Short-eared Owls - Return visit : 25th November 2023

Last week an old work acquaintance namely Nigel Pullen from Swansea contacted me through Facebook with a friend request that I accepted.

Nigel is an excellent photographer and enjoys the genres of landscape, portraiture and street style photography unlike myself who sticks almost exclusively to wildlife photography.

He does however dabble in some wildlife photography and so we agreed to meet up last Saturday for a trip to see and hopefully photograph the Short-eared Owls at Ginst Point, near Laugharne.

Coincidently Nigel favours the same OM Systems camera system as myself using an OM-1 camera and has an excellent wildlife lens in the 300mm f4 IS Pro prime.

I 'rocked up' at Nigel's home in Morriston at the agreed time of 10.30am and with Nigel offering to drive we were at the owl site by just after mid-day.

We managed to park quite close at the end of the access lane and following a short walk were soon taking up our position in the 'owl field'.

We were greeted by Carl Jones and his partner Emma Woodhouse who had asked me for directions a couple of nights previous and also a couple of other 'toggers' that I didn't know.

There were already 2 or 3 owls hunting when we arrived although distant and in the wrong direction for good light, they did however fly over to 'our' field and gave great although distant views.

Good friend and fellow 'birder/togger' Dave Gilbert turned up after an hour or so, he hadn't been able to make it earlier and Dave's arrival as if by magic resulted in the birds coming closer which allowed for some great photographic opportunities.

We were also joined later in the afternoon by Richard Williams a good friend of Dave's who I have also got to know who had ventured 'over the bridge' from his home in Weston Super Mare.

We all 'filled our boots' for the remainder of the afternoon with at times great light until it rapidly faded and it was time to head for home.

What a fabulous day out in great company, the owls performed superbly which was an added bonus for some of those present including Nigel who had never seen a SEO previously.

We will certainly visit again before the year is out but for the meantime here are a few photos from last Saturday.....

Waders + Gulls - Aberavon Beach : 21st November 2023

Last Tuesday afternoon myself and my dog Timmy paid a visit to Aberavon Beach with the intention of walking the length of the beach as far as the River Neath in search of a Snow Bunting which I have seen on the sands in previous years.

We started by having a stroll up the River Alan from the beach hoping for a Great Northern Diver which I have also seen in previous years.

A couple of Great Crested Grebes almost fooled me but there was no sign anywhere of a diver.

We then walked the length of 'Jackstones' Pier hoping to catch up with my first Purple Sandpiper of the winter but the pier was occupied by several fishermen fishing the incoming tide which was probably enough to put them off showing.

There were though some Ruddy Turnstoes and a couple of Rock Pipits present which obliged for some photos.

I had no luck finding a Snow Bunting along the beach but there were c150 Sanderling, c70 Oystercatchers, a few Curlew and a large gull roost present allowing me to get a few more photos......

Snow Bunting - Nash Point, V of G : 15th November2023

After a visit to M&S, Culverhouse Cross, Cardiff yesterday with Teresa, my eldest daughter Adele and granddaughter Olive and with time to spare in the afternoon I managed to persuade them that we urgently needed to call in at Nash Point on our way home for me to hopefully photograph the Snow Bunting that had been reported since late October and as recently as Tuesday 14th.

Upon arrival and after parking it was nice to bump into Tony Swann who advised that he had been searching for an hour and that there was no sign either of a Black Redstart which had been previously reported at the lighthouse.

We split up and after about 10 mins I found the Snow Bunting on the short grass of the large grassy car park between the cliffs and the cafe.

By the time it took for me to get my camera from the boot of my car the bird had flown but both of us saw it in flight a couple of minutes later and relocated it about 150m from it's previous position.

The bird was quite flighty and mobile but it posed long enough on the ground for both of us to get some photos.

I posted on social media and Paul Roberts commented that it was a different bird to that which had been there earlier in the month, that bird was a male whilst this one was a female.

Hadn't taken much notice of photos of the original bird due to being away on holiday so this fact passed me by.

Here are a few photos from a brief encounter......

Short-eared Owls, Ginst Point, Carmarthenshire : Sat 11th November 2023

A window in the weather last Saturday gave myself and good friend Dave Gilbert the chance of visiting Ginst Point near Laugharne in the hope of catching up with some of the large recent influx of Short-eared Owls into the UK.

Dave had already visited the previous weekend when I was travelling home from holiday when there were at least 11 Shorties present !!

We called at Laugharne first which was very pleasant in the early sunshine and picked up Little Egret, Common Redshank and Curlew on the estuary mud banks.

Pushing on to Ginst Point we arrived at the owls favoured hunting area and were greeted by Carmarthenshire birders John + Jill Davis and Linda Beech and her son.

As soon as we arrived we counted 3 birds and Linda advised that she had seen at least 5 different birds.

There were Shorties in flight for most of the time we were there which was about 3 hours and the only disappointment was that the early light we had enjoyed was lost as heavy cloud drifted in off the sea.

We did however 'fill our boots' although the birds frustratingly kept their distance, it would have made our day if they had come in a little closer.

As the light began to really fade we made our way back to my car picking up a Barn Owl starting to hunt at dusk.

A few photos from a very enjoyable day out........