West is Best

Tuesday saw Wayne and me heading west and crossing over the Afon Llwchwr back to the heaven that is my home county of Carmarthenshire. We were there to pay homage to another westener - the Blue-winged Teal at Sandy Water Park, Llanelli. (Well, relative to Glamorgan, he's a westener whether he came from North America or Penclacwydd).

Even though I say so myself, I think I've excelled myself this time

The teal was picked up as soon as we arrived. It continuously swam up and down the northern bank, never staying still, and occasionally flying 20 or 30 metres. That's my excuse anyway. The Little Gull was still present too.

Mission accomplished we went on to Penclacwydd. The Garganey that had been around for a couple of days had departed, so we had to settle for Black-tailed Godwit, Redshank, Greenshank and a couple of Lapwing. Highlight of the visit though was a Short-eared Owl flying high over the marsh being pursued by a Crow. I've never see an owl so high up. Apparently, it returned after we left and was seen in more typical behaviour, quartering the marsh in front of the British Steel Hide.

A posting on BirdGuides of a Glaucous Gull seen at Sandy Water Park had us legging it back to our original destination. It wasn't there but it was good to bump into a gathering of familiar faces from Glamorgan who had just arrived - Mark Dutfield, Marlay John, Alan Rosney, John Wilson and Matt Evans.

We called in at Kenfig on our way home. It was still rather quiet there but hopefully, in a week or two, it'll be buzzing with newly arrived migrants. Roll on.

Change-over time

Not done a lot lately as I've been busy doing other stuff and what little I've done has been local.

With news of a Wheatear in the last few days at St Brides I took a break from some DIYing and after visiting B+Q in Bridgend with Teresa this afternoon we popped down to Ogmore By Sea to see if I could locate and photograph a new arrival.

Whilst a very patient Teresa relaxed in the car I had a look around for an hour but to no avail,too many "grockles" and dogs about.

I decided to cut my losses and had a look for the regular Purple Sandpipers on the rocks opposite the gate before they depart north again to their breeding grounds.

In a low nice late afternoon light I managed a few reasonable record shots :-

Hopefully I'll catch up with a few new arrivals in the next few weeks.

The Patch

Just in case anyone is interested (probably not I know!), here's a Google Map of Gethin (and my!) patch.

View Gethin's Patch in a larger map

Hugh'd Have Believed It?

Gethin is green with envy. The Boy Birder has discovered that he is not the Whitchurch (Glamorgan) Canal Nature Reserve's Top Lister - and not by a long way.

While flicking through my old copies of the Young Ornithologist's Club's Bird Life magazines (yes, I've still got them, beginning from the Jul-Aug 1977 issue right up to Nov/Dec 1985), the Twitchmeister came across an article entitled 'On My Patch' in the Jan/Feb 1985 magazine. The patch in question was the Whitchurch Canal Nature reserve no less! The piece was penned by Shetland Wildlife impressario, photographer extraordinaire and one time local birding luminary, Hugh Harrop.

Geth was very happy with his respectable patch list of 84 - but he isn't any longer. Much to his chagrin, Hugh's patch list was a mighty 94! There wasn't much detail in the article about what species Hugh had seen on the reserve but it did include Little Owl (which isn't recorded there anymore) and Gethin howled with pain when he read that it also included Red-backed Shrike.

The clinching sentence in the article about the patch was that Hugh "visits it four days a week". That's dedication. The Twitchmeister visits it no more than twice a week (but more often in school holidays), and so he's going to have to up his game to beat Hugh's total. A challenge, he tells me, he's willing to accept. How will he get on? Watch this space!

Birdin' in the Docks and the Bay (with apologies to Otis Redding)

I left my home in Whitchurch

Headed for the Cardiff Bay. 'Cos I've had nothing to bird for

And look like nothing's gonna come my way.

So I'm just gonna sit in the docks and the Bay

Watchin' the tide (fail to) roll away

Ooh, I'm sitting in the docks and the Bay wasting time.

Black Redstart was our target bird today, down around Cardiff Bay Barrage/Penarth Head. We dipped. Still, Geth and I had a decent few hours' birding - starting in Hamadryad Park and then walking all the way over to Penarth Head, before walking back and jumping in the car to have a look at the Bay from Prospect Place.

The River Taff at Hamadryad had plenty of Coot, fewer Mute Swans than of late, a sprinkling of Little Grebes and Tufted Duck and 3 Pochard. At Cardiff Bay Wetland Reserve we added 10 Teal, some G C Grebes, Reed Bunting, Water Rail, Gadwall, Kestrel and it was great to hear 2 Cetti's Warblers.

There was nothing much on the Barrage itself but things picked up at Prospect Place where we picked up 9 Lesser Redpoll and, pick of the bunch, a Slavonian Grebe - most probably the one that's been hanging around Atlantic Wharf recently. It spent most of its time asleep, but it finally woke up and allowed me to take this 'image' of it.