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

Wednesday 19th - Saturday 22nd October

Catching up.....

For most of my adult life I've managed perfectly well with out "internet", so why is it that four days without "broadband" and I feel in disarray?

Well it seems that all is working again so time for a catch up.

Wednesday is volunteer day and this week we were at Morfa Berwig LNR, our mission to put some metal gates up to replace the wooden structures presently leading to the grazing fields.

Having completed a small task clearing some rank vegetation we proceeded to the grazing field to be met by these!

Gently does it....., a nifty pincer and we've got them

At first I thought someone was taking the Donkeys for a walk, then realised they were escapees!!!
An interesting few minutes ensued while we rounded the way ward Donkeys up and put them back in the field, ultimately we never actually completed the main task of putting a gate up, but that's another story.....

On Friday I had a ringing session and was pleased to catch the first CETTIS WARBLER for the site, I had only first heard them a few days previously so to find one in the net was a surprise, more expected though where the first Redwing of the season....

Redwing

Cettis Warbler, a juvenile of this year

I caught a couple of Robins, one had a much greyer forehead than usual, it is likely to be a "continental" bird, but I didn't take a photograph! It is noticeable that there are quite a few Robins around this week

Saturday was another guided walk, "Beach Wildlife", despite the late start 10:30, I arrived at 08:45 and met up with Bernie Beck who had walked in for the walk, he went off to do a sea watch and I had a quick look at the route of the walk. I joined Bernie at about 09:45, by which time he had already seen a Bonxie, A Harbour Porpoise and a Grey Seal!!!!

Of course by the time everyone had arrived there was little to see, undaunted we had a nice walk and managed to pick up Teal, Common Snipe and a couple of Pintail....its all in the timing.

Tuesday 18th October 2016

Guided Event....High tide sea watch

This morning at 07:30 a group of nine joined me for our first "guided" Sea Watch event, Including sea watch legend Adam who made sure we didn't miss any of the action.

With high tide due for 08:24hrs we were in position at first light and immediately the birds began to appear.

Sanderling, just dropping in in front of the group, (credit Veronica Haines VH)

Flocks of Sanderling landed feet away to be scared away by a piece of plastic blowing along the beach in the stiff WSW breeze

After a long spell of settled weather the change in conditions were perfect and soon rafts of Common Scoter were visible off shore with many more flying out to sea.

Our marker points on the opposite side of the Burry Inlet (the Gower) (VH)

Gannets numbered 100+, a good count for the estuary, the pick of the morning came with Peregrine, the first great Northern Diver of the autumn, Red-throated Diver, two Kittiwake, three Sandwich Tern, in the 100+auks seen , at least five Razorbill and 20 Guillemot were identified.

Its there somewhere, am I really that short and round, (VH)

Yep it's a Great Northern Diver, (VH)

The usual assemblage of gulls included, Black-headed, Herring and Common.

For me the best bird, and a new one for the reserve/SSSI site list for 2016, a GREAT SKUA, a scarce bird recorded in the county with less than 5 in the past eight years

Great Skua, (photo from Wikipedia)

A great bird to see at any time almost as if I had arranged it.

Saturday 15th October 2016

American visitor.....

A report of a Pectoral Sandpiper, at Kidwelly Quay in the past few days prompted me to drive the short distance to "twitch" this North American wader.

I've seen them in the UK several times but its always nice to see an uncommon visitor especially when its on your doorstep.

The weather changed overnight with the wind a more SSE  feel about it and with the change it seems, that despite several people looking for a few hours, the Pectoral Sandpiper has moved on.

It was not disappointing though as there were plenty of waders on the marsh and mudflats, including  two Bar-tailed Godwit, eight Curlew Sandpiper, two Green Sandpiper, a lot of Dunlin and Redshank and one or two Greenshank.

Bar-tailed Godwit

Kidwelly Quay always has something to offer especially at low tide.

Curlew Sandpiper

Thursday 13th October 2016

Winds of change.............

Well almost, a day of varying temperatures caused, apparently, by a trapped pool of cold air whisked across us from central Europe.

Today was a day of tasks!, well again sort of, we managed to revisit a stile that needed a bit more work, put in some sign posts and collected a supply of fence posts from the far end of the reserve.

It was a "surprise" to some that the tide was in, well here's a secret it happens twice a day!, seriously we usually miss a decent tide on task days so it did make a change especially when Neil spotted an Atlantic Grey Seal "bottling" in the estuary.

Atlantic Grey Seal

Despite having heads down we managed to notice the two Kestrels (they are not a pair, as the female is an immature bird probably hatched this year, the male is a sub-adult) that now seem to be resident on the reserve, I suspect they will spend the autumn and winter with us then move off to breed in the surrounding area as we don't have anywhere suitable for them to nest. YET!

Common Kestrel

Wednesday 12th October 2016

Making the most of the settled weather....

Another settled day with a light easterly breeze and despite overcast skies it was really pleasant to walk along Cefn Sidan, and be the only soul there.

Looking in a westerly direction along Cefn Sidan

There was a big flock (97) of Goldfinches in the fore dunes and plenty of Skylarks which on reflection seemed to be moving through rather than being local birds, there were over 100 of them heading SE.

I checked a few refugia, not in any hope of finding reptiles at this time of year, but if you don't look...., under one I found four juvenile Wood mice, and under another an adult and four juvenile Short-tailed Field Voles, plenty of good nourishment for the now, seemingly, resident two Kestrel.

Wood mouse

A walk out to the tidal creek, (please don't walk out to the creek aimlessly, I think I may need new knees soon), revealed well hidden flocks of Teal 60+ and Wigeon 15.

I only use a Fujifilm Finepix bridge camera so my photographs are the best I can take.

Kestrel ♂