A good start to being back in Aberystwyth over the past few weeks, beginning with a fly-over glossy ibis on the 7th, heading north over the fields behind the golf course.
I’ve put most of my birding efforts into vismig over the
past few weeks which began nicely on the 10th with 794 redwings
heading south over Aber in just over an hour. The 10th also saw my
first bramblings of the autumn with a flock of 6 heading north, along
with 4 crossbills heading south. Before then I had not seen a crossbill
in Aberystwyth before, but since the 10th I’ve had a combined total of 55, all
of which travelling south.
The 12th was the busiest day so far with my highest
counts of siskin (472), chaffinch (319), meadow pipit
(357) and redpoll (24). Another highlight on the 12th was 2 short-eared
owls heading north over the golf course.
Bramblings have been trickling through with a
combined total of 16 so far, all except one heading north. A pair of swallows
also went north yesterday morning, which was a bit unexpected.
This morning began with very few birds were moving, just the
odd chaffinch and mipit in between rain showers. A flock of 4 coal tits
flying high and heading north along the coast was unusual to see, these were followed
by 3 yellowhammers, 1 of which dropped in briefly with the rain before
carrying on north like the others. But the clear highlight, just before I headed
off, was a fantastic Lapland bunting which headed south over the town at
09:56!