An hour or so at the Gann this afternoon with Brian scoping through the Gull roost hoping to find Dave`s Caspian Gull drew a blank, plenty of the more "common" Gulls, including Common Gulls` LBB`s ,GBB`s & Herring. Med Gulls were in good numbers including this ringed individual. Two Great Northern Divers offshore also
A quietish morning (no other birders). Outfall still looks blocked but water level has dropped 1-2 feet with natural drainage - no diving ducks. Shoveler, mallard, teal, wigeon etc., now 6 swans - the 2 whoopers and 4 mutes. Moorhen, little grebe... Just one ad female marsh harrier, 1 ad male peregrine. The two chough as usual in the field by Starman's.
Yesterday on the mud flats at the pill mouth were large flocks of Lapwing (791), Dunlin (1541) and Golden Plover (c 3000). Also, 65 Wigeon, 59 Shelduck and 21 Mallard, with a single drake Pintail amongst the Mallard.
Nice (albeit brief) views this morning of a pair of crossbill in the trees behind Fishguard Bay Resort, before they flew off west.
The juvenile Great Northern Diver was still in Tenby harbour over the high tide today. Feeding on a good supply of shore crabs. Also a smart drake Common Scoter in the harbour. 9 Great Crested Grebe off North Beach.
6 Purple Sandpiper and 2 Turnstone on the lifeboat station ramp.
Back in Llanteg. 5 Woodcock and 4 Snipe over at dusk.
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| Great Northern Diver (juvenile) |
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| Common Scoter |
Late news - Adam Seaton saw a male pochard at the Corse on Friday. This adds to the impressive roster of diving ducks seen at the Corse since the outfall became blocked - tufted, scaup, goosander, not to mention lots of little grebe and the whoopers, and the high raptor numbers. The Corse is trying to tell us something.
Morning out checking the bay started at Amroth but with choppy seas there was little offshore there.
Wiseman's Bridge was more sheltered. 4 Great Crested Grebe, 2 Red-throated Diver and a drake Eider the best. On the beach 32 Turnstone were feeding along the tideline.
From Glen beach, Saudersfoot: 5 more Eider (4 Ad drake + female), 6 Great Crested Grebe and 3 Red-breasted Mergansers (they seem quite scarce this year).
Tenby: great views of Great Northern Diver feeding in Tenby harbour (plus a second off South beach), 9 Great Crested Grebe off North beach, 3 Guillemot and 3 Red-throated Diver. A single Purple Sandpiper was on the rocks below the lifeboat station.
Went back out for the gull roost off Glen beach this evening. 250 Black-headed gulls, 40 Common gull and 66 Kittiwake in. Unlike the Gann, no Meds!
An evening walk around Llanteg produced a Woodcock, a few Commom snipe and surprisingly a Jack Snipe all dropping into the wet fields around the village.
Nice to find an adult Caspian Gull at the Gann late afternoon. It was amongst a decent sized pre-roost gathering on the beach as the tide dropped, amongst which was a minimum of 80 Mediterranean Gulls, most of which were adults.
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| Distinctive primary pattern visible here - check it against the illustration in the Collins Bird Guide |
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| Dark mantle, un-streaked head, dark eye & straight bill all visible (just!) here |
A Black Redstart was on the side of the Haverfordwest High Sports Hall (Strength Academy Wales gym) yesterday afternooon.
The male Green-winged Teal still showing well (midday) with Teal and Wigeon up river of the iron bridge at Newport.
This morning, three of us (Annie, Jane Hodges and I) did a walk in very blustery conditions in search of choughs etc along part of the St Davids
peninsula. Between us we covered the entire stretch of coastline between
Whitesands Bay and Newgale (each of us walking three separate sections). Not many choughs were seen, although Annie observed eight feeding together in a
sheltered stubble field above Nine Wells valley.
Jane noted a few choughs in her section and watched half a dozen turnstones, 2 ringed plovers and 2 curlews and several pied wagtails feeding on the strandline at Porthlysgi Bay. I only saw three choughs near the entrance to Solva Harbour, and where 21 noisy/squabbling oystercatchers were resting on a sheltered cliff-slope near St Elvis Rock.
A great northern diver was right up inside the harbour, which was relatively sheltered from the very strong NW wind and rough sea. It might have stayed there for longer perhaps but for an annoyingly yapping dog that rushed into the water near it to retrieve a ball.
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| The diver quickly reacted to the yapping dog by swimming down stream into deeper water. |
Annie noted a merlin at St Non's Bay, and I observed a male peregrine that was being mobbed by a herring gull high over Dinas Fach. As noted elsewhere recently, there were good numbers of song thrushes in the coastal scrub. However, conditions for watching anything for very long were not great.
A couple of days ago (17th) between two of us (Annie and myself) we covered the coast between Whitesands and Porthgain. Annie noted a merlin at Trelewyd and I saw another one at St Davids Head, plus a red kite hunting there, plus a sparrowhawk and a kestrel hunting in Porthmelgan valley.
That day, other highlights included c.10 choughs feeding in a field near Abereiddi, flocks of at least 200 chaffinches feeding in stubble area near Whitesands Bay and c.50 goldfinches on the edge of stubble field near Portgain. However, the overall diversity of species and numbers of birds seen were not particularly great.
An extremely blustery walk at West Williamston this morning with the path covered in long stretches by seaweed a foot deep driven up by the big tides and wind. On the north bank of the Cresswell River 300+ Dunlin were roosting with a few Lapwing scattered amongst them. Some 15 Redshank and 24 Curlew made a showing as they flew past or rose up calling from the marsh. 29 Shelduck were rafted up towards the north side of the Cresswell and started to move around as the tide dropped. 6 Snipe came out of the marsh and dropped down by the water’s edge, around 40 Wigeon flew in from up stream and 45 Lapwing flew from the Carew River over towards Lawrenny. Nice to see 9 Grey Plover fly past and a squadron of 48 Canada Geese put on a noisy show as they flew past low and headed North.
Walking back down the side of the Carew River there were 95 Greylags on the East bank - difficult to count with the wind blowing the binoculars about.
Mid afternoon a Great Northern Diver was just off the ramp of Tenby Lifeboat station.
From Alastair Proud: A late record of a male black redstart on the railings and ground beside
the queuing cars waiting for the very delayed ferry from Pembroke Dock
to Rosslare, 14.00 hrs. on the 11th December; unfortunately the
redstart did not linger long enough to ease the frustration of the
delay.
This morning on a walk in the gloom there was a Great Northern Diver on Radford Pill - likely the same one seen on the Carew River on Sunday. Also there a Greenshank, 12 Redshank, 2 Curlew and a few Teal and Wigeon. c.40 Lapwings were flying over the South side of the Pill.
On the mud on the Carew River down towards the Mill one more Greenshank, a further 25 Redshank, 7 Black Tailed Godwits, 1 Dunlin, 3 Curlew, 23 Teal. On the way back home a Peregrine was cruising over the road near St Florence.
A blustery cold wind at Castlemartin corse, a first visit for me and my old birding friend John O'Sullivan (from my days in Gwent decades ago!).
Three Grey Plover and a Turnstone on the rocks by the beach started proceedings. On the way to the hide, nice flock of 50+ Fieldfare, several Stonechats, Reed Buntings and Meadow Pipits.
Great to see the juv and adult Whooper Swans together on the lake, and from the hide multiple views of at least 2 different Marsh Harriers, one an adult female I think, the other an immature.
A highlight was a flock of about 15 Snipe in flight, presumably put up by a harrier, that included no less than 3 tiny ones, Jack Snipe! Large numbers of Lapwing (200+) seemed very unsettled and were frequently airborne.
There were also small numbers of Shoveler, Teal, Wigeon, a lone Tuftie, 2 Little Grebes, a Heron and on the way back 2 squealy pig Water Rails kicked off in the ditch near Starman's Hall!.
Met a chap who amazingly had photos of a Reed Bunting apparently using a tiny twig as a tool to somehow break into or extract, presumably invert prey, from stems of rushes in front of the hide in October!
Was also nice to meet Steve Watt, photographer of the colour ringed Curlew, in the car park.
My first visit to this site for an hour of last light on Sunday afternoon with Ali and the dog. Despite the gloom and drizzle, was good to see 4 Grey Plover on the shore, about 70 Dunlin and a Great Northern Diver, diving frequently on the Carew. A couple of awful pics below!
Although not possible to do any serious counts I could see good numbers of Wigeon and Greylags, a flock of 35 Lapwing, and smaller numbers of Redshank, Curlew and Oystercatchers. Looks a great site....
