Sightings

Main sighting: Sanderling

Heavy showers: En-route to hides – mallards, woodpigeons, crows and 15 swallows. Hide 2 – Canada geese, 14 greylags, ls black-backed gulls, 7 teal, crows, 2 shoveler, 2 lt egrets, male stonechat, 22 more swallows and 1 house martin mixed in, starlings, 1 heron, 1 cormorant, fem marsh harrier (primary feather missing), 2 lapwing, herring gulls, single black-tailed godwit, 1 ruff, wren, magpies, stock dove, reed warbler, 2 buzzards and 3 curlew. Seawall: numerous shelduck and 21 more curlew and single whimbrel flying / calling. Hide 3 – juv whinchat being harassed by a male stonechat (female nearby), linnets, pied wagtails, coot, 1 common whitethroat (also harassed by the male stonechat), steady passage of 42 more swallows with 3 sand martins mixed in. Snipe platform: 18 swans, lt grebes and 6 gadwall. Back at hide 2 (high tide) pushed in 7 sanderling, 2 redshank, 134 ringed plover (a good number), 42 dunlin, curlew sandpiper and 32 oystercatchers. Moorhen also noted. Hide 1: another whitethroat by the hide entrance and a good count of 21 blue tits (guessing these are family groups mixed together). Bittern flew left-right towards Red Barn (1050hrs). Gatekeeper trying to brave the weather on the brambles by the hide. Reed warbler feeding a juvenile by the stone bridge at the entrance on the way out.

Main sighting: Waders

Yellow wag – Com sand 2 – Grey wag – Ring plover – probably Sanderling + Dunlin 1 of each but at very long range? – Yellow leg gull Ad again – Wheatear

Main sighting: yellow wagtails

late afternoon visit to the seawall gave 2 yellow wags flying overhead towards saltmarsh, hunting kestral and sparrowhawk, little egret and grey heron, swallows flying very low over the fields.

Main sighting: Waders

Yellow Wag – Ring plover – Dunlin – (probable Sanderling) – Yellow leg gull Ad – Grey wagtail

Main sighting: Curlews again

Big tide again this morning, with following wind. About 205 Curlews came to roost on first lagoon, sitting very conveniently in shallow water so that their legs were showing and could be checked for rings. But, very strangely, there were extremely few rings – none at all from the big catch of 2015/16, so where have they gone?? Only ring read was an interesting one however, one of the headstarted birds raised and released at Slimbridge in 2019, White 49, which was at Goldcliff in September 2023. Also 5 Oystercatchers, 1 Grey Plover, about 75 Ringed Plovers, 1 Lapwing, 125 Dunlins, 4 Knot, 3 Whimbrels, 6 Black-tailed Godwits, 2 Bar-tailed Godwits.

Main sighting: Hen Harrier

Ringtail Hen Harrier hunting briefly over the moor to the east of the old Brynmawr reservoir before heading west over Hafod Farm into the strong breeze. Also a Whinchat, my first patch record this year, and three Wheatears. Things are on the move!

Main sighting: red kite

1130 hrs – Red Kite overhead drifting towards Devauden, call suggest a juvenile bird.

Main sighting: Curlews, of course

Visit on very high spring tide with following wind, as it dropped, in the hope of finding colour-ringed Curlews. Small high tide roost of Oystercatchers and Black-headed Gulls. Some small waders came in as the tide dropped.

14 Oystercatchers, 7 Ringed Plovers, 18 Dunlins, 6 Knot, 1 Sanderling, 45 Curlews (roosting in the long grass at the top of the beach; about 14 went to feed on the mudflats as the tide dropped, the others flew downstream towards Peterstone),150 Black-headed Gulls, 1 adult Mediterranean Gull.

Main sighting: Yellow-legged Gull

Adult yellow-legged gull still with the gull flock. Also a common sandpiper, juv shelduck, kingfisher.

Main sighting: Great White Egret

En-route to hides: woodpigeons, collard dove, crows, pheasant, gt tit and chiffchaff. Hide 1 – herring gulls, Canada geese (including 2 dead young birds on the edge of the island) and 3 curlew feeding on the island. En-route to hide 2 – green woodpecker and moorhen. Hide 2 – 5 lt egrets, 2 herons, pied wagtails, reed warbler, 6 teal, 4 greylags, mallards and raven. Snipe platform – 2 more lt egrets, 1 great white egret, lt grebes, coot, 14 swans, female tufted, 8 gadwall, 6 shoveler, 34 swallows aerial feeding over the field behind and 3 black-headed gulls. En-route to seawall – starlings and magpies. Seawall – 1 whimbrel, juv peregrine, 11 oystercatchers, 18 curlew, 286 shelduck, 1 gt black-backed gull, 38 ringed plovers, 11 dunlin, cettis calling and ls black-backed gull. Hide 3 – stock dove, 2 adults and 1 juvenile yellow wagtails, male stonechat, cormorant, 1 more heron and11 meadow pipits. Hide 2 – 5 house martins and 2 sand martins over the lagoon. Other: 3 emperor dragonflies, 1 male darter, large whites, meadow and hedge browns and 1 speckled wood butterfly.

Main sighting: Greenshank

Greenshank (1 feeding in the Gout)
Black-Tailed Godwit (1)
Knot (1)
Whimbrel (2)
Turnstone (10)
Curlew (12)
Lapwing (1)
Dunlin (200)
Redshank (300)
Oystercatcher (15)
Ringed Plover (70)
Little Egret (1 in the Gout)

Main sighting: Bittern

Bittern flew over Becs lagoon c.1pm.