Swift

From Steve Thomas: A late lone swift over St David’s this afternoon 

(Thursday)

Birding optics for sale

The following optical equipment (3 scopes & a tripod) are for sale.  Be nice if they stayed locally.  Collection / delivery can be arranged locally (we live in St Ishmaels, happy to meet up Haverfordwest / Milford / Neyland if needed).  For more details on any item, including condition etc, please drop me an email (david.astins@gmail.com).

Swarovski ATS65HD with 20-60x zoom (comes with a LCE stay on case)

Leica APO Televid 62 with 17-48x zoom (and a Leica stay on case)

Opticron MM2 52 with 13-39x zoom

Manfrotto 190 CXPRO4, with Cley Spey Mule Pack (can sell separately)

Dale Airfield and the Gann

 A very productive visit to Dale Airfield and the Gann.  Several chough wheeling in the wind near the left hand runway.  A large flock of goldfinch feeding on thistle seed on the stony field were put up by a pair of kestrel hunting.  Several small flocks of ringed plover appeared from over the back of the stony field disturbed by a drone that made several passes over the airfield (approx 115 in total).  Several wheatear and the highlight was a very nice pair of whinchat, again up by the stony field on the brambles.

At the Gann there was a large mixed flock of ringed plover and dunlin along with curlew.  They had at least one curlew sandpiper in with them.  There were other waders around but not identified before the osprey appeared and I got distracted for the next 30 minutes before running out of time.  It eventually settled in a tree on the opposite side of the Pickleridge lagoon near the tree that the little egrets can often be seen in and was still there when I left at 3.20pm.

Angle

 On the spit in Angle Harbour this morning with the tide well up there were c.110 gulls roosting. Of these 53 were Mediterranean Gulls the vast majority adults with 4 juveniles. Just 3 Herring Gulls and the rest Black Headed. A small scattering of waders with 31 Ringed Plovers, 5 Dunlin, 1 Sanderling, 1 Redshank and 4 Oystercatchers. 8 Little Egrets were roosting in the trees on the south side of the harbour.

Very quiet at Kilpaison a little earlier with just 3 Ringed Plovers and 2 Dunlin. 6 Little Egrets and 1 Grey Heron were roosting on the north side of the bay. With a wind surfer setting up there was no point hanging about there. Sadly there is a lot more disturbance there than a few years ago.

Osprey still at the Gann

Nice to catch up with the osprey as it hunted around the pools this evening before it crossed over and out into the bay. It put up all the gulls and a few waders that included a green sandpiper. Very few small waders just a dozen ringed plover, a common sandpiper, a huddle of redshank on one of the islands and a couple of greenshank. A flock of 8-9 ruff flew around before settling on one of the small islands to roost, a couple of curlew sandpipers as well. Quite a few pied wagtails on the foreshore with at least one yellow wagtail. 18 little egret roosted in the trees. Very quiet on a thorough look around the airfield earlier, no waders not even a snipe. Be aware a couple of the cows on the airfield now have small calves. They seem pretty docile but not wise to get between mother and offspring. There's a cow that looks like a small fighting bull with horns to match that has a very small cream coloured calf that can be easy to miss in the grass as I almost did.

 

Birds on Goodwick beach

From Mile B: 

A mixture of Gulls, Oyster Catchers and Turnstones on Goodwick Beach this evening. 

Sorry about the poor photo taken with my mobile in the wind.

Osprey

From Gethin Jenkins:  Osprey spotted doing lengths of the reservoir early morning at Llys Y Fran on Monday 31st. Eventually leaving with fish in talons and heading over the dam and into the distance downstream.

Skokholm

Melodious Warbler, Wryneck and Quail today

White Stork

From Ian Kedie: On fields, amongst working tractors, near Clarbeston road, 3pm today.

Marloes Peninsular - Buff-breasted Sandpiper, Osprey etc.

I arrived at the airfield early this morning to find Jack watching the Buff-breasted Sandpiper doing circuits around the runway and adjacent fields. After briefly landing in the field next to the runway ponds, it disappeared towards the ploughed field at the far end of the runway. Impatience eventually got the better of us and we followed to scan the ploughed field. What at first sight looked barren, through the scope turned into a field full of Ringed Plovers (40+), few Dunlins and a Curlew Sandpiper. A Green Sandpiper also appeared as a fly-over.

Later, at The Gann, a juvenile, unringed Osprey did a circuit of bay as I arrived but, being mobbed by crows near the road, flew back to land in the bushes next to the pools. It stayed there for 5 minutes before disappearing upstream towards Mullock bridge. A Common Sandpiper was on what were otherwise quiet pools. 

Dale airfield waders

From Cheryl Hewitt: I spent a few pleasant hours on Monday afternoon at Dale Airfield with John Whitehurst . A few fellow birders were  all pleased to see the Buff breasted sandpiper and Ruff, amongst the cows. Unfortunately we didn’t see the Baird's sandpiper. 
I managed to get shots of the 4 ruff in flight and a the BB sandpiper through the fence .  

Unusual Goldfinch

From Trevor Theobald: Striking plumage variant visiting my Spittal garden this weekend  

Strumble and Buff-breasted sandpiper, Dale airfield

A promising looking forecast didn't quite deliver what was anticipated for the 25-30 assembled Strumblers. However there were still some cracking birds on the move including a Cory's shearwater, 6 Sooty  shearwater, 6 adult Sabine's gull, adult Little gull, a Pomarine and c20 Arctic skua.

News then broke of a Buff-breasted sandpiper in the company of a group of ruff up on the airfield. Which is having a pretty good run of decent waders. The b-b sandpiper was in the field behind the trough runway pools but didn't seem very settled and had a couple of fly arounds in the company of the ruff and some snipe. It returned to the field a couple of times but then took a longer trip and appeared to dropped down in the ploughed field at the top of the runway towards Marloes end. Nice to bump in to a couple of nice guys George Reed (ticking off the buff-breast for his Big Year and currently top of eBird 2026) and Trevor Ellery who'd made the trip from Milton Keynes for some Welsh rarities. Trevors back of the camera image below of the buff-breast and a snipe.

Dale Airfield - Buff-breasted Sandpiper

 A trip to Dale Airfield this morning in the hope of seeing the Baird's Sandpiper (at the fourth attempt) turned out out to be unfruitful in that way, but still very worthwhile.

Having had several brief glimpses of a smallish wader on the runway beyond the water trough, myself and a visiting birder finally managed to see it more clearly and identify it as a Wood Sandpiper. After getting reasonable views of it, we then did a circuit of the airfield, spotting 3 Whinchat during that time.

Having failed to find the Baird's Sandpiper, and then spent some time at the Gann, where a decent selection of waders were present. I was about to return home, when news came through that a Buff-breasted Sandpiper had been spotted in a field with cows in near to the famous trough. It was great to catch up with it there, along with 4 Ruff, before returning home.  

Skokholm

Wryneck and Balearic Shearwater today

White Stork

From Gethin Jenkins: 

White Stork spotted circling in the area between Maenclochog and Llys y fran today, likely the same one spotted in Woodstock yesterday as its only 3-4 miles as the stork flies!

Skokholm

Wryneck and the lingering Melodious Warbler today. 

Baird's sandpiper still at Dale airfield

 

The Baird's sandpiper was in the regular spot by the trough runway pools at 9am. Unfortunately just as I'd spotted it, a couple of snipe spotted me, causing a ripple of leaving waders! At least 12 snipe, 11 ringed plover, 4 ruff (1 reeve), a redshank and a green sandpiper, and 3 teal. All appeared to head over the field behind the trough apart from the green sandpiper that headed for the pond. Heavy rain arrived so I moved away in the hope of finding some shelter which is never easy here. Another group of ringed plover on the stoney field otherwise no more waders on the other runways. Approaching the blackthorn scrub the terr, terr, terr of a very vocal Dartford warbler could be heard but despite it calling for 5-10minutes I only got a couple of fleeting views. The frustration continued with a silent willow-type warbler that refused to call or show well. Just whitethroats and stonechat the only other birds in the scrub. 100s of pipits and wagtails, a yellow wagtail called but couldn't see it. 2-3 whinchat, 4 young wheatear. Kestrel and buzzard hunting around. There were no waders on the pools on my return, the ruff were in the damp field behind the pools and I could hear ringed plover calling somewhere close by, it turned out these were on the out of bounds section of the runway with the big tyres that heads in the direction of the farm, whilst scanning the plovers the Baird's came in to view all looked quite settled as they scuttled around the runway.

Osprey on the Cleddau

An osprey was patrolling the far bank of the Cleddau opposite Rudders Boatyard yesterday.

Dawn Nelmes Hobby Pic'

Yesterdays Young Hobby taken by Dawn with her phone from her garden overlooking Stena port. Goodwick

White Stork

From Michael Williams: I believe I may have spotted a White stork on our farm near Woodstock, Pembs. 

It had a ring on its leg I think but I was unable to get close enough to see for sure.