Aberaeron coast

 6 Sandwich Terms and a Whimbrel at Aberaeron right.  Also a Common Sandpiper calling earlier this morning. 

Andy James 

2024 Ceredigion Bird Report

 The 2024 Ceredigion Bird Report is now available as a PDF file or a Word document.   If you would like a copy please e-mail me at 

russellbronygan@outlook.com with your preferred version.   The Report also includes the 2023 Ringing Report for the county kindly compiled by Wendy James. 

Russell Jones 

Llansantffraed; the young and the old.

 250 Carrion Crows were in the stubble. Just a few Med Gulls about. The cute but oblivious juvenile Oystercatcher nearly fell to a juvenile Peregrine zooming along the shoreline but the falcon was harried off by nearby adults. Rather wonderfully, the long time returning leucistic Oystercatcher was present. I saw it on August 5th last year but I think this is the earliest I've ever seen it. I believe it was first noted in August 2005. So twenty years at least. I've read that Scandinavian birds do not usually arrive here until the autumn. So maybe it is a UK bird since it appears so early?

Choughs

 Six Choughs headed south over Ynyslas yesterday evening. 

Quite high up with occasional calls.

David Williams 

llansantffraed

 100+ Med Gulls present. Single Dunlin/Whimbrel/Turnstone. 22 Sandwich Terns south and a Peregrine north. Great views of a juvenile Goshawk hunting along the hedgerows which then sat for five minutes on a gate across from the kilns. A very young (half sized) juv Oystercatcher was on the beach.

Kestrels

 Pleased to report a family of Kestrels hunting along the Leri at the boatyard end.

4 juveniles, 2 adults. 

David Williams 

Morfa Fields

 Interesting visit to Morfa Fields with Mark Nortis this afternoon.   Female Kestrel,  fledgling and adult Common Whitethroat, Linnets and sparrows.  Nesting Skylarks.   Also managed to make out a Fulmar nest on the black cliffs despite the haze.

Andy James 

Aberaeron

 On Saturday 19, early evening,  a juvenile wheatear and a little stint lying up and down the shore line before briefly joining group of House Martins before flying off to the south. 

Mark Norris 

Rain stops play

 I counted 290 Med Gulls at Llansantffraed early this morning before rain drove me back to the car. Also; 33 Sandwich Terns and 16 Stonechats. Back in Lampeter, a Great Egret flew south over the Teifi when I was at the car spares shop.

+

Med Gulls and Yellow Wags

 600 Meds between Llanon and Llanrhystud yesterday,  including 16 colour- ringed  (read and submitted) also at least 3 Yellow Wags in the arable fields at Morfa.

Arfon Williams 

Bless Harry

Here I go again!!! I may be on??? 

Morfa Bychan and Ynyslas

 Morfa Bychan 

 12th:  A good flock of Kittiwakes offshore, 6 Choughs. 13th:  Manx Shearwater 2000+, Whimbrel 2, Gannet 2, Peregrine juvenile. Grayling butterflies 2.  14th:  Common Sandpiper, Med Gull,  Raven.   15th:  Dunln 10, Whimbrel,  700 Manx,  Grey Seal.   16th:  Sandwich Tern,  Dunln,  Wheatear,  Peregrine,  Raven,  Stonechats 20+, Chough  8.

Yynyslas 15th.

Sandwich Tern 83, Little Tern, a smart adult,  Med Gull 6, Common Gull adult, Dunln 40, Ringed Plover 7and a single Whimbrel.

Pete Hackett 

Peteincluded a photo of the Little Tern with his report. 

Ynys-hir waders, etc.

 A fairly varied array of interesting waders over the past three days including 2 green and 7 common Sandpipers, 2 greenshanks and 2 black-tailed godwits around Marian  Mawr and Women last.  In addition, 2 bloods of teals at Marian Mawr and Ynys Feurig  water rail at Marian Mawr, sining grasshopper warbler  on big  rushy  field and a marsh harrier from Ynys  Feurig  too.

Dave Anning 

Correcion

 Re: Jerry Moore's post of 13th July.   

Should read   "11 young fledged from 11 successful nests",  not  7 successful nests.

Llanrhystud

 Last update,  back to Bucks first thing tomorrow. 

Today:  2 Whimbrel south.  About 60 Med Gulls, with 53 south this morning including a single flock of 36, a few on the beach. 

A flock of 7 Common Sandpipers on the beach.   6 Red Kites together over the campsite this evening. 

Mike Wallen 

Llansantffraed

 There were about 140 Med Gulls present this morning but this was eclipsed, in numbers at least, by a flock of approximately 700 Jackdaws, also on the beach. 200 House Sparrows were near the Llanrhystud car park. Also seen; 4 Whimbrel, a Sandwich Tern and 2 Wheatears.

Colour-ringed Med Gulls

 Of the 82 Meds yesterday, 3 were colour ringed, yellow,  white and red.  Almost managed to read the red one, while digits on red ring, first letter  J, last one zero, but I couldn't nail the middle 2.  It's  from Slovenia. 

I did read 2 the other day and will send details in due course. 

Mike Wallen 

Aline Denton

 There is little I can add to Ian's post about Aline Denton.  Aline made some valuable contributions to the blog and to bird records in Ceredigion generally. 

Out paths crossed only occasionally, usually at Llanrhystud or on our monthly walks. It was always a pleasure to spend any time with Aline, not only for her knowledge of wildlife  but for her always cheerful demeanor. 

Please read the tribute on the Demark Farm website as Ian suggests.

Llanrhystud Ned Gulls

 82 Med Guls on the beach at Llanrhystud at 6pm yesterday. 

Mike Wallen 

Aline Denton

 Some of you reading this may already be aware that Aline sadly passed away the weekend before last after a very long, brave battle with illness. She was an occasional contributor to the blog but I wouldn't have said that she was a birder exactly. She was far more than that. Aline worked tirelessly for a number of nature conservation organisations in Ceredigion and her loss is greatly felt. There is a lovely tribute on the Denmark Farm website.

www.denmarkfarm.org.uk/a-tribute-to-aline/

Llanrhystud

 Yesterday

Yesterday  - casual observations as opposed to full-on seawatching during the morning produced c40 Med Gulls all moving south.   Also 2 Sandwich terms and a Whimbrel close in going south,  with Manxies offshore all day.   No  build up of Meds on the bench but 3 Dunlin there together, 2 adults and  a  juv, possibly a family. 

Today so far just a Meds  on the beach and the skull of a diver, looks like a great northern. 

Mike Wallen

Another day, another Hobby

 One was present near Henllan bridge this morning when I was at work.

Aber Harbour-Marc's pics.

Here are Marc's pics from Aber Harbour: Sandpiper, Med Gulls-more info on Marc,s blog below.

Llanrhystud

 I'm here for a few days, staying literally on the coast.  A casual look out to sea yesterday morning resulted in a few birds moving south including c10 common scorer , 5 sandwich terms and c50 Manxies going manly north.   On the beach were exactly 125 Med Gulls mid-morning.

Mike Wallen

Aberystwyth harbour

 Yesterday i had a flock of 21 Common Sandpipers in Aberystwyth harbour.   There was one to start with and a flock of T5 flew in.  There was lots of calling and chasing each other.   Then another 5 flew in to join them.

There were also 8 Med Gulls in the harbour.   7 summer adults and a1st summer.  

The 1st summer was ringed and has been ringed somewhere in the UK.  I'm awaiting information about the bird.

Marc Hughes 

Marc included photos with his report. I've neen meaning to replace my ancient laptop for some time do I can put photos on the blog again. 

In the meantime I would be very grateful to anyone to would be willing to add Marc's photos to his post.  I will email them to you.

Llangybi

 A sleek Hobby shot over the garden a few minutes ago causing a commotion among the Swallows and Martins.

More Med Gulls

 Had 60+ Med Gulls fly over my flat in  Aberaeron yesterday evening and a single Sandwich Tern calling offshore. 

Andy James 

Raptor monitoring in North Ceredigion

 Twenty active pairs of kites in the Penrhyncocharea reared eleven young in seven nests, with the other nine pairs apparently failing.

One pair of goshaawks reared two young. 

One pair of peregrines fledged  two young.   The interesting thing about this attempt was that on June 19th,  one youngster appeared to be 10 - 14 days order than the other.  By June 30th one bird had fledged and the other appeared to be ready to fledge, so had caught up by quite a degree.  To my knowledge this is unusual, and there is no mention of it in Derek Ratcliffe's "The Peregrine".  I have photographs if anyone would like to see.

Jerry Moore 

Jerry's email is jerry@wild-wales.com

Med Gull update

 Marc Hughes tells me that he's seen having 100+ Med Gulls around Cei Bach and Aberaeron.  So far he has managed to read three rings, from Grance, Holland and Belgoum. As for Llanrhystud and Llanon, still almost devoid of them.

Cliff Nesting Oystercatchers

 Silke and I have been monitoring the 4 pairs of Oystercatchers we can see from the cliff top between Aberporth and Tresaith for the last 4 years: lots of drama but not many fledged chicks. This year however we have 2 pairs with one well grown youngster each, one sitting for a second time after an early failure, and one failed and not to be seen! 

It is an interesting but frustrating study as the failures due to the numerous challenges of life on the cliff are hardly ever seen. We do know that the youngsters are encouraged to jump from their ledges 5 to 10 metres above the wave cut bench and that one pair seemed to learn from their failures and this season kept the chick up on the cliff until it could scramble and flutter.  This particular chick was near to two rock platforms well above the highest tide and these became strewn with a carpet of limpet shells which we haven't seen before when chicks are fed morsels by the adults and presumably the limpet shells are left all over the rocks and washed away.

We have also been amazed at how chicks use the appropriate micro habitats of the rocks to hide during their plumage changes so often hard to find even with optics!

Luckily the July Spring Tide is not coming with a storm so the most vulnerable will be the sitting bird whose chick will hatch imminently and only have corvids, gulls and paddle boarders to worry about if it survives the drop!

Along the Leri

 Wed 9 July.

Leri bank from rail bridge to Borth golf course turn-off.  Oystercatcher with two large chicks, 8 Common Sandpipers, 1 Black-tailed Godwit.  Big shoals of mullet in shallow water.....but no Osprey.

Nigel Barratt

Med Gull build-up

 Visited Aberaeron yesterday.   Nice to see flock of 65 Med Gulls roosting  / preening on exposed foreshore at low tide just north of harbour entrance at about 13:00 hrs.

Nigel Starnes 

I was wondering why the coastal Med Gulls were being ignored this summer.   About time someone had a look at Llanrhystud  - Llansantffraed  

Harry

Cors Caron

 A Green Sandpiper was present earlier. A flock of 10 Swifts were swooping through Tregaron, probably the most I've seen anywhere this year.

Aberystwyth gulls

 An adult summer Mediterranean Gull on College rocks today was my first of the season here, as was a juvenile Black-headed Gull with parents. 

Chris Bird