Rose-coloured Starling : Gowerton

I was rather intrigued at the lack of reports of the adult Rose-coloured Starling that had been reported coming to feeders in a garden of a property adjacent Cedar Close in Gowerton and having spoken to a few local birders who couldn't confirm any positive news I decided to head west and check out the bird for myself late morning today.
Arriving at the close I bumped into Alan Blackley from Newport who reported that the bird was feeding in the garden of a property adjacent the rear of 16, Cedar Close and was coming up on to the fence between the properties and showing well, what a stroke of luck !!
Alan accompanied myself to the property and the young couple who owned the bungalow kindly granted us access and I managed to get a few nice shots of the stunning adult bird.....

The bird disappeared for a while and then reappeared in a large oak adjacent the garden.....

I decided to leave but first thought that I'd stroll down the main road to try and find the garden that the bird was feeding in, at the bottom of the drive the owner spotted me and without hesitation invited me into the garden, showed me the feeders and allowed me the freedom of the garden, the bird returned to feed a couple more times and I managed a few more shots.........

I've seen a few Rosy Starlings previously but never had such great views, one happy 'togger' !!

Grasshopper Warbler : Maesteg Golf Course

Whilst out walking Pearl my dog late Thursday evening across Maesteg Golf Course I came across a very vocal and unusually showy Grasshopper Warbler so being heading west to Gowerton for the Rose - coloured Starling today I thought I'd check out the site and found that the bird was still holding territory and showing well.
Dodging golf balls I managed to get a few shots that I was really pleased with......

Nightjars : Cwm Kenfig, Llangynwyd

After a fruitless wait for the Purple Heron earlier in the day at Kenfig NNR I decided to make a late evening first visit of Spring to my local Nightjar site in the hope that the birds are still using the site.
I was a little dubious as since last year the sapling firs have now grown to 5 - 6' and a lot of Willow scrub has grown around the margins.
Nevertheless I managed to see and just about photograph a male and female bird and may have had a third bird on the way back to the car, don't be fooled by the brightness of the images as the first bird didn't appear until 9.40pm and most of the shots were taken at 10,000 - 16,000 ISO the camera being barely able to auto-focus..........

Red - Footed Falcon : Strumble Head, Pembrokeshire

 A bird that has eluded me for many years is Red - Footed Falcon mainly because I've not been prepared to travel for one, so when a stonking full adult male bird unexpectedly turned up at Strumble Head in Pembrokeshire a couple of days ago I just had to go for it.
A phone call to Kevin Hughes on Friday evening had us arranging to meet at Junc 36 Sarn Services on the M4 at 6.00am this morning and with myself at the wheel and very little traffic on the roads we rocked up at Strumble Head at 7.30am.
The first birder we came across was local Richard Stonier who told us that he had been there since 5.00am with no sign of the bird, our hearts sunk !!
We drove a little further and came across Simon and Peter Murray from my part of the world who were trying to attract Richard's attention having found the bird sat in the hedgerow at the side of the narrow access lane, result !!!
We parked up in the small car park near the sea watching shelter and made our way back to the bird's location, the five of us got great views of the fabulous small falcon showing down to 25' allowing me to come away with images that I was 'over the moon' with................

We had expected a bigger crowd for a Saturday morning and a steady trickle of birders started to arrive including Adrian Meredith, Alan Cripps and fellow 'togger' Colin Harvey.
Just before the lads arrived the bird had flown to the next field and having been airborne for a few minutes disappeared behind a hedge.
We walked down with the lads to where the bird had disappeared and despite a thorough search the bird hasn't been seen again today since 9.20am, we were so lucky that we got there at the time we did !!
We left the others searching and headed for Fishguard Harbour hoping to connect with Black Guillemot, we bumped into old friend Cliff Benson near his beloved Ocean Lab and he offered us a lift over to the ferry terminal to which he has access and we found one bird on the water, nice one Cliff !!
With mission accomplished we headed for home arriving back at Sarn at about 1.00pm, a 'lifer' for me with some great photos and two year 'ticks' for Kevin, happy days as they say.

Return to the woods and a trip to the beach..........

It's not that often that I get out with the camera on both a Saturday and Sunday but did so this past weekend and decided to make a return to the same oak wood that I had visited on Saturday in the hope of finding both Common Redstart and Pied Flycatcher.
I accessed the wood from the opposite end to that of my visit the day before and spent an hour and a half searching without success, plenty of more common woodland species around though including Blackcap, Chiffchaff and Garden Warbler, and I did hear another Wood Warbler in the vicinity.
I gave up my search and drove to the other end of the wood wondering whether or not the Wood Warbler would still be in the same place as I had photographed it on Saturday, true to form it was still there, same territory, same trees and same favourite perch, I just couldn't resist a few more shots.......

I then decided to head for Kenfig NNR for a walk down to Sker in the hope of getting some photos of Whimbrel and any other passage waders feeding on the rocks.
I accidentally flushed a group of seven Whimbrel feeding on the grass as I approached Sker Pool and there were at least twenty on the shoreline in company with Dunlin and some Black-tailed Godwits one of which was in fantastic breeding plumage, the light was totally against me and I only bothered with a couple of 'record' shots.........

I gave up on the waders and called in at Sker House on the way back, it took me a while to find a Little Owl until I picked one out playing 'peek a boo' in a shrub on the stone wall of the old ruined barn........

There were lots of Common Whitethroats and Stonechats to be seen on my return walk and a few of the later posed quite nicely for me although the light was a little too harsh........

Well, that's got Wood Warbler sorted for this year, target species for next weekend is Common Redstart and Pied Flycatcher, bring it on !!