YNYSLAS

Viewing the sea from just south of The Turn, Chris Bird had a good count of at least 350 Common Scoters. On the beach; 12 Knot and 7 Sanderling.

whoopers and crossbills

29/12/2010 5 whoopers flying and calling over the railway line Cors Caron.
31/12/2010 10 crossbills in pairs singing in fir woods Cwm Berwyn.

Re Egret: in April 2009 a little egret was seen on Tristan da Cunha! It eclipsed the endemics that the world birders had paid a lot of money to see! Also on that and previous trips across the southern Atlantic cattle egrets were seen flying south....next landfall:Antarctica! One was eaten by a skua and one landed on the boat and was transported north in a box for 14 days to be released on an island previously visited by cattle egrets. It was suggested that this dispersal is a survival strategy and one reason egrets are so widely distributed, though I didn't find any colonies on the Antarctic Peninsula!!

Happy Inner Peace for 2011

Come on Elfyn stand up and take the credit bestowed upon you for a brilliant piece of writing.
Happy new year to you all from a gloomy Pembrokeshire, must get back to stirring the porridge now ( my breakfast of course ! )

Goosander, Clarach

Lorraine Hill was pleased to see very good views of a male goosander swimming and fishing underwater in the stream at Clarach this afternoon.

ABERYSTWYTH

Nice to be back after a brief time in Essex. The ringed male Black Redstart was showing well today on the Old College. 18 Turnstones again, making Aberystwyth a really good spot for this lovely wader. Helen Herbert noted 19 on 23rd.
Harry had a couple of good office window ticks yesterday; a Kingfisher and Little Egret in Plas Crug ditch. On 23rd he noted 9 Snipe there. On 28th he saw 6 Red-throated Divers offshore and a total of 27 flying north.

Where might the Dyfi Little Egret have gone in all this ice and snow?

Not strictly relevant to Ceredigion perhaps but some of you might be interested anyway. We have been colour-ringing Little Egrets at a colony near Bangor for the last couple of years and earlier this year ringed 97 young. So far we have had sightings in several north England counties including Derbyshire, Lancashire & Cumbria, Scotland (2), Northern Ireland (3), Republic of Ireland, Isle of Man (4) and just recently (on 3rd November) the bird shown was sighted at a chicken farm at Tejina, La Laguna, Tenerife approx 3,000km south of where it was ringed!! It looks a bit the worse for wear but was still alive and looking considerably better on 25th November. Perhaps some of the Little Egrets it is standing next to in the second photo were born on the Dyfi? I wonder if it will return to Wales in the spring? Any colour-ring sightings from Ceredigion, or elsewhere, would be greatly appreciated.

goose'logs

15 Pink-footed geese + (escapee) snow goose at Llanrhystud around mid-day in fields to south of sea front car park. Buzzard on one post, c-crow on next post & red kite slightly aloof & 6 posts further along. 2 lottis in bushes round lime kilns. Only 2, where were the other dozen!
Also a Gt-crested grebe on the sea.

'Garden Specials'

It was great to see two special birds in the garden today - A Goldcrest and a Dipper. It is most encouraging to see that they have survived the freezing conditions of the last couple of weeks.

Visiting birders observations

I visited my Mother in Aber. between Boxing Day and 29th. During my stay saw the following : Ring Plover bathing by Millenium Bridge,Little Grebe in same vicinity (sighted over 2 days) Male Goosander flying up from Harbour .Kingfisher in Harbour and also one by Pier. at least 17 Turnstones by Pier. 7 P. Sandpipers by War Memorial. Pair of Bullfinches behind Cop Shop .4male and 1 female Goldeneye on Aberffrwd dam reservoir On journey from Boston saw 38 Buzzards by roadside including 4 in Lincolnshire- which is unusual Andrew Lewis

Hen Harrier

The farm park fields are becoming the hotspot for birds in the Cardigan area. Late afternoon a Ringtail Hen harrier was performing well over the stubble. Also, a Sparrowhawk, Merlin and Kestrel. The large flock of Barnacle geese seem to have moved on, just the regular flock of around 30 birds today with the Canadas.
There was a large flock of Linnets, finches and Skylarks again but too mobile with the raptors around to search them for a hoped for Twite or Woodlark.

College Rocks - AM

At mid - morning as well as the usual Cormorants, there were nine Turnstones and a Kingfisher on the College Rocks

Bittern at Cilgerran

My wife and I saw a bittern at Cilgerran, close to the kingfisher hide today at about one PM. Managed to get a few photos if you need corroboration. I see from the 2009 report that one was seen in Spring.

Phil Jones

Re: Harbour Residents

Following the big thaw the temporary lake that has appeared in the field at the bottom of my garden was quickly occupied by a male Goosander looking very smart if not a bit lonely. Other regular visitors to the feeders in the garden have included a couple of Brambling numerous Goldfinches but only one solitary Greenfinch. Around Aberystwyth Harbour 'Muffin walking' on the flats side Sunday a seal was cruising around I thought it was one of the otters until I spotted the huge nostrils and big eyes today there was a very tame Cormorant sitting on the rocks near the pavement I tried my best impression of a china man hoping the bird might hop on my arm and do some fishing for me; no luck, Muffin showed her usual valour barking from behind my legs I must learn some mandarin in the New Year! Congrats to Elfyn Pugh for a very funny post :-)

Tony Clark

Bow Street

Rheidol swans and a feeding barn owl

The return of the resident mute swans up stream with their 4 offspring greeted us this morning with one of the adults making a grand landing on what was a fast body of thawing snow.After a lazy stop over on the bank and a not so lazy family altercation the pecking order was sorted and they left to go back down stream.

We continue to look out for the barn owl that was seen three days before Christmas hunting along and infront of the riverside in the hope that we will catch another glimse of what has to be one of the most remarkable sights this year.With that in mind may I wish all contributers and posters very best wishes for a successful birdwatching in 2011.

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda i Bawb

A Happy New Year to you All

Lis Collison

Hiccup! burp Oops sorry!

John Valentine I'll av yu!!

Robin Whatley reports..........

Robin Whatley reports three water rails in his garden this morning. He has also had waxwings recently, and tells me that a colleague of his has seen waxwings in Penbontrhydybeddau.

jerry moore

Aberystwyth and around

Christmas Day: 1 redwing in a garden next to Penglais woods, 2 little grebes in Aberystwyth harbour, kingfisher and buzzard on castle rocks.

Boxing day: kingfisher by Trefechan Bridge in Aberystwyth, 2 lapwing and 2 ringed plover in the harbour. Woodcock flew out in front of us on road to Morfa Bychan then landed under a hedge (see attached photos – very difficult to see, despite being so close). 2 snipe in coastal fields near Morfa Bycha plus 6 fieldfare flying over.

Aline Denton

Blackcap

A male Blackcap visited our bird feeder in Aberystwyth on Boxing Day
morning. It had no difficulty in figuring out how to get inside the caged
feeder, and was soon bossing the chaffinches and tits. On the ground, it
showed no fear of all the Blackbirds and Starlings which were feeding around
it. Cool!

Laurie Wright

Woodcock

A Christmas morning walk along the stream in the grounds of Plas Penglais, Aberystwyth, has solved the mystery of the bird which has flown off from the stream whenever I walked along the public footpath each day for the past four days. In the dim light of late afternoon, it could have been a snipe or jack snipe. This morning, it flew off as usual, but I found it again, under a tree in the grounds, and at last got a photo.
Yes, it was a woodcock.
That would explain why I didn't see any pale stripes on its wings as it flew off
from the stream.

Laurie Wright

Yellowhammers

On my tetrad on the A487 inland from Aberporth 6 yellowhammer, a reed bunting, a woodcock, 5 snipe, curlew and lapwing plus usual common birds.

Philip Ellis

Wrens and Parrots

On my return to snowbound Ystrad Meurig from Australia, I was pleased to see 6 wrens in the garden at dusk presumably on their way to a communal roost.

This is not Ceredigion but a festive sighting from Aus where my sister and brother-in-law in Sydney have fed the same sulphur crested cockatoo in their garden for over 20 years, also the same pair of rainbow lorikeets for many years and there are always some handsome crested pigeons about. They all fly in in the morning and demand to be fed.

Merry Christmas everyone

Philip

Teifi

On the river around the by pass bridge - 3 Pochard, 2 Tufted ducks, 3 Goldeneye and 3 Goosander.
Behind the old Jewsons - another 6 Goosander.
Opposite St Dogmaels quay - c 150 Dunlin and 1 Sanderling. 4 Bar-tailed Godwit.
Over 500 Wigeon around the estuary and adjacent fields.
Cardigan farm park fields - 2 Brambling with c200 Linnets, Skylarks and Chaffinches. No Barnacle Geese on the fields or the island.

South Beach, Aberystwyth

Two purple sandpipers, ringed plover, redshank, male goosander off College Rocks, another handsome males and two redheads where the Rheidol enters the marina. A red kite flew along the beach, definitely on the look-out for something to eat. Lots of blue tits and four greenfinch near the Castle Playground.

Four snipe down Plascrug Avenue Boxing Day.

As you may guess, Elfyn Pugh has beed snowed in but he has sent this message.

Some doctor on television this morning said that the way to achieve inner peace is to finish all the things you have started. So, being snowed in for nearly a week, I looked around my house to see things I'd started and hadn't finished and, so far this morning, I finished off a bottle of Merlot, a bottle of Chardonnay, a bodle of Baileys, a butle of wum, a pockag of Prunglies, tha mainder of botl Prozic and Valum scriptins, res of the Chesescke an a box a choclets. Yu bodle of Baileys, a butle of wum, a pockag of Prunglies, tha mainder of botl Prozic and Valum scriptins, res of the Chesescke an a box a choclets. Yu haf no idr how guod I feel rite now.Plaese sned dhis orn to dem yu fee AR in ned ov iennr paece.

Chrissie Hapmus

xXSxxx!

Barnacle Geese.........

Are some of the Dyfi birds on the Teifi?
See PembsBirds for details of 105 on the Teifi this afternoon.

Black Redstart

Not the right method John but yes it was me! The bird was ringed about 2 weeks ago. There was another there at the same time which was not so co-operative!

Merry Christmas

All the very best to all for Christmas and the New Year. The sea was freezing at and after high tide along the beach today at Ynyslas.

Ynyslas and Leri -on a frozen snowy morning

A trip to Ynyslas this morning revealed an amazing sight of snow on the beaches and icefloes frozen along the tideline. Along the saltings of the Leri and sea wall literally hundreds of duck were to be seen. Widgeon predominanted with Teal a close second, Mallard and Pintail were also present in good numbers. Redshank were shivering in the rushes and a fair number of Curlew were out on the sandbank. Skylarks, Meadow Pippits, Starlings and a few Reed Buntings were foraging on the unfrozen mud revealed by the receeding tide. With all this avian food around a Hen Harrier and two Peregrines were getting well stoked up!

Best Wishes to All For Xmas and the New Year

A very Happy Christmas and all the very best for the New Year

ABERYSTWYTH

Chris Bird and Harry Pepper spent some time around the town although only the prom from the harbour to North Beach produced birds of note: 2 Coot were by the wooden land stage (possibly the only Coot at Aberystwyth since the 17 mentioned in Hywel's book, seen in the harbour during the harsh winter of early 1963), 5 Purple Sandpipers were present (the only number that Harry has noted recently), 18 Turnstones and 11 Ringed Plovers. The male Black Redstart with the silver ring was still about and we wondered if that was a new bird or has Tony Cross been up on the Old College roof with one of his butterfyly nets?!! A Little Grebe was in the Harbour.
(As for the gull at Llansantffraed, I did take some other pics of it, not so good but they were side-on views and, sadly, show it as a Black-headed.)

More birds, Ynyslas

Yes Liz we have had several inches of snow here on the coast which hasn't shown any sign of melting, -8 degrees last night and reached the dizzy height of 1.1 degrees for a brief period this afternoon. Needless to say starling numbers have dropped dramatically, and greenhouse ticks include a robin, several wrens, a snipe and a couple of thrushes. The thrushes have discovered our cat flap is minus a flap and so the conservatory is now providing b&b.
The common gulls continue to increase in numbers, 15 yesterday and now including several first winter birds. As you can see parking is becoming an issue and one black headed gull settled down for the night on the roof.

gull pic below

Am I the only person suspicious about the "black-headed gull" in the picture by John Davis? The head looks very black as does the bill. I am doubtless wrong but would someone who knows gulls like to comment further!

Thanks John for the answer to my query......I assumed I was wrong but one can live in hope!

LLANSANTFFRAED

A wintry scene there yesterday.
Along the shore was a surprising variety and number of wildfowl: 288 Wigeon, 18 Mallard, 13 Teal,  7 Pochard and single Shoveller and Shelduck. 
All the usual wader species, plus Lapwing, but in small numbers. A Black-headed Gull in breeding plumage seemed a bit out of place and the Buzzard on the church was a fine sight. A Dipper called plaintively from the clff-top above the frozen surface of the stream.

 

photos

Thankyou Janet for some more lovely pics. It was interesting to enlarge the image with a click and pick out the common gull. Makes a change from looking at the feeders and seeing a diminishing number of birds in spite of putting out a large quantity of food. Perhaps the answer lies in the journey today down the A485 where we dropped from -1c at Tregaron to -9c in Lampeter with huge hoar frost absolutely deadly to the bark gleaners. I hope our birds are travelling south though it was a shock to see complete snow cover even on the coast in JB's pics. I note the Teifi with surface icing and the icing up of small damp areas on Cors Caron so the thaw can't come soon enough. On the bright side I have heard goldfinches and robins managing a phrase or two and the great spot was drumming away on the metal stanchion on a telegraph pole

Black Redstart

The male Black Redstart was on the back of the old college building this morning.
(Paul G)

The Birds

Garden Birds - nr Bow Street

Like Tony, across the valley, we also had a Common Snipe in the garden today. As well as the usual garden residents there were in addition, two Woodcock, a Goshawk, two very pale Buzzards and several Redwings - the latter finishing off the last of the Holly berries. Does any one know of a good stand of Sorbus trees with berries - there should be some Waxwings around?!

Aren't Starlings brilliant birds!

I've had different guests at and around my feeders since this harsh weather kicked in. Nothing as exotic as some of you lucky people but I've been admiring the Starlings that have started to visit. I get very close views of them, they really are wonderfully handsome little critters, vastly under-rated I think.

I bumped into my neighbour Chris this afternoon. He has had a couple of Bramblings in his garden here in Eglwys Fach, plus a couple of Yellowhammers and a Blackcap these last few days.

This blog will be two years old on January 1st, it seems to be going quite well. As I write I notice that there have been over 142,000 visits so far.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Garden Snipe / Humming Starlings

Returned home for lunch today to find two Common Snipe under the feeders!! Hope the shooters are showing some Christmas goodwill towards these lovely birds? Also on a lighter note my very adaptable visiting Starlings have adopted a humming bird approach to the feeders and in all fairness appear to be quite good at it, that is of course when they get down to feeding instead of squabbling; but they are fun to watch J

Tony Clark

Bow Street

Winter birds Eglwys Fach part2

Ah! this will look odd on the blog as it will come before part1. I forgot to mention the numerable Goldfinches around the feeders, one of which I found lying in the snow, wings outstreatched and lookig dead but its' tail was just twitching slightly. I picked it up and it's eyes were closed but it looked in good shape so I took it indoors and put it in a cardboard box for about 20mins then had a look in. It was standing up looking fit and well. Up close in the hand they look even more superb than thro' the bins, it seemed perfectly fit so I took it outside and opened the box lid, it looked about for a couple of seconds and with a short chirp it was off into the nearest bush.

Winter Birds in Eglwys Fach

Nice picture John, I have tried to catch up with this winter's Black Redstart on several occasions but no luck so far.
As with several other postees, deliberate pun for Ian, I have been having a lot of extra birds in the garden during this prolonged cold spell including several Song Thrushes and five or six male Blackbirds. Chaffinches number about 25 at any one time, again nearly all males, about 8 Greenfinches at last so they haven't all perished, Siskin numbers are steadily increasing with about 10-12 together with high numbers of Blue tits (abt 50), Great Tits (20+) and the usual Dunnocks, Robins, Sparrows (15-20), Wren and Starlings. But the newcomer is a male Blackcap, first seen yesterday for a few seconds only and then back this am for a longer visit. I just hope that they all survive whilst we depart for three days. We are hoping to collect up some migrants of our own as we travel England picking up our children for Christmas at home. It's fingers crossed time as our daughter is due to fly into Heathrow on Thursday from Kyushu in Japan (they have electric heating under their runways)

TALE of a WREN

From Alan Lyne: Whilst walking one of the tetrads for the BTO Winter Atlas I was watching through binoculars a Wren working its way along a ditch. Having reached the end of the ditch it opted to fly across a small snow-white field towards a group of conifers. Halfway across it stopped, landed on the snow, turned round and started to fly back towards the ditch. Suddenly my sight was filled with a Buzzard. Following it back to its fence-post perch I could see the hapless Wren struggling to free itself. However it was soon put out of its misery as the Buzzard started to feed on the tiny morsel. Sad for the Wren but one has to admire the skill of the Buzzard.

CHRISTMAS TREE WAGTAILS UPDATE

Harry Pepper watched 116 Pied Wagtails fly down into the Christmas tree in the centre of Aberystwyth this evening.

Llangybi

It's not unusual to see the occasional overwintering penguin in Llangybi these days. But this flock of 5 birds (seen here scavenging food from a family of eskimos who recently moved in to the village) was an excellent garden tick for the lucky finder.

New Quay

I also saw a flock of Barnacle Geese this afternoon come in off the sea at New Quay. I estimated about 40 but difficult to count exactly as I was in the middle of a nervous breakdown at the time.

ABERYSTWYTH

I went down to town to get some supplies just in case the snow gets worse and while I was there walked along the prom between the castle and pier and saw quite a good selection of birds: 15 Canada Geese flew low over the castle and then south over the sea; 50 or so geese, possibly Barnacles flew south over the sea and later I had a good view of 47 Barnacle Gese flying south; a Kingfisher was on castle rocks and 12 Wigeon just offshore; a Little Grebe was just off the beach by the pier; 25 Lapwings circled over the rocks before flying south and I was sure I heard a bit of a Black Redstart song coming from College rocks and then a male came up onto the edge of the prom and it had a bright silver ring on one of its legs. It then flew to the castle but not before I got a shot with my little compact camera.
I then returned to the snowy wastes of Trisant, with some difficulty even in a Land Rover (but I should have enough wine supplies this time!)

Ynyslas

Today at Ynyslas, 1 snow bunting and a snipe at the Turn carpark, growing numbers of common gulls with black headed gulls on the golf course and a female hen harrier flew over the dunes at dusk.

Pencarreg

In the garden today, 20+ blue tits, 40+ chaffinches, Hse.sparrows, starlings, coal tits, great tits, 7+ blackbirds, 2 robins, a song thrush, & most unsusual bird of the day & a new garden bird, this moorhen.
We live a reasonable distance from the lake & the wrong side of the main road, so it really must be desperate to be pecking around underneath our feeders!
Bev Hopkins

Teifi

Highlight of the Teifi WeBS count today was a lot more Snipe than usual, 64 from Curlew hide and another 12 behind the old Jewsons at St Dogmaels.
Over 1,000 Lapwing around the estuary and 320 Teal was also unusual. Some other counts were 3 Tufted Ducks, 6 Goldeneye, 3 Coot (not birds regularly seen on the Teifi) and 12 Moorhen along the river banks pushed off the frozen marsh.

Waxwings

12 in a garden in Aberporth this morning.

Bird feeders

Like Liz we have had a lone Brambling for about a week now, and, only intermittently, one Greenfinch. Yesterday morning there were at least hundred birds on the feeders and below - 35+ Goldfinches, 50+ Chaffinches, House Sparrows, Starlings, various Tits, Blackbirds, the odd Song Thrush and Dunnock.

The garden was literally alive with birds.

David, Felinfach

Brambling in Aberystwyth

One consolation for being stuck at home because of the weather and a
stinking cold is that the weather brings the birds to you. A Brambling
turned up at our feeder this morning (Saturday) in a bunch of chaffinches,
the first time that we've ever seen one here in Dan-y-Coed. I'm hoping that
some Redwings and Fieldfares will also be heading into town.

Laurie Wright

WAXWING at TRISANT

Sadly not seen by me but by a neighbour. It was briefly in a hawthorn hedge opposite his house, almost within sight of mine! Had to be content with a couple of Bramblings in the garden and a relatively huge number of Goldfinches and several Siskins feeding on niger seed.

brambling

A lone bird at our feeders with dozens of greenfinches and chaffinches. However,the nyger seed at the cors caron feeder station is mesmerising the goldies. Snipe, woodcock and pheasant all in the garden with a number of reed buntings. -15c forecast for Mon at Trawscoed so am hoping I've got enough food for them all. A few meat scraps produced 3 buzzards and 5 kites but now the feeding area is knee deep in snow.

Little Grebe and Dipper on the Rheidol

The pair of malard that come here each year to set up home were quite unpeturbed by the arrival of a little grebe on Wednesday.He went on his way up stream as if on a mission.Today he was on his way down stream but I am not entirely convinced that he has left.The dipper has put in another appearance this week ,he has a favourite stone which is prominent at the moment with the river being so low.

The smaller garden birds looked most peculiar this morning under the feeder, thigh deep in snow with their tails dragging on the snow.The blackbirds and chaffinch soon worked out how to eat the fat balls and peanuts.Still not one greenfinch,just as well as the two starlings and greater spotted were greedy enough!

Liz

Predation at the Teifi marshes

The most likely predator of the Starlings would seem to be a Sparrowhawk from the droppings that are also in the hides. Plenty of pellets for an interested expert to look at.

We have caught and ringed 2 on the marsh this year.

(Teifi Ringing Group)

Carnage at Teifi Marshes

Does anyone have any idea what is predating the starlings and
dismembering the bodies in the hides ? It must be possible to make up
at least 6 corpses from all the bits in the hide overlooking the river.
The mallard hide also has 'bits of birds' inside.

David Wheeler

Birds on the roof

On the roof of the Old College in Aberystwyth around 12.45 on Tuesday: one
female House Sparrow, one Starling, three different Wagtails (Pied, White
and Grey) and the resident Black Redstart. The yellow belly of the Grey
Wagtail is so much easier to see when it struts along a roof.

Laurie Wright

Goosanders

One handsome male and two female goosanders on the Rheidol behind the mysterious building next to the Aberystwyth police station.

On the 13th, a little egret at Blaendolau playing fields. Gareth Williams in Llanfarian tells me that he had one had one in a tree outside his house.

CWMRHEIDOL and CORS CARON

Bob and I began the day at a cold and frosty Cwmrheidol. Between the power station and the dam were 7 Goldeneyes, 120 Mallard, 6 Teal, 4 Tufted Ducks and a couple of Goosanders.
Moving on to Cors Caron from Ystrad Meurig we failed to see the Short-eared Owl seen recently by Andre Marsh but had excellent views of a female Hen Harrier, at least two Willow Tits and a couple of Little Egrets.

shooting

I agree that blasting birds out of the sky does not appeal to me, & I can not fathom the mindset of anyone who does.
I keep an eye on the records of the birds recorded on the North Slob in Wexford & it does make interesting (& disappointing) reading to see how often the 'wildfowlers' shoot unusual duck such as blue winged teal etc.

Llannon/Woodcock

Still a good selection of waders present (10 species) but I couldn't locate any Lapland Buntings and few Skylarks. Perhaps they were over the back of the fields or have seen the long range weather forecast and headed elsewhere. No sign of the Black Redstart either but I had the feeling, call it 'male intuition', that interesting things could still have been lurking, unseen by me. A casual count of 40 Song Thrushes in the coastal strip fields and along the coast path suggests that a whole lot more must be about there and is in stark contrast to their virtual absence around Llangybi. 40 Red-throated Divers were offshore. There was very little of note at Llanrhystud.
I've been made aware for some time of the discrepancy between the numbers of Woodcock seen by birdwatchers and the much larger numbers accounted for by local hunters. The man who delivers my oil is one such and I've often planned to ask him( for scientific purposes) how many he shoots each winter. Unfortuneately, cowardice is my natural character trait, whilst the oil man looks like he probably wrestles grizzly bears in his leisure hours and sports a shirt with the logo "born to hunt; f*** the ban", and so the question has remained unasked. So, I was delighted to read the piece by Tony on the blog the other day about Woodcock, which shows that fascinating information about our local birds can be gathered without having to blast them to death.

Waxwings -- Penparc

2 Waxwings still present feeding in the lane next to the Murco garage --9:00am.

Short-eared Owl

4pm this afternoon I saw a short eared owl hunting at the north end of Cors Caron. Walking down the track from Ystrad Meurig and 100 yards past the river when the bird came from the left of the track towards the small stone ruins. It flew back north over the river and then I lost it as it dropped in to the grass. I walked back up over the Teifi and stood waiting for a few minutes. A flock of crows flew noisily over. The owl came out of the grass and up to the crows, called a few times then flew back over my head and off towards Tregaron on the left side of the track again. It's exactly the place I saw one earlier this year in Jan/Feb

Andre Marsh

Waxwings

2 Waxwings this morning (11.50) in hedge in lane at side of Murco garage,
Penparc.

Rob and Lynda Evans (Meidrim, Carms)

Buzzard Battle

In a field near Bow Street today a buzzard was enjoying his lunch when in came a marauder who wanted his share!

More Waxwings -- Cardigan !!

3 Waxwings in Napier St near the Job Centre, at 12:45.
(Dyfed J.)

Waxwing -- Cardigan

1 This morning - 08:30 between New Mill Road and Tescos(Howard & Siwan), the same area as yesterday, see post below for details.

LLANRHYSTUD - LLANON

A good selection of birds today: At Llanrhystud, 3 Bar-tailed Godwits with 87 Curlew and 17 Golden Plovers on one of the fields by the shore. Along the water's edge, 7 Grey Plover and offshore, 12 Red-throated Divers.

At Llansantffraed, 28 Wigeon, 40 Curlew and 35 Golden Plovers and a Black Redstart on one of the houses between the church and the shore.
At Llanon, one of the Lapland Buntings was typical skulking mode.

More on the Cardigan Waxwings

I first spotted 6 Waxwings in a tree just north of the Tesco junction about 12.30.
Early afternoon, one was watched feeding on Hawthorn berries along the hedges at the back of Heol y Wern on North Park Estate.
If looking for it tomorrow, take New Mill Rd, which is the turning between Focus and the bypass. There is a large area to park about 200 yds up on the right.

Llanon, Sunday morning

On Sunday morning, the field by the beach at Llanon was busy: many Golden
Plover, with their colour showing up well in the sunlight; Lapland Buntings
and Skylarks; a few Lapwings; plus Starlings, a pale Buzzard, a Rock Pipit,
and various others. But none came close enough for a really good photo,
apart from a robin.

Laurie Wright

Waxwings, Penparc - Cardigan

Report of Waxwings at the Murco Garage 12:00 Penparc nr. Cardigan
(via Karen)

Also same or more? near Tesco's Cardigan along the roadside.
(Wendy)

Goosander

A single Goosander on the River Aeron at Aberaeron today, 11th December. Unusual.

Ian Harrison

Little Egret Rheidol Valley

Bird watching as a passenger sometimes proves to be worthwhile as it did yesterday when travelling back along the coast just north of Aberaeron.The cliffs are high and I got a birds eye view of a Peregrine attacking not a starling but a bird larger than itself,a buzzard no less.It repeatedly came down with such speed that there were several hard blows struck.The victim ,possibly an interloper was apparently unaffected but didn't hang around for the enslaught to continue.

This morning again by chance I glanced out of the upstairs window and to my amazement caught a fine view of the white egret in flight and it landed near the river bank,but unfortunately not for long as the shallow pools were frozen over!

It must have been looking for breakfast ,I hope it was more successful further down stream.

Lis Collison

Crossbill

4 Crossbills flying over near Brynhoffnant this morning.

Ceredigion Birding Group Field Trip

15 of us turned out this morning and enjoyed a few hours birding around Ynyslas. Thanks to John for leading us all.
After the walk most of us re-convened at RSPB Ynys-hir where Caroline kindly supplied mince pies and mulled wine.
As usual Moira kept a note of the different species seen -

Red-throated diver, Common scoter, Herring gull, House sparrow, Great crested grebe, ringed plover, Sanderling, Stonechat, Cormorant, Oystercatcher, Pied wagtail, Black-headed gull, Dunlin (135), Common Gull, Shag, Turnstone, Shoveler, Mute swan, Little egret, Red-breasted merganser, Great black-backed gull, Meadow pipit, Crow, Grey plover, Redshank, Linnet, Red kite, Reed bunting, Buzzard, Magpie, Goldeneye, Wigeon, Pintail, Teal, Curlew, Robin, Song thrush, Kestrel, Jackdaw, Lapwing, Starling, Golden plover, Canada goose, Wren, Mistle thrush, Mallard, Snipe, Skylark, Blackbird, Chaffinch, Rook.

Woodcock, Gadwall etc

Went catching woodcock in grass fields adjacent to Dyfi Estuary last night. At least 20 birds seen and 10 caught including a returning bird from last winter. Their weights were all good and near normal. Also caught 4 lapwing which were a bit thin but not desperately so. Two Gadwall were a surprise find but didn't hang around to be ringed!

Owen Williams and Terence Lambert were out catching near Llanilar last night and saw an amazing 100+ woodcock and caught and ringed 30! Again the average weight was at or slightly above normal. It appears there is a reason that all these Russian woodcock come to Wales for the winter!

Ynyslas/Aberleri

At Ynyslas this morning I counted 44 Dunlin, 4 Grey Plover about 20 Redshank and 6 Shellduck feeding on or near the saltings. There were also 2 Goosander and 2 Goldeneye on the water. Mallard, Wigeon, Teal and Starlings were nipping about and a Merlin swooped in and landed in amongst them. I don't think he caught anything but he stayed put, so he might have...........

Yo-ho-ho

Please extend my warmest invitation to a mulled wine and mince pie event at Ynys-hir on Saturday 11^th Dec, after the Borth walk. Free winter warmers to all Ceredigion birders – plus it would be nice to see some friendly faces after such an extended period of being closed because of severe ice conditions.

See you all on Saturday

Happy birding

Caroline

RSPB Ynys-hir

Ynyslas

At Ynyslas Point this morning Roy Bamford and I counted 65/70 Dunlin, 12 Knot and 7 Bar-tailed Godwit with c100 Oystercatcher. There were also 6 Sanderling nearby. From the Turn Car Park we saw c20 Great Crested Grebe and just a few Red-throated Divers.

Llanon Monday 6th

Spent very clear but very cold couple of hours at Llanon on Monday afternoon (6th) . Three Lapland Buntings seen in first three minutes about ten yards from the path. Filled the scope. Very nice indeed. Very intent on feeding - who can blame them. Spent ten minutes or so watching them and then walked along the coast for a bit.

Also numerous, uncounted I'm afraid, Golden Plover (c70+) - too dispersed over low tide foreshore and fields, 1 Grey Plover, 2 Med. Gulls, c80 Skylarks, 1 Stonechat, 1 Dipper, 1 Kestrel.

Ian Harrison

Divers and grebes

After finishing my section of the Dyfi WeBS count yesterday I had a quick look off Ynyslas turn car-park. Much better numbers of divers and grebes were off-shore with 36 great crested grebes and 85 red-throated divers close enough to identify with 100+ more distant white blobs probably divers. Later I at last managed to find a lapland bunting with 5 reed bunting south of Llanon along with a pink-footed goose on the stubble fields and 8 red-throated divers again just off-shore. A snow bunting was at Tanybwlch beach too which was a bonus.

Ynyslas/Aberleri

This afternoon I counted 239 Teal on the other side of the thin strip of water at low tide at Aberleri. I'm sure there were more tucked in out of sight below the bank on this side. Then a male Hen Harrier did a complete circuit around the salt grass, putting up a lot more Teal and Mallard from their cover. Shortly after his sortie I noticed a Kestrel hovering over the field in front of the caravan park. There were 8 or 9 Shell Duck, about the same number of Redshank and a lone Grey Plover feeding near the track between the boat-yard and the end of the saltings, plus scores more Teal.

Shrike still about

The Great Grey Shrike was present in Cross Inn Forest this morning in the area I've usually seen it. grid ref 569652. It was about 100m north of the main path perching on small conifers about 2 or 3m tall. I watched it for about half an hour before heading home. By crouching low I was able at times to look at it framed by the snow capped mountains in the far distance. Shriketastic! 4Crossbills were in the mature conifers to my left.

CHRISTMAS TREE WAGTAILS

Harry Pepper has noticed Pied Wagtails heading for the Christmas tree in Aberystwyth town centre so yesterday he made a point of watching them flying in from 4pm for a good half an hour or so. The total count was 123.
It really is good to know that so many of these lovely little birds are surviving but as Harry said, it will be interesting to monitor the roost over the next few weeks to see how numbers may vary.

Teifi and around

2 Brambling with a flock of over 500 Chaffinches on Cardigan Island Farm Park "set-aside" fields viewed from the road to Ferwig. Also a Merlin and around 200 Linnets. Numerous Skylarks but they were hidden in the stubble.
On the river from Heron hide, 10 Goosander (3 Drakes) and 3 Goldeneye. 50 Mallard is a higher count than usual for this time of year.
At high tide a good number of waders in the estuary, 126 Dunlin, 20 redshank, 2 Turnstone, 26 Ringed Plover and 2 Sanderling.

brambling

Brambling feeding with chaffinches at our feeders (plas treflyn on the edge of cors caron).
Yesterday a barn owl at the top of the bog caught something in the rushes at 16:40 hrs.
A few snipe were in the field to the NE. 2 linnets were being harassed by a bluey whilst eating birch seed from a sapling!

Andre, apparently in Argyll twite are known to travel miles for nyger seed so keep that feeder filled!

Leri saltings at high tide this morning

After driving down the very icy track, alongside the boatyard, to the Leri this morning as I turned on to the saltings track I was confronted by a mass of duck. Right along the side of the track and out on the water were several hundred Wigeon, Teal and Mallard - Too many to get an accurate count. In addition Redshank in profusion, Curlew, Sanderling, a male Tufted on the river, several flocks of Starlings and a flock of about 45 Linnets.

Shooting wildfowl

BASC issued the following yesterday:-


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Severe Weather Alert for the Shooting of Wildfowl and Waders


Call for Voluntary Restraint


Today, 6 December 2010, is the seventh day of freezing conditions in England and Wales under the agreed procedures for managing the shooting of ducks, geese and waders during prolonged severe weather. If the severe weather continues, and the agreed criteria are met, a statutory suspension could come into effect in England and Wales on the 15th day (at 00.01 hours) of severe weather ([12/13 December 2010).


Under these circumstances, BASC is calling on all its members and membership groups in England and Wales to exercise restraint in their shooting of all ducks (including reared mallard), geese, waders (including woodcock and snipe), coot and moorhen, where local conditions require it.


Guidance on how to exercise restraint is available on BASC’s website: www.basc.org.uk



Please bring this notice to the attention of your members and any other shooting people you encounter, not least so that the shooting community can be seen to be acting responsibly under the circumstances.



Please also keep your country/regional office informed over any actions which your club or syndicate takes, together with reports of unusual bird movements or birds in poor condition. Please also remember the bird condition forms available on JNCC's website:

www.jncc.gov.uk/page-2894

These forms record information on ground condition and the condition of waterbirds, and should be returned, preferably by email, to either your country/regional office, or your country conservation agency.



Up-to-date information is available from Head Office on 01244 573000 and its website (www.basc.org.uk).

Lapland Buntings

Thanks to Mervyn’s kind advice I had very good views of the Lapland buntings yesterday afternoon, some from only a few yards away.

John Woodruff

Twite in garden

A brown bird appeared on the nyjer feeder this afternoon, my first thought was that it was a reed bunting, although I thought that would be odd as I've never seen them do that. It was also too big for a lesser redpoll. I got the scope on it and realised it was a twite! Several attempts to photograph it failed as every time the shutter opened it turned its head away. It was only there a few minutes and then jumped in to a hawthorn bush and I still couldn't get a perfect 'side-on' shot of her before she left (no pink rump - so assuming it was a she) - so frustrating!! I've left the goldfinch on the photo for size comparison.

Later on Cors Caron, dipper on the Teifi and 2 barn owls hunting in daylight - Ystrad Meurig end

Andre Marsh

Close Encounter

We have just had a visit from a neighbour who lives on the north side of Pond
yr Oerfa. He tells me that yesterday he spent ten minutes watching from his
window as a snipe fed along the edge of a stream in his garden. It was no more
than twelve feet away and didn't seem too bothered about him watching. I know
that snipe are far from rare but I think that many a keen bird watcher would
not have had such a close or prolonged view. It goes to show, I suppose, that
when times are really tough secretive birds have to change their ways to
survive.

Elaine Izett

Cors Caron

Very quiet here for the last few days as we've had continuous minus figures reaching -12c with thick snow cover.
Wet areas which did not freeze last Jan, and where I saw snipe gathered, have been frozen solid. Today has seen a melt but the bog has been shrouded in a cold grey mist. Along the river on the NW bog were a line of shooters waiting for duck seeking the safety of the river and the ponds( where they are fed) at night. About 20 shots and I could just see duck flying fast and high away to the south in the gathering dusk. Something stirred in one of my spaniel's two brain cells and she was then on full alert, sniffing the air and examining every bush along the track. I just hoped she wouldn't find a wounded duck.
Toffy did find a casualty huddled under a willow beside the railway: a grey heron. Not shot, just dead.

To John Woodruff re: Lapland Buntings

Hi John,
just read about your search for the Laplands, they are at Llannon not Llanrhystud, as you leave Llannon village heading south there is a new small housing development on the rhs. immediately past this development is a small road, signposted to a hotel the name of which has slipped my memory, follow this road down to a small beach car park. There is a small stream on the rhs just as you turn into the car park ,this frequently has a Dipper feeding.
A new gate access to the coastal path leads from the car park into the first grassy field, this is where Bob and I had the birds two days ago but they are mobile and can be anywhere in the first five fields. Good luck if you try again.

Birds seen at the Clettwr

Just back from a very damp walk along the Clettwr with John. There were a couple of Dippers, one of which was very obliging. It seemed quite un-bothered by our presence and carried on about its business turning submerged leaves and other vegetation on the river bed to look for food. A handsome male Hen Harrier put in an appearance, a Snipe flew over and a few Redshank were calling as they darted about. But we did get very cold and soggy. Buster was with us, I was treated to the full-on aroma of wet dog all the way home.

Llanrhystud

Went to look for Lapland buntings between the car park and the lime kilns this afternoon - no sign of LBs, nor any other seed eaters come to that, but the snow goose was feeding with 3 wigeon by the flooded corner of the 2nd field. The wigeon flew off but the goose stayed put as I passed within 100yds of it. More evidence of a domestic origin I supose.

Many curlew and lapwing, around a dozen golden plover, redshank, oyster catchers, 3 snipe, heron, wren, songthrush, rock and meadow pipit, pied wagtail, kite, rook, crow, starling, dunnock, robin, and turnstone made for a pleasant walk, despite freezing rain.

John Woodruff

Peregrine Lunch

While working on the computer in the attic room, heard a peregrine and looked up to see it flying across my view chasing a bird nearly as big as itself which I was not able to identify.

I srabbled the Velux window open get a better view, just in time to see it bind on to its prey calling loudly, then, what I assume was the male (smaller) bird returning the call as it flew past towards the action. Quite the best armchair birding I've had in some time.

David, Felinfach

Llanrhystud coastal fields

In the fields behind the beach this morning a peregrine flew past, disturbed by a tractor. This was closely followed by a merlin – initially seen sitting on a fence post (I’d been looking out for a merlin for the last few days as the cold weather has brought them here in previous years). There was also a red kite circling around.

.

Waders included a few golden plover and a few lapwing in one field, and 50 or so curlew in another field with black-headed gulls and starlings. There was also a group of about 12 wigeon in the ditch running down to the beach. Also of note, a greater spotted woodpecker flying over one of the fields. I see them regularly in the woods behind the road, but never on the beach side of the road.

On the way home I inadvertently flushed a snipe from the stream next to our driveway.

Aline Denton

Apparently it's not time to stop killing yet

I contacted the shooters association, The BASC earlier today and received the following reply -

Thank you for your email below in which you raise your concerns regarding the shooting of waterfowl and waders during cold weather.

Please click on the link below which will take you to the BASC website. The BASC website provides full explanation of how the severe weather process works along with the daily count towards any request for voluntary restraint/statutory suspension in England/Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

http://www.basc.org.uk/en/shooting/severe-weather.cfm

The situation is reviewed daily and the website updated accordingly.

But in brief the situation in each country for 3^rd Dec is as follows:-

Scotland: Day 9 Voluntary restraint was called in Scotland on day 7

England/Wales: Day 6 If the count reaches day 7 tomorrow (Saturday) a call for voluntary restraint may be called for England/Wales

N. Ireland Day 8 Voluntary restraint was called in N. Ireland on day 7

If we can assist with anything else please get in touch.

Regards

Amanda Holroyd

Research Assistant/Secretary

BASC

Marford Mill, Rossett, Wrexham LL12 0HL

Tel: 01244 573 016

Fax: 01244 573 013

Email: Amanda.holroyd@basc.org.uk

I don't think it's much help. You might want to contact the BASC to make your feelings known.

More re shooters

I am collecting information for the Dyfi estuary for CCW and JNCC on local conditions, bird movements, behaviour etc. in relation to the hard weather and a potential wildfowling ban.

Today was 'day 6' in Wales and England, in the 14 day countdown to a statutory ban.

I have submitted observations on the last few days today based on my own observations and those of RSPB, and I'll be sending in further details over forthcomings days if conditions don't change.

As I write its raining and its seems unlikely we will move to 'day 7' tomorrow, but if freezing conditions return within 3 days the day count will continue. If the weather relents for more than 3 days the countdown will begin again!

If, as seems likely, hard weather returns from Sunday, I will be encouraging wildfowl clubs to 'exercise restraint' ie. advise their members to desist from shooting in advance of any statutory ban (which may or may not come).

In the last few days I've witnessed large numbers of duck (which have moved from inner parts of the estuary to the lower Leri channel) disturbed three times. Twice by dog walkers and today by wildfowlers (who remained in the area for around five hours!!!). I did express my concern to them but to no avail. They considered the conditions ideal for wildfowling and sadly, did not see the need to avoid disturbance or shooting prior to a ban coming into force.

All very frustrating, but please put your observations on the blog to help me with reporting back the facts (opinions are another matter!).

Mike Bailey

As Liz says - if the ban only takes force after 14 days it's too late, the damage has already been done.

Bob

LLANON

I was not as fortunate as Bob and Mervyn but I did see 4 Lapland Buntings today and one noisily settled on a nearby wire fence and remained long enough for me to get a digi-scoped pic. Behind me was the Snow Goose which has presumably come from the menagerie at nearby Ty Gwyn Pools where I have seen free-flying Snow Geese. (I thought there was some regulation about non-native species. Best I stop here!) Had I been in Norfolk (and it was cold enough) and that goose had been with a few thousand Pink-feet, then one might look more favourably on it; but you never know! At least 255 Skylarks were on the coastal fields.