Wednesday 26th October 2016

Winter raptors.....

With autumn marching towards winter there has been a noticeable increase in the avian predators on the reserve.

Whilst we don't get big numbers of raptors we do have a nice range of species using the reserve and already the following can be found with a bit of time

Kestrel, at least two different individuals.

Sparrowhawk, the "big" female is back and quite often a smaller male and female can be encountered.

Common Buzzard, one or two usually seen around the first cattle enclosure to the north of the track.

Merlin, a nicely marked immature male has been around for a few days and showed well this evening.

Immature ♂ Merlin,

(heavily cropped photo; donations towards a decent camera welcome!)

Peregrine Falcon, a couple of regular birds, especially at high tide when they hunt the wader flock

Red Kites should reappear soon, as well as Goshawk and Hen Harrier, just keep looking...

Barn Owl, check near the Dwr Cymru treatment plant at dusk

Short-eared Owl one individual seen this week keep checking at dusk.

Tuesday 25th October 2016

A mix of Summer and Winter.....

I made a late afternoon visit to the reserve, as it was my first opportunity for a few days, the light was quite nice with a mix of dark heavy clouds inland and crisp clear blue skies out in the bay.

I made a quick stop at pond 2 and was pleased to find, at last, Four Northern Shoveler, the first record for 2016 on the reserve making them species number 136, they were all female and didn't hang around long but only flew to the pond in the next enclosure. there were also five Teal, and two Pintail nice numbers of nice duck on what is almost a puddle sized pond.

I walked out to the eastern edge of the dunes and was pleased to find that the seasonal brackish pools have retained a lot of water after the high tides, it is clear that birds, probably ducks and waders, are using the pools (lots of preened feathers).

its a long walk to get to this area :-)

Making my way back to the information shelter two Barn Swallow flew overhead and headed East, the last of the year??

When I had unlocked the entrance barrier, out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of a large white bird flying towards me, at the same time I caught the tail end of a large brown bird fly across my line of sight.

Having established that the white bird was a very well built adult Herring Gull my attention turned to what I hoped had been a Short-eared Owl, IT WAS....

Short-eared Owl

The owl was actively hunting the rough grass to the north of the entrance and made a couple of apparently unsuccessful dives into the grass. These birds are incredibly beautiful and my "bridge camera" photographs do it no justice at all, however I am happy to have been able to record the bird myself.

Short-eared Owl

One of the regular and, on side, dog walkers told me she had seen it at the same time yesterday evening....

There was some nice interaction with a male Sparrowhawk before the owl made its way towards the country park.

There has been an increase in avian predators in the last few weeks, and judging by the number of small mammals , (voles and mice particularly) I've noticed there should be enough for all this winter...........

Pure magic, I just need to get better photos before the end of the year