Porthclais and Rhosson

Yellow-browed warbler, Porthclais and an eastern looking Lesser whitethroat by Rhosson Canol. George and Fiona.

Castlemartin Corse WeBS

Richard, Rob and I covered Castlemartin Corse WeBS today. Richard and I covered Upper section, Rob Lower section (and I did the bit in the middle too!). 

Rob also covered Broomhill Burrows WeBS. Area is dry so nothing was seen of note for WeBS. 

Castlemartin Corse is extremely dry. It does raise the question how much rain do we need to get any standing water down there? Even the river / mud crossing that prevented me linking Upper to Lower Corse last year was easy to cross. The count reflected the dry conditions of the Corse. 

We had 2 Grey Heron that graced us by lifting and flying over the reed bed, a Water Rail was heard from the hide and another heard skulking in a ditch on walk back towards Upper Corse. Something lifted 2 Snipe from the reedbed off from the hide and a lone one was flushed from usual fields of D8-9 on walk back up Corse. I first heard a curlew before locating there were 2 in field D4.No Duck or Gull Species seen to count. 

Rob had a pair of Chough, a Great Spotted Woodpecker and flocks of Goldfinch and Linnet. Walk from Upper Corse to hide 6 Cetti warblers were identified. A Pied Wagtail was seen on way back (possibly linked to herd of cattle in one of the fields). It was noticeable that there were a number of Robin singing along the route, 4 Jay flew across the corse while Rob and I was in the hide, and as corse was quiet enjoyed watching some of the more common small bird species such as Reed Bunting (5), Stonechat (8) and a male Blackcap.

Raptor wise it was a quiet morning. One sub adult Marsh Harrier was seen along the Corse being mobbed by the crows and a Buzzard was seen on the Upper section.

Colby Woodland Gardens

From Steve Smith: Quick walk around Colby gardens this afternoon 

Large mixed tit flock Long tailed. Great. Blue with a few Coal tits contain one Goldcrest . At least five Tree creepers near the camp fire enclosure next to the Colby stream  sadly no Dippers or Grey Wagtails, Please find attached a couple of cropped photos.

 

Spoonbill @ the Gann

Nice to bump into Sarah and George at the Gann this afternoon.  Sarah thought she had seen a Spoonbill drop into one of the channels in the saltmarsh but it hadn't reappeared.  I crossed the footbridge and walked upstream and it soon appeared in the main channel, later moving to the lagoon.   Nice find Sarah!  Also 2 Cattle Egrets dropped in to the saltmarsh.

Marloes & vicinity: more Cattle Egrets etc

 From Peter Smithies: a flock of 10 Cattle Egrets around a week ago in one of the Philbeach Farm fields (9 here in his photo).

Also around a week ago, NCI Coastwatch noted a/the White-tailed Eagle around the Deer Park for several days before it was reported on Ramsey.

This weekend: female Marsh Harrier at West Hook, Water Rail in Martin’s Haven valley

West Angle Bay Saturday 10 Oct

Very Pleasant couple of hours birding with friends contributing to the Big October day organised by eBird, coinciding with World Migratory bird day....

A welcoming committee of about 25 House Sparrows greeted us at the car park. Then lovely views of a nice selection of waders including Oycs, Curlew, Bar-tailed Godwits, Redshanks and Greenshank, Turnstones, Dunlin and Knot. Good to see a party of 7 Pale bellied Brent Geese (no young amongst them though). 

Excitement when a female/imm Merlin dashed across the bay putting up some of the waders!

At least three Great Crested Grebes were out in the bay plus a 'bunch' * of 38 Wigeon along the bank......at least 12 Little Egrets, pair of Mute Swans, a juv Heron, plus Grey wag and 5 Rock Pipits on the pebbly shoreline.  

Thirty species in altogether..

Apparently a collective noun for a group of Wigeon!

Llys-y-fran

Water levels still very low, probably the lowest I've seen it so 2 juvenile Common scoter was a bit unexpected. About 3,500 LBB roosted many out on the far bank. 100 BH gulls and 50 herring gulls. 7 GC grebe, 5 liitle grebe. 

Cattle Egrets

Highlight of a late afternoon walk at the Gann today was 6 Cattle Egrets, started with 1 on the saltmarsh, then another 4 on the lagoon, then eventually 6 roosting in the trees next to the road below Crabhall. Also a single Grey Plover. (Dave & Lisa)

Strumble, Flagpoles, and Iron Bidge.

Very quiet for cetaceans at Strumble today but a reasonably close pass by a Great Skua was a bonus. At the flagpoles in Goodwick a Curlew feeding on Shore Crab, then at Iron Bridge Newport, a Heron, Green shank and Little Grebe rounded off my morning.

 

Dale airfield

Half dozen individual jays passing across the road between Haverfordwest and Dale. Felt birdy on the sheltered track up, a firecrest popping in and out of the ivy was one of the first birds to appear, 3 chiffchaff and a blackcap tuk, tuk, tuking. Clouded yellows and red admirals as well. Juvenile Marsh harrier cruising around the airfield before drifting towards Marloes. Dozen golden plover, 10 snipe, 4 lapwing and single ringed plover. 2 young wheatear, among the skylarks, pipits and linnets around the runways. Quite a few birds in the bracken and scrub overlooking Marloes Sands, a few goldcrest, dunnocks, robins, great tits and best of all another Dartford warbler. 200 starling gyrating but couldn't see what was alarming them.

Scoter off Nolton Haven 6/10

From Richard Harris: Just a quick report of a raft of circa 40 common scoter seen off Nolton Haven this evening slowly paddling northwards towards Newgale. A record photo on my iPhone was unfortunately not worth the effort. The sunset however was:   

Past Week at Goodwick Flagpoles

As well as the usual suspects the mixed weather the past week brought in Sandwich and Common Terns, Curlew, a single Wigeon, Bar Tail Godwits (2) and today two Teal.

                             Meanwhile at Strumble a handsome Wheatear put in an appearance.

 

A bit of Strumble Sea Bird History!

I came across one of the Strumble diaries i thought i had lost, yesterday. There are two pages sea bird fans might find interesting.The first is from the fifth of September 1997

I dont remember much about this one, there had been others! The second is about a week later on the 12th of September

These entries were made in my field diary written on my knee in the bunker/lookout, just after the sightings, when my hands had almost stopped shaking! Beneath the sketch, i wrote Graham Rees's words, uttered when he found it: "Are you on this shearwater? You should be, its close" And reasonably close it was, fluttering/feeding over a weedy pot bouy. So close i could make out its little grey/blue feet protruding beyond its tail. In this fluttery mode it resembled a big storm petrel. Apart from Graham, there were three others there, Rod Hadfield, Stewart Devonald and myself. Sadly I am the only one left. Rod could not get on it, so somehow i extracated myself from my chair without moving the scope,a mirror lens at X90, and Rod got his view. Greater love hath no Strumbler than to hand over the view of a little shearwater to a friend! Unfortunately it flew off before i could get back on it and i did not see it in level flight which was really what i wanted to see. The scope is still used by Chris Grayell I stopped using it on a daily basis as i was developing double vision!

Tawny Owl

From Steve Smith: While I was returning to Stepaside this evening a Tawny Owl flew across the road near St Petrox church at 9.30pm  

Norwegian ringed Common Ringed Plover

On 19h & 20th September I recorded a 1st-year Common Ringed Plover at the Gann with colour-rings: a plain red ring on the left tibia, and a yellow flag marked 30J on the right tibia (with a metal ring on the left tarsus).  The bird was ringed at Makkevika (Norway, Møre og Romsdal, Giske) some 1371km away!  It had taken no more than 24 days to reach us from Norway.

Winter thrushes

Good morning, Steve the visiting Manchester birder back in your fabulous county again

Seen my first Redwings of the season this morning near Redberth . Two small flocks of 7 and 4 birds. Plus 1 single Swallow over. Which reminds me that sadly I cannot visit Caldy island as its now closed for the season so no last minute watching the normally 100,s of Swallows feeding and resting on the island before their long migration South.