Port Eynon Seawatch

I had a seawatch this morning at Port Eynon, however, relying on my family for transport meant we arrived a 11:00 just as the wind was dieing down. I saw some nice birds though, with a Great Northern Diver close in being the best. Also seen were c.20 Mediterranean Gulls, two Sandwich Terns, a male Eider sat on the sea, eight Common Scoter, a distant skua sp. (pom/arctic) which was only on view for 10 seconds before landing on the sea, c.70 Kittiwake, c.80 Guillemots and c.20 Common Gulls.

Also nice to see were a minimum of eight Harbour Porpoise close in in the bay.

Harbour Porpoise

Great Northern Diver

Eider

Gower Holiday

I'm spending a long weekend on the Gower with my family at the moment, and it got off to a good start bird wise with a Siberian Chiffchaff just outside the holiday home! Nice pale underparts (especially the vent area) without any yellows or greens, quite a strong supercilium, browny grey upperparts, and black beak and legs. It even called for me.

Siberian Chiffchaff

I watched it for about five minutes before going back inside to get my camera to grab a few shots, none of which came out that good, but this ones the best. I didn't have much time either as my family were sat in the car waiting for me!

We went off to the Port Eynon on the coast where we found some amazing scenery...

On the roof tops of the village I found two female type Black Redstarts. Nice to see back!

Black Redstart

In the afternoon we went for a walk along a huge beach at Oxwich and up along the clifftops, from which there was a large raft of c.190 Common Scoter.

The flock with Devon in the background.

Can't pick out any velvets!

So, a good start!

'shanks

These three species were showing nicely together on the Lagoon this morning, however wader numbers in general were very limited due to the low high tide.

Redshank, Spotted Redshank and Greenshank

Later on in the day I had the rare opportunity of watching a fox hunting. It weaved through the long sedge and willow herb of the Western Scrapes until it was completely hidden. It then jumped up and pounced at something. I couldn't see if it was carrying anything in its mouth as it walked away, so not sure if it was successful.

Over the last couple of days we've been clearing juncus around the NRA scrapes to give a larger area for the Wigeon to graze when their numbers build up for the winter. I had a quick stomp over the area first, hoping to chuck up a few Snipe, however none were found.

Yesterday I saw my first Redwings of the Autumn. A flock of 13 flying over the Millennium Wetlands.

GWE up close

I found a Great White Egret this morning on the Lagoon while doing bird counts, possibly the same bird as the one a couple of week ago? It got chased off by a Grey Heron and relocated to the pool in front of the Powell hide where it showed down to 15 metres! I watched it for about an hour actively fishing. It must have caught well over 30 fish! Other birds included five Spotted Redshank and two Grey Plover.

Storm

On Thursday I managed to somehow cycle in to work without getting wet despite being surrounded by thunderstorms! The high tide of over eight metres and low pressure meant that the view from the British Steel hide looked like this...

Saltmarsh totally submerged and torrential rain on its way!

Most birds were on the lagoon but some were sheltering in the banks of the NRA scrapes. The Black-headed Gulls showed some interesting behavior, pointing their heads directly up into the rain. Not quite sure why they do this.

The westerly winds had driven some seabirds up into the estuary, but nothing that exciting in the way of Skuas or Petrels, however I was pleased to see the first returning Eider, with two flocks of 13 and 6 flying west. There were also 14 Sandwich Tern and four Brent Geese on the estuary.

I've taken on the WeBS counting for the reserve for the year, which surprisingly hadn't been counted for the last few years! Maximums from today and Thursday include four Spotted Redshank, 862 Black-tailed Godwit (big count), 390 Curlew, 70 Greenshank, 156 Redshank, 151 Knot, 54 Lapwing, 152 Wigeon, 125 Teal and 35 Pintail. At least 15 Water Rail were calling across the Millennium Wetlands.

Amongst the Curlew was a colour ringed individual. I'm struggling to find the project it belongs to right now, but I'll keep trying and update later.

Cow herding

I came in early this morning hoping to catch the end of the high tide, however it had already fallen quite a way and there were limited waders on the marsh. I recorded just 27 Black-tailed Godwit, ten Redshank and six Greenshank. A nice surprise in with 15 Lapwing was a juvenile male Ruff, the first for a few weeks now.

After lunch, we added the trees that we cut down the other day into a habitat hedge that we've been creating since the start of my placement. It will provide a place of shelter for wintering insects as well as hopefully hibernating mammals.

I know it doesn't look much in this photo, but its a good 15m long and 3m wide in some parts.

In the afternoon we had to herd the cows into the NRA area to ensure that they're away and safe from the high tides of 8m over the next few days. After a bit of stick waving, shouting, and enticing with a food bag, we locked all 33 of them into the area. They won't be here for much longer as the farmer will be taking them away for winter, so now's the time for a Cattle Egret!

While we were out on the marsh, I was able to add a flyover Spotted Redshank and a flushed Snipe to the bird list for the day.

A change in the weather

Last weekend I read another three new rings off Llanelli beach; two Mediterranean Gulls and a Black-headed Gull.

The Meds were from France (green 8M0) and Belgium (white E236), ringed in 2011 (pullus) and 2010 (as an adult) respectively. Fairly uninteresting histories, however white E236 made an appearance in Cornwall in 2011.

The Black-headed Gull (white E5KL) was ringed in Holland in 2010, and my recovery was the first away from its breeding area and the first out of the breeding season.

This shot has a real Mediterranean feel to it, looking over the estuary with the tip of Gower peninsular in the background.

It felt anything but Mediterranean this weekend with a blustery wind and rain showers. Yesterday, the Marsh Harrier was flying over the saltmarsh at the reserve early morning before flying high over to the other side of the estuary. During the rest of the day I checked the local gull flocks twice, once in the morning and once in the afternoon, but to no avail. I also had a good look this afternoon, but despite the promising conditions for something American, again, no luck. There were however c.120+ Common Gulls and c.30+ Mediterranean Gulls on the sand bar pictured above. A late afternoon visit to the reserve coincided with a Peregrine attack, with a Knot being the prey item of choice, so the view from the British Steel Hide was almost waderless, however there was a Spotted Redshank with the few remaining Redshank.

On the reserve the past week, we've been busy cutting down trees, mostly willow and alder, which have been obscuring the view of the Deep Lake from the Heron Hide. We have also strimmed and cleared the islands ready for roosting waders in the winter, and for breeding birds in the spring.

Snipe in the morning sun

A couple of weeks ago, with the help of another group of HSBC volunteers, we cleared a large island of vegetation in the Millennium Wetlands, including cutting a few narrow channels through the reed beds which will hopefully prove good for Bitterns when they return. The reeds around the edge of the island were cut down to stubble, and this morning, two Snipe were feeding around, and using it as cover. A nice start to the first day of October!

Snipe

The rest of the day was spent cutting trees down in front of the Heron hide which were partially blocking the view of the lake. Again, once the water levels are increased towards the winter, the small flooded channels should provide good Bittern habitat.

The only other wildlife excitement of the day was a Painted Lady on the centre path. When its wings were folded it was amazingly well camouflaged against the ground, and I needed to get down on my hands and knees just to located it. It seems like its been a poor year for the species in Britain. This was actually my first of the year!

Painted Lady