 fem Goldeneye and 6 Mute Swans. A distant flying flock of c.200 Golden Plover was also seen.
Totla species logged was 41 which was better than expected. Full list can be seen by clicking here.

First walk in the park after returning from a week away in N Wales. Nothing too exciting in the morning rain, but a 2nd yr Med Gull was with Black-headed Gulls on W lake, the first I’ve seen there for a while.

So far my best airborne kingfisher from MP hide

Stock Dove 2 Tree Creeper 2 Chiffchaff 1 Green Woodpecker 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker 1 Redwing 10 Song Thrush 2 Goosander 1 Also a late Migrant Hawker. All seen whilst cyclist used us to practice their slalom skills.

Greeted by a Chiffchaff singing lustily from the shrub near the cafe about 1030. Also 2 Sparrowhawks near Tresilian bay and last evening Tawny Owl calling near Boverton and Green Woodpecker regularly heard at Llanmaes Road allotments over the past few weeks.