The long staying [4 days] Red-breasted Merganser was asleep near the SW corner of W lake this morning. I took some shots from the Mile Road viewpoint but it was too distant and the photos were ***. A drake Shoveler was with 2 females at the north end of W lake near the reedbed. No sign of yesterday’s Mandarin. Nothing too much else on the lakes bar the 100 or so Canada Geese. There were 4 Gt Crested Grebes and at least 4 Little Grebes. No interesting gulls as yet. I didn’t venture into the muddy quagmire paddocks.

Question ? if the sign written in English would the bird understand

A drake Mandarin was on E lake this morning along the NW shore opp the cafe. It was elusive as ity kept hiding under the overhanging trees, Whilst I was on the cafe, al the gulls suddenly flushed and I grabbed my bins & got on to what was poss a Goshawk flying high over E lake going N. Whilst scanning for the Mandarin, I saw a Kingfisher fly across in front of the trees on the NW shore and land in a tree near the sluice in the corner.
Also present this morning but not seen by me, Hawfinch at the usual spot past the dragonfly pond, and the Red-breasted Merganser, and a juv Gos by Cogan Wood.
Spot the Mandarin in the 1st pic! The Tufty was rather more obliging!

Nothing too exciting today. Although I didn’t see it, the Red-breasted Merganser was still present on E lake first thing then moved over to W. lake. A Redwing shot across Mile Road and settled and I managed to grab a shot. It’s the first one I’ve seen at rest this winter. Also on the thrush front, there were 2 Mistle Thrushes in E paddock. A Chiffchaff was calling from a Birch outside the rangers ‘garage’.
Away from the park, the 3 Scoters were apparently still offshore at Sully.

A few unusual birds locally in the last 2 days, which I’ve managed to catch up with.
Offshore at Sully bay there were 2 Common Scoter together with a fem type Velvet Scoter. Pretty unusual to get Scoters this far up the channel except after storms. They were rather too distant for photos.
Then at Cosmeston there was a female Red-breasted Merganser, found late afternoon yesterday. It was on east lake and very active, diving frequently. I also noted around 6 Little Grebes, and on W lake there were 2 fem Shoveler and a male, and a pair of Gadwall.

15 folk came along on our Kenfig Public Walk on Saturday, welcome all, good to see old friends and some new folk. We went down to the hide where we left Martin , searching for a Bittern – he had no luck- it must have been hiding in the reeds, but he did see, in addition to our list, a Grey Heron, good views of Long Tailed Tits, and heard more than one Water Rail. Tramping through the reserve to the shore, we watched a flock of Golden Plover in the distance – no Eider duck, but did see Curlew, Turnstone, Oystercatcher, and Sanderling, 41 species see or heard between us.

Full List

Canada Goose, Greylag Goose, Mute Swan , Shoveler Gadwall , Wigeon, Mallard , Teal , Feral Pigeon , Woodpigeon , Water Rail , Coot , Oystercatcher . Golden Plover, Curlew , Turnstone , Sanderling , Black-headed Gull , Common Gull , Herring Gull , Great Black-backed Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull , Cormorant , Kestrel , Magpie, Jackdaw , Carrion Crow, Blue Tit , Great Tit , Cetti’s Warbler , Long-tailed Tit , Chiffchaff , Goldcrest, Wren , Starling , Blackbird , Robin , Stonechat, Dunnock , Meadow Pipit , Bullfinch 

Many thanks to Dave Carrington for leading, everyone else for the ID help and coming along!

Nothing too exciting during a walk along the coast at Sully on Sat 16th, but the Kestrel posed nicely on top of a mast in the sailing club, and there were 3 Rock Pipits & 2 Pied Wags on the cricket field. This afternoon, Sun 17 I drove over to Flemingston, near St Athan to see the 5 Whooper Swans that turned up a couple of days ago. They were pretty distant but nice to see – a pretty uncommon visitor to the Vale.

Common Sandpiper 1 Pochard 1 Mallard 2 Teal 2 and Wigeon 3 not seen by us at this site previously.

The sullen grey skies for the last few days have been rather depressing, and the resulting poor light not good for photography. Even so, it was a delight yesterday to find a group of c.6 Redpolls feeding in tall birches near the dipping pond. Redpolls used to be regularly seen at Cosmeston [say about 15 yrs ago and earlier] but they are very scarce these days. Today a few Fieldfare flew over W paddock, calling, the first I’ve seen this winter. Also yesterday and today, there were 3 drake Pochard on W lake – another species that used to be very numerous in the winter. Of non-avian interest – the fungi were in good condition, but my phone app was not able to ID them with any certainty.

” Ten keen bird watchers, including several new faces, gathered at Kenfig NNR on Saturday 19th October 2024, which was a bright, beautiful and, eventually, very warm autumn morning.

Alan Rosney lead the group, with John Western acting as recorder of the species seen and/or heard.

It was decided to head for Sker Point, where high tide had been at 8am. At Sker, the group was treated to a flock of some 200 Golden Plovers, which were seen flying spectacularly over the sea before landing on the rocks at Sker beach.Also at Sker were good numbers of Oystercatchers, Turnstone and Curlew.

The intrepid participants then headed over the dunes and spent the last hour or so at the now somewhat forlorn – looking hide. The highlight here was a Kingfisher, which flew low over the water close to the hide and perched on a nearby post, much to the delight of those present.

It was a very enjoyable and productive bird walk in near perfect weather. 

The full list of 46 recorded species is as follows:-

Canada Goose, Mute Swan, Mallard, Great Crested Grebe, Woodpigeon, Water Rail, Coot, Oystercatcher, Golden Plover, Curlew, Redshank, Turnstone, Black – headed Gull, Lesser Black – Backed Gull, Great Black – Backed Gull, Cormorant,  Little Egret, Heron, Red Kite, Kingfisher, Kestrel, Jay, Magpie, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Raven, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Skylark, Cetti’s Warbler, Long- tailed Tit, Goldcrest, Wren, Starling, Song Thrush, Redwing, Blackbird, Robin, Stonechat, Dunnock, Pied Wagtail, Meadow Pipit, Bullfinch, Goldfinch, Reed Bunting.”

Three Goosander including one drake on 27th October.

And found Bearded Tits at RSPB Newport on Sunday 27 Oct 2024 after 3 years looking

A few random images from Cosmeston visits recently. The display dancing GCGs were a bit of a surprise. The lone Siskin was by the Mile Road near the E paddock kissing gate on 14th. Oct. The Long-tailed Tit was in a party of around 15 this morning [25 Oct] which was accompanied by a Goldcrest. The images are individually captioned where necessary.

A few bits & bobs from reccent days.
11th Oct at Lavernock – a brief visit for a change of scene. Very muddy. A female Blackcap was in trees behind the gun emplacements, and there were 2 Chiffchaffs, 2 Jay and a few Skylarks overhead.
13th Oct at Cosmeston – There were c.20 Swallows over W lake and 30 Tufted Duck there, and also 80 Black-headed Gulls also on W lake.
14th Oct at Cosmeston – a single Siskin by the Mile Road was the first I’d seen in the park for a while – probably since last winter.
18th Oct at Cosmeston – A feeding party of Long-tailed Tits just had a Goldcrest with them. Also noted were 1 Meadow Pipit, a Sparrowhawk that flew through W. paddock, 2 Skylark overhead, a pair of Great Crested Grebes were displaying and Cetti’s Warbler heard.
Yesterday 23rd Oct at Lavernock reserve – still failed on trying to find Yellow-browed Warbler that had been seen 2 days ago. A Long-tailed Tit feeding party just had a couple of accompanying Chiffchaffs. Three Bullfinches flew around calling and 2 Jay and 2 Mistle Thrushes were active. I heard both Green and Great Spotted Woodpeckers. Yesterday there were 3 separate Cetti’s Warblers calling in the E lake reeds area.

Small movement to ssw again this morning over Canton, Cardiff. 1800 in half an hour. Plus 40 Redwing.

Small movement ssw today after the mist lifted, 1015 counted in thirty minutes over Canton, Cardiff at mid-day.

This weekend saw a successful and enjoyable GBC stay at Portland Bird Observatory with 13 folk staying in the ‘Obs’ and 3 others joining us independently. 89 species were logged, highlights undoubtedly being the 2 Red-breasted Flycatchers, a Yellow-browed Warbler & a Firecrest, albeit ‘in the hand’, Hobby, migrating Balearic Shearwaters plus innumerable Gannets of all ages, & Kittiwake & auks. Corn Buntings at Maiden Castle and a good selection of waders at Ferrybridge plus a roost of 80+ Mediterranean Gulls. Lodmoor RSPB reserve in Weymouth gave us glimpses of Bearded Tit. Click here for the full list and info. Thanks for Prof Peter Morgan of Cardiff for the seawatching pic.

The Black Tern is still feeding on Lisvane, also a Common Sandpiper.

Midday-ish today. New arrivals were 10 Teal on west lake, together with around 30 Tufted Duck, 2 drake Pochard and a lone eclipse Wigeon. The Heron was in the favoured tree near the main bridge. Annoyingly there were 3 men fishing with hand lines, including the 2 pictured on the kayak launching platform on E lake. The other guy spent some time along the far shore of W lake in the conservation area, and then moved round to the shoreline of E lake. There’s no fishing allowed but there’s no signage to say so!