Very quiet. Birds of note were adult med gull, little egret and my first kingfisher of the Autumn

26 Sandwich terns roosting towards Burry Holms this morning.
Waders on the beach were ringed plover (3), sanderling (3), dunlin (1), knot (1) and c. 50 oystercatcher.
Also 2 Sandwich terns off the lighthouse island (Mumbles) this pm.

Brunel Dock – Little Egret (1), Dunlin (21) & Redshank (c50)

Crymlyn Burrows – Ringed Plover (243), Knot (15), Sanderling (353), Dunlin (77), Redshank (1), Mediterranean Gull (2) & Common Gull (10). Also over on Aberavon Beach 12 Bar-tailed Godwits with the Oystercatcher flock.

MHi, RJ

2 Arctic terns briefly with foraging kitts off Bracelet Bay.
A great crested grebe sat on the sea was unusual. Otherwise 10-15 gannets and a guillemot.
17 Med gulls sat on the sea at Bracelet, with a few more around Limeslade.

Single Med Gull on playing fields in Hamadryad Park among c.300+ B-H Gulls. 8 GBB Gulls on the Pierhead pontoons and a Wheatear on the barrage with 2 Chiffchaff who seem to be everywhere today.

Juv CommonTern on res. Still there when I left at 15:30.

Lots of Swallows battling through the rain this morning.

Quiet seawatch.
8 common scoter west (5m 3f/imm)
5 gannet
1 guillemot
Lots of juvenile kittiwakes offshore, with some of the more distant ones causing a few flutters!

Barrage: 3 Wheatear together on the grass bank facing the bay near the sluice gates and Kingfisher, plus Ringed Plover, Rock Pipit, and quite a few Meadow Pipits on or near the rocks.

just rec’d info via Lol Middleton who’s found a Wryneck at Lavernock about 400m along the coast path towards Penarth from Lavernock Pt.

Update – no further sighting 2 hrs+ after it was originally seen, having been looked for by Lol, myself, DRWG and Mike Powell. It had flown up to the hedgerow at the inland edge of the first stubble field.

Of interest just offshore – 2 Harbour Porpoise slowly moving up channel about 100m offshore.

An Arctic Tern and 87 Wigeon the most interesting additions to the birds frequenting the area around bridge this evening. 30+ Little Egrets just north of the bridge probably equates to c.15% of the birds in the Burry at Present, although observations at WWT indicate there could be a lot more.

Single Leach’s Petrel close in at Porthcawl at 08:11 going west. Other birds include eight Gannet down channel and a RT Diver up channel.

Seawatch 07:25-08:25.
A dark morph Arctic skua was chasing kittiwakes off the Tutt from around 08:15-08:22 when it headed west.
Otherwise: 11 common scoter west (1,4,6), 2 immature shag foraging off the head and one adult west, a guillemot on the sea and good numbers of gannet. Gannets not possible to accurately count, as movements not directional, but a minimum of 20 and possibly double that number.

Juvenile Sabine’s Gull, off Porthcawl, heading west, down channel at 07:10. Steady flow of birds all going down channel from first light for first hour, including a dozen or so of Gannet and Manxies. Several groups of Common Scoter, one of which contained ten birds, all but one being male. Later a juvenile Kittiwake flying closer in just offshore.

Did another hour of seawatching (17:10-18:10) after the rain had moved through.
The only highlight was an intermediate morph adult Arctic skua just after 18:00 which lingered off the head to kick the kittiwakes around.
Other than that, more gannets than this morning (c.15), a razorbill and a very distant shearwater species that was probably a Manxie.