Cresswell River

At last an osprey, fishing very actively. I watched it dive 7 times, pulling out of 3 or 4 more. It finally caught what looked like a smallish fish well up river, and flew behind trees on the north side to eat it. Whimbrel and greenshank heard. Lots of butterflies on the sea aster, at least 60 large whites, 5 clouded yellows (plus one in the lower field), painted ladies, small coppers.... Good to meet Phil and Jane Spence along the shore (just too late for the osprey action, I hope they got lucky after I'd left, it was only a small fish), and Steve Watt hunting butterflies. 

The osprey was too far away to look for leg rings. 

Haverfordwest Osprey

 Just had an osprey from Crowhill heading down Western Cleddau towards Fortunes Frolic at 10.25am, almost confirming a bird I saw distantly going up river yesterday just before 12pm, from Crowhill that I could not get enough on.

St Govan's Head seawatching 31/08

Seawatching totals from St Govan's Hd yesterday (31/08):

Sabine's Gull 4 (2 Ad, 2 Juv)
Cory's Shearwater 1
Balearic Shearwater 1
Sooty Shearwater 4
Grey Phalarope 2 
Arctic Skua 5 

'Commic' Tern c700

Pale-bellied Brent Geese 29 (single flock)

This evening was much quieter but in an hour, 2 Balearic Shearwaters flew west.

Skokholm

Wryneck and a Nightingale still present

Strumble Head

10 Sabine's gulls passing with the kittiwakes up till 10:30am. Single Sooty shearwater, jinking Grey phalarope, Balearic shearwater Bonxie and 7 Arctic skua the pick. Lots of the regulars in attendance as well as visiting birders.

Newgale to Dale

 Saturday 2.30pm to 5.30pm

An interesting day and similar to Toby’s day.

Starting at Newgale, mist was in and low visibility though a lot of things moving out to sea, just glances.

Got to Broadhaven and on the beach, 12 Dunlin and two Sanderling then came in about 20 terns which were gaining in number, settling on the beach, approx numbers 40ish common, 6 arctic, with 6 sandwich with far more out to sea.

Stopped at Goultrop as starting to brighten, and unusually here was the waders all heading South. Including 20ish ringed plover, 40ish dunlin, 4 turnstone, 6 knot, and then a grey phalarope which were all at eye level heading over the headland towards Talbenny. Comics, gannet and kittiwakes further out.

Finished at Dale hoping that all had dropped at the Airfield but only a single curlew a wheatear and a very close at times female kestrel.

St Govan's Hd, Freshwater West and Kilpaison

Two seawatching shifts at St Govan's Head today. The morning was the most productive with the highlight being two Grey Phalarope which lingered off the headland for a short while around 8am. Also impressive was the number of Terns (Mostly Arctics) offshore before 8:30am.

Totals up to 11.20am were (all west): 

Grey Phalarope 2

Arctic Skua 3 (dark-phase adults)

Kittiwake 125

Manx Shearwater 306

Sandwich Tern 12 (and 7 east) 

Arctic Tern 95

Common Tern 12

Commic Tern 111

Common Scoter 5 (east)

Heavy rain set in after that so I had a break and went to check Freshwater West and then Kilpaison. 

Fresh. West - 5 Dunlin 

Kilpaison - 36 Dunlin, 29 Ringed Plover, 2 Sanderling, 3 Turnstone, 1 Whimbrel, 1 Bar-tailed Godwit, 70+ Curlew, 45+ Oystercatcher. 

Moulting adult Sanderling at Kilpaison this afternoon.

Back at St Govan's Head for the evening was quiet but 4 Arctic Skua flew west in two hours.

Yesterday evening at Freshwater West a small waders flock on the beach consisted of 7 Sanderling, 3 Dunlin and 6 Ringed Plover. 

Juvenile Dunlin (left) and moulting adult Sanderling (right) at Freshwater West yesterday evening.

Osprey

From David Wilks: Osprey seen this morning at 9:30am, clearly looking for fish. Downstream from the iron bridge.

Sabine’s Gull

We had wonderful views yesterday of a juvenile Sabine’s Gull, dip feeding along the North coast of the Marloes peninsular, about a quarter of a mile east of Martin’s Haven. It only fed 100m-200m out, and kept to a pretty small area, sometimes sitting on the water for several minutes: a great way to see all the plumage details of a beautiful bird.

Elsewhere: 

Bicton pond, currently a near-perfect scrape for waterbirds, had a Wood Sandpiper, 4 each Green Sandpipers and Black-tailed Godwits, 2 Snipe, and a Yellow Wagtail. Plus 20+ Teal, all in eclipse.

The post on the Blog yesterday about stranded Manxies was well timed. I found this one absolutely in the middle of the Fishguard Road, opposite Withybush Hospital, at about 1AM this morning. Safely boxed up, and released above Renny’s Slip 40 minutes later!

Skokholm

 Nightingale and Wryneck still

From Ian Sefton:

A Juvenile Grey Phalarope at Landshipping Quay yesterday 27/08/25, managed a poor record shot.

 

Skokholm

Wryneck still here today. Thanks to Brain S for sightings of Great Black-backed Gull W:488 on 29Jul (a juv last seen here on the 27th) and W:492 on 11Aug (a juv last seen here on the 7th), to Derek for W:429 on 16Aug (a 2023 ringed adult which breeds here each year) and to Astins for W:168 on 19Aug (ringed as a chick in 2016 and breeding here in each of the last two years). 

Grounded Shearwaters

 

Manx Shearwater

From Dave Butler: A manx shearwater was in my garden at 1 30am this morning,  released at Milford Quay flew off strongly  by 1 45 am. 

Grounded Shearwaters: Our first of the season today and likely to be more with strong winds over the weekend.

For the past couple of decades we have been collecting grounded shearwaters brought in by the public to the Ocean Lab. We then get them ringed by Rich or Wendy, (Teifi Bird Ringers) before safely releasing them. preferably from the Stena ferry when out to sea. There is usually a coordinated response with other collection points but as yet i have not seen who or where as yet. Either way the Ocean Lab (SA64 0DE) Fishguard Harbour, is open 7 days a week, 10 am to 5pm so happy to take any found locally. Best thing is place bird in a smallish cardboard box lined with kitchen roll or newspaper with air-holes punched in top or sides, and securely closed. They can lve a long time without food or water so dont put water or food in with them, they will be fine. allthingsgood,cliff Sea Trust

Teifi and Newport Ospreys

August highlights from the Teifi 

The three current Ospreys are mentioned here - two are colour ringed birds.

Skokholm

Our second Nightingale of the autumn and a Wryneck today. Also the first Spanish ringed Manx Shearwater to be found in the UK (awaiting details). 

Manorbier and Tenby

Seawatching for a couple of hours this morning (up to 8.30am) produced a Sooty Shearwater (west) and Balearic Shearwater (east) amongst a steady passage of Manxies and Kittiwakes past Old Castle Head. Also a dark phase Arctic Skua west. 

At Tenby south beach this evening a nice group of 46 Ringed Plover and a single Dunlin.

Also of note recently a Jackdaw bearing a yellow colour ring in the harvested potato field above Skrinkle Haven. The bird was ringed as a recently fledged juvenile in July 2024 at Pennard Cliffs, Gower and is apparently the furthest resighting from this project to date! 

Dale Airfield

Our first visit to Dale Airfield this autumn.  The 'stony field' at the west end is grassy this year so not looking promising for waders.  The 'leaky water trough' at the east end has created a nice wet area, on which were 2 juvenile Little Ringed Plover, and 3 juvenile Ruff which were very showy and unconcerned by our presence.  A Ringed Plover was flying around calling but we never saw it.  An impressive gathering of Great Black-backed Gulls numbered at least 200 birds across 2 flocks.  At least 5 Wheatears on the runways.

Nevern estuary 27th Aug

A quick look for waders on the dropping tide between 1235-1330 today turned up:

Knot x 2 

Ruff x 1 

Dunlin x 23

R plover x 15 

Turnstone x 1

Redshank x 1

Oystercatcher x 3

Curlew x 1

The colour ringed osprey also made a brief appearance.

Newport from Sam O'Donnell

Surprised to find this Wood Warbler along the coastal path near the tennis courts alongside the estuary. 

German ringed juvenile female Osprey still fishing over the estuary. Also Blackwit, 10+ Ringed Plover, 30 Dunlin, 2 Common Sandpiper, Redshank, Oystercatchers, Curlews, 3 Med Gulls, Willow Warbler, Kingfisher.