Sunday Outing to the Seaside

Martin Bevan and myself decided to have a visit to Kenfig on Sunday morning to see if they was any visible migration going on.
We met Neil Donaghy in the car park and walked around the east part of the pool with him and he told us how bad the pool had become eg. only seeing Pochard and Wigeon once this year. Sure enough the only wildfowl on the pool was a single Teal and a few Mallard. Martin was inconsolable to find there was not even one Coot. There was plenty of migration taking place with plenty of Swallows, Chaffinches and Linnet moving through. Martin called a flyover Green Sandpiper which was first for the year for the pool. Also three Sparrowhawks provided some interest. Plenty of Cetti Warblers were heard but none seen.
We left Neil and walked around the west side of the pool, down through the dunes and onto Sker. Lots of Stonechats, Meadow Pipits and Skylarks were around also a Garden Warbler and a fly over Tree Pipit were surprising at this time of year.
The rocks at Sker produced Knot, Dunlin, Sanderling, Ringed Plover, Oystercatcher, Curlew and a flock of Golden Plover of over 400 birds.
A Little Owl was then seen at Sker House on the walk back.
Back at the centre it was nice to have a chat with Wayne Morris, Dave Carrington, Alan Rosney, Graham Powell and even Beaky who were doing various things with the Glamorgan Club's Big Day.

Phil , Reed bunting after a bit of Twigging.

Llwyn-onn

Great white egret found early morning by Ranger Tim Griffiths, bird still present at 11:30 hours feeding along north west bank.

Top of the Cynon Valley

Martin Bevan and myself started out at Graig y Llyn this morning hoping to get a year tick for Martin of Ring Ouzel on passage. Unusually for that area not many trees had berries on them so the odds were stacked against us and we duly dipped. Lots of Chaffinches on passage, our first two Redwing of the autumn, also 8 Goosanders were a nice surprise ( all redheads ). Raptors were good though, we had already had a Sparrowhawk earlier when I picked Martin up and now we had Buzzard, Peregrine and a very close swoop past us of a Merlin. The noise of the Merlin flying past was unbelievable for a bird of that size, it startled us both sounding like a miniature jet on low manoeuvres.
From there we went to Sub Station pond in Hirwaun which was very disappointing with just Mallard, Moorhen and Martin's favourite bird Coot.
We then went over to Cwm Cadlan which was partly covered in mist so very little was seen there but added Kestrel to the raptor list for the day.
Last port of call was a walk up to the quarry at Penderyn hoping again for Ring Ouzel and once again no luck. Really good views of Red Kite were had making our sixth raptor for the day. Lots of Starling and Mistle Thrushes but we could not find any more winter thrushes among them. Other birds included Stonechat and a small party of Reed Buntings.

Down Gower way

For the second weekend in a row I was down the far end of the Gower. This time it was a pre-coaching visit to Rhossili and Mewslade. Birding was quiet but I did clock at least 24 Chough, a single Merlin and a Dartford Warbler. A calling Tawny Owl in Mewslade was notable. As the sun came out, so did the butterflies (all in Mewslade). A Red Admiral, followed by a Painted Lady, then 3 or 4 Wall (a year tick for me).
A quick walk out onto the sands a Swansea Bay, off Blackpill, produced about a dozen Med Gulls, 2 adult Yellow-legged Gulls and, best of all, a first winter Ring-billed Gull. 4 Pintail were a surprise.

Whiteford, Llanelli and Pen y Fan

Few shots from recent walks.

Rhaslas progress report

The Orcs appear to have stopped taking water on Thursday 25/09/14, finally removing their infernal pump on Sunday 28/09/14. The vast reduction in water cover has induced fear/lack of confidence into the wildfowl who now flush as soon as you are visible. Although bird activity and numbers have been down, human activity has been very much on the up, so busy infact I haven't bothered stopping to even give the place a quick scope, until yesterday and today, when wigeon[12], shoveler[1] and pintail [2] were present albeit briefly. Also the passage wheatear appear to be getting bigger.