Tuesday 15th September 2015

After the first real gale of the autumn and with high tide at 08:15hrs I thought it would be perfect for a quick seawatch at Pembrey Harbour.

The small marsh to the West of the old harbour

It proved interesting, with the following sightings betwwen 07:30hrs and 08:30hrs seemed longer?

cropped pic of GBB Gull

cropped pic of Sandwich tern

Three GBB Gulls, 11 Common Scoter, 2 "Auk" sp, 2 adult Gannet, 12 Turnstone, five Dunlin, c150 Ringed Plover, c 600 Oystercatchers, 29 Knot, 22 Sandeling, four Sandwich terns, 11 Pintail, three Stonechat, five Skylark, 2 Northern Wheater ♀ type, .

Oystercatchers, count them if you want

Northern Wheater ♀ /immaturetype

All in all a pretty busy hour.

Monday 14th September 2015

With a storm in full flow we decided to pop down to Burry Port Harbour, the tide was due to be high at 19:59hrs, but even at 17:30 with a full blown westerly behind it the tide was rising fast.

The photo does no justice to the actual weather

Wildlife was few and far between, but 250+ Oystercatchers sheltering on the harbour wall a few Ringed Plover and a couple of various gulls.

Oystercatchers pushed off their roost flying into the gale

A juvenile Kittiwake was a good find then a "comic" tern tried to fly into the teeth of the gale.



Black-headed Gull adult, changing into winter plumage




Herring Gull 4th winter plumage? possibly older, still some brown in the retrices



Friday 11th - Sunday 13th September 2015

Helping out with British Trust for Ornithology ringing course at Oxwich Marsh NNR this weekend.

The participants were there to either gain experience, be assessed for a permit upgrade or to be assessed to reach trainer level.

A break in proceedings

The weather has been a pain with wind and rain disrupting the activities but still enough birds around for the participants to work with.

A distant shot of  Common Lizard

Friday 11th September 2015

I tried the moth trap for the first time last night, not the most successful session I have enjoyed with less than 50 moths mostly Large yellow underwing, a Garden Dart and Garden Carpet the highlights.


WWT Llanelli was more successful with 289 Redshank, 33 Greenshank c100 Knot 2 Spotted Redshank, 1 Ruff ♀, 33 Wigeon, and 2 Peregrines, an immature ♀ and an adult ♂

Flight shots are not easy on a "bridge" camera especially when trying to photograph the fastest bird in the world



just landed,

Black-tailed Godwit, Ruff and Knot

Thursday 10th September 2015

Not a lot going on today, but 33 Little Egrets in the Loughor river was pretty good.

Most of the 33 Little Egrets

Pied Wagtail male

Tuesday 8th September 2015

A two hour drive, then a three and a half hour flight and then another 2 hour drive didn't put me off leaving the house at 5:30am today to go ringing!!!!

I went to my own site at Sandy Water Park, to ring in a piece of mixed woodland/scrub/grassland.

For a first visit, not knowing the best sites for the nets it was a short productive session with only 10 birds caught.

Six male Blackcaps, and two male Goldcrests plus a Wren and a blackbird made up the small catch but valuable lessons learned.

There were also four Mistle Thrushes, four Siskins and a Great Spotted Woodpecker around.

Goldcrest

Juvenile male Blackcap

1st September - 7th September 2015

A family holiday in Halkadiki, Greece, little time for any birding but a few nice species seen:

Icterine Warbler, Red-backed Shrike, Hoopoe, Marsh Harrier, Sardinian Warbler, Eastern Olivaceous Warbler, Spotted Flycatcher, Pallid Swift, Cirl Bunting, these were the best of the bunch.

Male Cirl Bunting

Bee-eater colony  nest site  ( not in use )

Insects included lots of unidentified butterflies, (from the sunbed) Praying mantis spp, Stick Insect spp., plus Southern Darter.

Praying Mantis

Southern Darter??

Stick insect??