Sightings

Main sighting: Migration

Morning visit (57 species) – Song thrush, dunnock, robin, 1 buzzard, crows, moorhen, wren, greylag goose and a pipistrelle bat before dawn. Snipe platform – 5 lt egrets, 1 heron, 1 shelduck, meadow pipits, excellent count of 119 mallards, 23 shoveler, 39 teal (numbers slowly increasing), pheasant, 532 black-tailed godwits with a single bar-tailed mixed in and 7 knot, kestrel, pied wagtails, bullfinch, Canada geese, pair stonechats, herring gulls, 3 snipe, raven, 2 ruff, 48 lapwing, spoonbill showed at 0736, starlings, female marsh harrier, 6 grey plover mixed in with 39 golden plover, 45 redshanks, cettis calling, 5 stock doves, cormorant, good numbers of woodpigeons overhead, chaffinches, siskins, magpies, skylarks, collard dove and jackdaws.
Fieldfares put on an awesome display, flying low down in large flocks and landing in large groups on the edge of the lagoon to drink before moving on, in excess of 3,000 through with much smaller numbers of redwings.
Seawall – 15 wigeon on the water’s edge, 41 curlew, only 1 oystercatcher, 2 pintail, 97 dunlin, black headed gulls, flock of 43 linnets and 5 swallows through.

Main sighting: Visible migration

Over 600 (mainly Fieldfare) heading South East over Bullyhole Bottom yesterday at 1400 .Very high and block counted in 3 .Some Redwing in amaller groups and also a few mistle thrush ..Also High level mass Woodpigeon Movements with flocks well into the Hundreds .

Main sighting: Thrush Migration

Astonishing spectacle of Thrushes moving E today, over the levels or coming up onto the ridge from the M4.

Many plummeted out of the sky to feed.

Movement started from 9:15 (rain stopped) to 3:30 (I went home). Much quieter from 2pm onwards but small nos still moving as I went home

A minimum 12,500 Redwing, 1500 Fieldfare, Song Thrushes, Blackbird and Mistle Thrushes were moving and also grounded to feed. A single Ring Ousel came out of a bush with a few Fieldfare.

23 Lapwing (4 E and 19 W), a Common Snipe went W, c600 Starling W and c100 Chaffinch E were also seen.

A Dunnock climbed to the top of a bush then went off high SE in the direction of Newport, watched until it disappeared.

4 Red Admiral also moved quickly through W-E.

Lots of Skylark, Meadow Pipit and Linnet in the area. A big flock of Stock Doved also.

Main sighting: Redwing

The was a movement of several hundred Redwing between 10:30 and 11:30 today, mostly flying high in an easterly direction. There were some Mistle and Song Thrushes in the grounds of Holy Trinity Church along with a flock of 15 Siskins.
Yesterday in Bedwas there was an intermittent movement of Redwing in small flocks up to 20 birds at a time.

Main sighting: Common Scoter

Late report of birds seen yesterday. Between about 16:20 and 15:20 5 female/juvenile common Scoter on estuary between about a quarter to half way across. Floating down channel to near second bridge then flying slightly up stream and repeating. First spotted by Chris

Main sighting: Com scoter

5 female type Common Scoter – 29 Fieldfare +20 Redwngi

Main sighting: Golden Plover and Winter Thrushes

Astonishing numbers of Redwing moving today across England and Wales. In a 1 and a half hours watch at Penylan I saw a relatively low number of c 500 move E or NE as did c100 chaffinch and c30 Fieldfare. The best sighting was a flock of 35 Golden Plover which moved rapidly through heading South

Main sighting: Scoter

Five Common scoter above the M5 between the pumping station and the bridge – female types or juvs from my bedroom window – also at east 9 Fieldfare

Main sighting: Red Kite

Two Red Kite circling high above Llanishen at 16.30.

Main sighting: Great White Egret

Briefly Great White Egret X 5, Spoonbill, Marsh Harrier, no Grey Phalarope.

Main sighting: Disturbance

There will be some disturbance at Goldcliff Lagoons on Wednesday, 19th October, between 1pm and 2pm when we monitor water levels and salinities. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Main sighting: Little Egret

Little Egret on the Monnow, seen from the railings along Priory Street looking down onto the Monnow at about 2:30pm.