This morning before the Boxing Day crowds descended on the river.

Gadwall 8, turnstone 1, little grebe 7, goldeneye 13, goosander 2, redshank 10 and a little egret.

Two Shags off The Deeps was the highlight of a Christmas walk in the Ogmore area.

Chiffchaff in the garden this afternoon. Happy Christmas

4 or 5 Redwings feeding on white-berried Rowan (notable, as there have been very few Redwings here this year), plus tame Nuthatch taking food from the hand:

17-Little Egrets flew in to the roost.16h00-16h25.

tutt head sat. am

6 RT Diver west, 1 GN Diver landed on sea , steady  stream of auks and kittiwakes  , all west.

whitford sands sunday ,

approx 590 sanderling which seems a good count for down here.Also, 24 black tailed gowit,32 ringed plover on beach;pretty stotmy ,otherwise

Two bitterns and an otter reported today. The latter was sitting on reeds at the end of ‘Tree Cut’ left of the southern hide this afternoon.

A flock of c19 Redwing just arrived to join the 2 Mistle Thrushes that have been in the trees behind my home for a few weeks. That’s almost as exciting as birding from my house gets.

Earlier, at Fairwater Park, nice if brief view of fem. Sparrowhawk in tree, also male bullfinch, redwings and usual suspects.

No sign of Lsr Scaup this am on CBWR. Large exodus of ducks: only 15 Tufted Ducks seen on the reserve, none at Prospect Place and just 15 seen elsewhere in the bay.
In The Marl playing fields,a single ad.w.Med Gull, a flock of 36 Greenfinch and 2 Redwing.

Pair of Goosander on Isaac Morgan pond mid morning, and a hunting Kestrel near the entrance to the derelict Ffos-y-fran training centre.

Late this afternoon at Cosmeston singles of Barnacle goose, drake Pochard and drake Shoveler all at the west end of East Lake, and on the West Lake 3 Gadwall.

Slavonian grebe close inshore at Burges Island. Also a rb merg (male) and 51 eider there.
46 black-tailed godwit, 162 sanderling and 49 ringed plover among the waders on Whiteford Sands
800+ lapwing with 44 golden plover at The Groose
4 eider off Mumbles Pier, and 11 Med gulls in Bracelet car park.

12 little grebe, 3 turnstone, 5 gadwall, 1 shellduck, 5 goosander and 1 little egret  were of note this morning together with 1 water pipit on the lower estuary

No sign of the Ring-necked Duck this morning sadly. The Barnacle Goose below was with a v large flock of Canadas that arrived this morning. Also present 3 Shoveler [2f 1m] and 2 pairs of Gadwall as per the other day and 1 AdW Med Gull on E lake.  Also checked CBWR, R. Taff at Hamadryad and Prospect Place for R-n Duck but no joy.

Porteynon: 6 purple sandpiper (including the one above), 31 ringed plover, dunlin, redshank, sanderling, little egret, 13 turnstone and a snipe (unusually) on Sedger’s Bank, and 2 Med gulls with 164 black-headed and 56 common gulls on the beach. 2 red-throated divers flew west out of the bay. 8 shag.
Oxwich: 46 teal, 17 gadwall, 6 shoveler, 4 wigeon on freshwater pools. 439 common gull at Nicholaston Pill. No sign of Mandarin.
Eider (2) off Mumbles Pier (sub ad male and a female).

The Lsr Scaup was back on CBWR this morning with c.66 Tufted Ducks after being absent on Monday and Tuesday. 2 GBB Gulls were in front of the Pier Head building and another 2 off the barrage with c.50+ Common Gulls and a Kingfisher present in Penarth Marina. Yesterday in CBWR a Chiffchaff showed well in the reedbed in front of St.David’s Hotel with c.8 Reed Buntings.

No sign of the lesser Scaup at Cossie this morning but there appeared to be a good candidate for a ring-necked duck:

Tufted duck sized, looked a bit stockier, grey flanks, black back, no tuft (just a bump) and a bill with a distinct white band at the base and another behind a large black tip. It was with a large group of tufted ducks by the board walk in front of the cafe, east lake. Didn’t seem overly tame. I have very bad field sketch but didn’t think to get a photo.

Might be worth checking out by the cossie regulars.

Here is the appalling field sketch done in a bit of a hurry as was on my way to a meeting

Only other thing of note there was a single shoveler (east lake)

Cardiff barrage was quite impressive at low tide with all 5 sluices open. There were 60 Common Gulls on the orange buoys and adjacent water – seemingly the most numerous species present.

20 dunlin and 16 redshank in dock 40 curlew on Crumlyn burrows side 600 est pre roost jackdaw flock 

16 little egrets in the boat club roost 2 mute swan on river 2 herons and a kestrel 

Also of interest at Ogmore Estuary was a Canada Goose bearing a red ring ‘AAKT’. I have already received a reply and the bird was ringed at Bowness-on-Windermere on 2/7/13 by the RSPCA Ringing Group as part of a study on post-moult dispersal of Canada Geese from Lake Windermere, Cumbria. 

Distance 326km Duration 168 days