Sightings

Main sighting: Short-eared Owl

Evening at the lagoons 17:00-19-50 the hay bales are proving popular with the birds. Wheatear 10 Redstart 4 Whinchat 1 Lesser Whitethroat 1 Yellow wagtail 40 Cuckoo 1 Short-eared Owl 1 Hundreds of Sand Martins Little Stint 2 Greenshank 1 Little Ringed Plover 1 juv
Kestrel 2 Sparrowhawk 1
Sadly some idiot has pushed a hay bale into the reen near the first hide.

Main sighting: Little Stint

1615-1745 – juvenile Little Stint still with Dunlin, Ringed Plover and Sanderling on rising tide. Also 1 Whimbrel and 1 Wheatear.

Main sighting: Little Stint

1050-1420 – Little Stint (from first hide) and Wood Sandpiper (Bec Lagoon) still present. Also 3 Ruff, 1 Greenshank, 3 Black-tailed Godwit. Good numbers of Wheatear and Yellow Wagtail plus 2 Whinchat on posts and wires by first hide. Lesser Whitethroat and Garden Warbler in amongst mixed tit/warbler flock by entrance. 2 Redstart and Whitethroat just past 2nd hide.

Main sighting: Whinchat

Juvenile Whinchat and a Stonechat family among the few birds around in a fresh easterly wind. Sparrowhawk and Kestrel in an aerial tussle over the old Brynmawr reservoir.

Main sighting: Avocet and Little Stint

Outfall Lane to Petersone Gout. Today’s high tide was just high enough to bring the waders close enough to the seawall to observe at length. A good number of small waders on the eastern side of the Gout. Mostly Dunlin and Ringed Plover with 9 knot, 2 juv Sanderling, 5 Turnstone and a juv Little Stint. 5 Avocet were roosting at the waters edge. Also present a number of Redshank, Curlew and Oystercatchers. Around 20 pintail, some Teal and a single Little Egret as well. At Outfall Lane a Common Sandpiper and another 15 Turnstone. Good numbers of Wheatear along the seawall between the two sites.

Main sighting: Wigeon

Autumn is here… Six Wigeon on Dunlop Semtex Pond, eight Teal on Horsetail Pond, Parc Nant-y-Waun. No hirundines about.

Main sighting: Swift

Single Swift still feeding over the garden

Main sighting: Hobby

buzzards x 2,
c.60 housemartin

Main sighting: Waders

Platform 2 (10-11:00): Little Stint, Curlew Sandpiper, 2 Ruff, 5 Dunlin, 2 Little Ringed Plover, Snipe, 10+ Yellow Wagtails, 2 Kestrel, Raven, 100+ hirundines (sand, swallow & house). Plus Lesser Whitethroat, Common Whitethroat and Sedge Warbler in bushes nearby. Avocet Hide (11-12:00): Wood Sandpiper, 4 Spotted Redshank, Greenshank, Red Knot, 3+ Bar-tailed Godwit, 10+ Black-tailed Godwit, 6 Curlew, 6 Wheatear, Sparrowhawk.

Main sighting: Curlew Sandpiper

an evening visit 17:00-19-45 Curlew Sandpiper 1 juv Wood Sandpiper 1 Little Stint 1 juv Spotted Redshank 4 Juvs Ruff 2 Little Ringed Plover 1 Black-tailed Godwit 106 Grey Plover 1
Wigeon 10 Red Kite 1 Marsh Harrier 1 Kestrel 3 together. Redstart 3 Yellow Wagtail 20 Long-tailed Great and Blue Tits Chiffchaff 9 Lesser Whitethroat 1 lots of Sand Martins and Swallows feeding on a mass of small insects as were the gulls.

Main sighting: Migration / waders / warblers

0600-1150. Excellent mix of birds. Buzzard 2 (on the hay bales in the field on the left past second gate), pair of kestrels hunting, distant peregrine calling, 1 stock dove, 5 cormorants over. Hide 1 – 162 Canada geese and 46 greylags, 4 herons. Hide 2 – 6 black-tailed godwits, 2 ruff, 4 snipe, 61 lapwing, 31 teal, wood sandpiper showed briefly in the inlet before flying off towards the seawall, 1 lt ringed plover, 8 ringed plovers, 7 dunlin, 13 shoveler, green woodpecker calling, gt spotted woodpecker over, 1 lt stint, 1 curlew sandpiper, 2 lt egrets, cettis calling, skylark, 2 swallows. 7 wheatear in total (2 on the hay bales in the field behind the snipe platform) and 5 more feeding in the cut field past hide 3 on the left. Snipe platform – 12 wigeon (first of the season), 2 lt grebes, 13 tufteds overhead and the female with 4 well grown young now, 1 pintail, good movement of sand martins all morning with well over 250 counted in small groups, 52 more teal. Seawall – 1 gt black-backed gull, 158 shelduck, good count of 102 oystercatchers, 62 curlew on the saltings with a single whimbrel mixed in and 1 tree pipit over low calling. Hedge behind snipe platform – good movement of warblers with 2 common and 1 lesser whitethroat seen along with a female redstart, 13 willow warblers, 9 chiffchaffs, 1 fem reed bunting and 1 dunnock all together. On the first lagoon on the way back were 3 spotted redshanks feeding together, 5 bar-tailed godwits and 41 yellow wagtails feeding along the strip of cut grass leading from hide 1 and up past redshank platform. Back at hide 1 was 4 whinchats on the fence line to the right of the hide. Other: 1 small copper, 3 speckled woods, 2 meadow browns, 1 small tortoiseshell, 1 common blue and 1 green-veined white.

Main sighting: Green sandpiper

1 green sandpiper on the gout; 1 greenshank and 1 common sandpiper on the estuary; only a handful of ringed plover and dunlin today (150+ of each at the weekend); 60-70 redshank; many shelduck and mallards, and F pintails starting to return; some teal as well; 1 heron, 1 little egret; many BH Gulls.