Owen's wildlife for 2023 (1 Viewer)

[Owene]

January 19th

A day that was supposed to be birding with a brief visit to a garage to book a service became a day of buying a new car with a brief visit to kenfig

Setting up on a waterlogged beach I quickly got onto the slavonian grebe on the far side of the pool. It only seemed to leave the reeds to dive and after some failures of phone scoping and my feet getting more and more wet I quickly called it a day.

Not the hardest year tick in south wales in the winter but far less walking needed than most of the usual places.

Top quality phone scoping failure
on show. Some lovely goldeneye there right now and a lot of other common ducks.

Hopefully tomorrow will feature more birding

107 Slavonian grebe

Birds 107 Mammals 3 Herp 0 Butterflies 0 Total 110 Lifers 1

 

[Owene]

20th January

Headed up to the brecon beacons today only to find it had had a lot more snow than I realised. My normal crossbill spot is up a steep, and it turned out snow filled, lane and was totally impassable. Quite a few of the other roads were also still covered but drivable and i eventually got to Garwnant.

In the past it's been run by the forestry commission and always put out a lot of seed over the winter bringing in willow tit as well tons of common tits and chaffinches. Turns out it is about to be the site of 43 holiday cabins and the place was full of workmen and JCBs. Not sure what that's likely to do to it as a birding site but in a few hours wandering I saw almost nothing at a site where crossbill, dipper, redpoll and siskin are usually easy and willow tit possible. year ticked goshawk there last year as well and its had Great Grey shrikes in multiple recent years and newts in the ditches. I'll reserve judgement as it obviously could have been the snow that affected things but apart from lots of coal tits and a few goldcrests birds were hard to come by.

Did manage to year tick Raven displaying over the reservoir and Red kite when I went a mile or two further into the hills. Think I had a female crossbill but it didn't hang around and couldn't totally rule out Greenfinch (although i've never seen them there) so not adding it.

It's one of my favourite sites so very interested to see how the development works out. From the displays it looks like they were emphasising wildlife but I'd imagine the building work will have done some damage

108 Raven
109 Red kite

Birds 109 Mammals 3 Herp 0 Butterflies 0 Total 112 Lifers 1

 

[Owene]

22nd January

A nice jaunt around the west country. Starting off with The Hume's Leaf Warbler at Compton Sewage works. Well starting out with a mile and a half of ice covered country lane but once you got there it was suprisingly easy considering you were looking through a chain link fence at a bird that was constantly dodging swirling machinery. It was hardly alone either, Chiffchaff, grey and pied wagtail, dunnock, robin and wren all joined it on the surface of the sewage. I'd 'seen' one at Burnham Overy a few years back but it was mainly listening to a bramble bush for the call and seeing some leaves move while two yellow browed also dotted around so this was a massive upgrade on one of my lowest quality views.

The journey from there to Ham Wall brought a fox a third of the way across a frozen field that still noticed me and ran as soon as I parked the car. Did manage to get a quick photo as it went.

Shapwick Heath brought a sleeping American Wigeon and a lot of people saying they would come back to it in the hope it was moving, it was actually even more obscured and asleep on my return journey but easy enough to pick out the head markings. The Lesser Scaup on Noah's lake was the opposite, incredibly active and diving constantly. Managed a series of nice scope views but no hope for photos. Had a lot of help getting onto the bird from Cliff Smith. While we were having another wait for the Wigeon to move the news of the Barra Harlequin duck broke and the proper twitchers present got somewhat distracted.

Managed to pick up a few marshland somerset specialities from the hide or path and then went for a drive looking for cattle egret. Found some in a frozen flooded field near the Avalon Marshes visitor centre but it took a lot longer than it has done in recent years, the cold snap obviously has had an impact.

Onto Cheddar for a Great Northern Diver which I couldn't find and a Red Crested Pochard that was much easier. Legitimate Cat C species of course but hopefully I'll get one in europe later in the year. Ran into a very nice birder whose passion for year ticking on freezing cold days didnt seem to be shared by her (also very nice) husband. I left her to her hunt for the diver and called it the end of a very enjoyable day. No idea how easy the two american ducks will be on my Florida holiday so happy to have them, both english ticks for me too (not that thats a list I care all that deeply about)


110 Hume's leaf warbler +
4 Fox
111 American Wigeon +
112 Great White Egret
113 Lesser Scaup +
114 Reed Bunting
115 Kingfisher
116 Marsh Harrier
117 Cattle Egret
118 Red crested Pochard (hopefully will get a Cat A one sometime in the year)











Birds 118 Mammals 4 Herp 0 Butterflies 0 Total 122 Lifers 1

 

[Owene]

Looking on bubo more people have seen a Humes warbler this year than either a red crested pochard or cattle egret and the common sandpiper 5 minutes walk from my house remains my rarest year tick. Strange the things that seem rare but are actually quite widely seen. Still a highlight for me though

 

[Owene]

January 28th
Been drawing a blank this week, walked for ages at the nearest Brent Goose site yesterday with only some wigeon and a few pintail to show for it and the weekend is a lot more family stuff than birding.

But we met up today with a Uni friend of my wife and his children so paid a second visit of the year to Garwnant to take advantage of it's cafe and playground. Lots more birds around than on my snowy visit last week with siskins in particular being everywhere. Eventually came across one crossbill at the top of a pine some distance away as well.

119 Siskin
120 Lesser Redpoll
121 Crossbill






Birds 121 Mammals 4 Herp 0 Butterflies 0 Total 125 Lifers 1

 

[Owene]

January 29th

Driving through penarth marina and got probably the last bird I’d be capable of year ticking from the car. At least in January in south wales when a jay flew over head.

122 jay.


Birds 122 Mammals 4 Herp 0 Butterflies 0 Total 126 Lifers 1

 

[Owene]

February 1st

Took advantage of the teachers strike for a day on the Gower with my family. Sunny but very very windy with birds shooting past along the cliffs. After tons of jackdaws and crows and a few raven I eventually found a small party of chough.

While my wife swam I picked up a few flocks of scoter on the bay but when we got back up to the car I realised I had a tripod but no scope so didn’t get the chance to check them for velvets. Did pick up a small grebe on the sea. Presumably a Slav which I’ve already seen this year. Missed out on the chance to scope the seals on worms head as well but I’m sure I’ll see some at some point.

Searching the tide line on the beach found some cetacean bones but chough was the only reason for troubling the year list.

123 chough



Birds 123 Mammals 4 Herp 0 Butterflies 0 Total 127 Lifers

 

[Owene]

February 2nd

Got a parents evening later so only time for a quick bit of patch birding at drizzly and gusty cosmeston. Been some hawfinch there recently but they are best seen in the tops of trees from the neighbouring field and I think the wind was largely keeping everything down. Still lots of winter thrushes around and I managed to flush a green woodpecker while my camera was in the bag to keep it dry.

124 Green Woodpecker



Birds 124 Mammals 4 Herp 0 Butterflies 0 Lifers 1 Total 128

 

[Owene]

February 4th

Some older kids recently introduced my daughter to geocaching so we went for a quick hunt along a local beach this morning. Walking back past a caravan park had two greenfinches on feeders.

Running out of birds I’ve just happened to miss now and not much within 90 minutes to twitch. So I guess ticks are going to slow down for a bit.

125 Greenfinch

Birds 125 Mammals 4 Herp 0 Butterflies 0 Lifers 1 Total 129

 

[Owene]

February 4th

Second time lucky at sirhowy country park for dipper. Also grey wagtails back on territory

126 dipper

Edit.

And a day flying presumably disturbed bat giving clear views for a while. Looked big enough for noctule but won’t add it yet


Birds 126 Mammals 4 Herp 0 Butterflies 0 Lifers 1 Total 130

 

[Owene]

February 10th

One of those days where there was a good bird quite close and some others that I wanted to see that were tide dependent. So I went for the furthest ones first with a plan of working my way back home and getting some year ticks. Only for a lovely crisp cold week to suddenly become really foggy at about 11 o'clock and leave me hunting for an Iceland Gull through misty bins and getting my camera damp. I'm sure that as soon as it dries people will be seeing it there again but I got nothing.

Did manage to make it Kidwelly Quay for high tide and some lovely close views of Red Breasted Merganser. Not an easy bird to get close up in South Wales and had my best ever views of a drake and nice photos of active females. The same site had a sewage works so for the second time this year I was photographing warblers through a chain fence. Had seven Chiffchaffs at once on one tank so presumably the site held even more and got clear glimpses of a firecrest working through the pines with some goldcrests.

Stopped off at Llanelli WWT for a coffee and to year tick spoonbill and was treated to a party of 5 greenshank. Another one thats hard to guarantee in Wales, only saw one in Donana last year. As I was watching them the fog started to roll in off the estuary and the rest of the day was spent traipsing around in low cloud being unable to get a lock on an Iceland Gull. Not the best ending but an enjoyable morning and some cool birds.

127 Red Breasted Merganser
128 Firecrest
129 Spoonbill
130 Greenshank






Birds 130 Mammals 4 Herp 0 Butterflies 0 Lifers 1 Total 134

 

[Owene]

February 16th

Been going through an Estyn Inspection at work and one of the things keeping my spirits up was a white-rumped sandpiper that was hanging around at slimbridge (especially after plans to go for the Ross' gull in dorset were dashed). Checked the slimbridge twitter prior to the school run and the bird was still present.

Ended up getting nice scope views in a packed Discovery Hide as it fed very actively with two dunlin. All the waders there got flushed by an unseen threat and I had to choose between going for a coffee and waiting for it to be refound and checking out the Rushy Pen where it had been for a bit earlier in the week.

Get there and find the hide almost empty with most eyes on a Greater Scaup as there were hardly any waders present and definitely not the large Dunlin flock it had been flushed with.

There were two small waders though and as we concentrated on the nearest one all of us started to think that maybe it was the bird, it had a vague supercillum but not as strong as the books would suggest and it had a different feeding style to a dunlin. Running a few back of camera shots through inaturalist confirmed the ID and we had five minutes with it very close and hardly any other birders around before again a raptor flushed it.

It's the commonest American vagrant I'd not previously seen and was one of eleven species that over 50% of Bubo listers had that I didn't so a nice tick.

131 White-Rumped Sandpiper

Edit not that it helps for this year but looks like it was a two tick day with the Canary Island chaffinch split being accepted. So 3 lifers so far this year even if one doesn't count for this.






Birds 131 Mammals 4 Herp 0 Butterflies 0 Lifers 2 Total 135

 

[Owene]

February 19th

A sunny morning so I did my first adder survey of the year. There were definitely some signs of spring. A lot of honey bees, songflighting skylarks and a few wildflowers peeking through but no signs of any reptiles.

Only realised after the skylarks that I was still on manual focus so photos are a bit ropey.



132 Skylark


Birds 132 Mammals 4 Herp 0 Butterflies 0 Lifers 2 Total 136

 

[Owene]

February 22nd

Been a few days of dips. Iceland gull again yesterday (seen today and yesterday morning) and adders today.

Amphibian survey with the local wildlife group today. Hundreds and and hundreds of toads. A single frog and palmate newt and four heard and one seen Tawny owl. Not much in the way of mammals just a single brown rat but as far as wider wildlife goes my first ever leeches (thankfully just viewed) were an icky highlight.


Nice to get the herp count off the ground will hopefully add some reptiles soon

1 common toad
2 palmate newt +
3 common frog
133 tawny owl.







Birds 133. Mammals 4 herp 3 butterflies 0 total 140. Lifers 2

 

[Owene]

February 23rd

Family daytrip to mid wales and despite the temperatures being pretty low there was enough sunshine to bring a Small Tortoiseshell out. Nice to get the first butterfly of the year under the belt. Managed 53 in the UK last year but can't see me getting close to that this year. Hopefully some foreign trips will pull the numbers up and I'll manage to get the 2 British species I've never seen.




1 Small Tortoiseshell

Birds 133. Mammals 4 herp 3 butterflies 1 total 141. Lifers 2

 

[Owene]

February 26th

Shortish trip to the banks of the Severn today for a Richard's Pipit. Took a while to find somewhere to park and to make the walk down to the sea wall to find birders with different levels of enthusiasm for finding a bird that had seemingly been flushed a few hours earlier.

After a while we start piecing together flight views and calls, it's size and white belly and the way it occasionally held it's head high from the grass that generally covered it being enough to confirm it was there even if nobody was really happy with the views as it would constantly make short flights before landing in more grass that covered it.

Finally though we get onto it in full view and can see it's distinctive legs. probably the nearest bird to a group of birders who had come from the other direction and seemed totally oblivious to it.

My last new pipit was the exmouth Olive backed which was amazingly confiding and let you really study it's actions. This time there was some nice company but quite frustrating birding. No argument about what it was but very much piecing together the important features over a period of time.

The walk back to the car brought a group of hares who seemed on the verge of boxing over a female before a tractor flushed them. Saw some more at distance and then one very close on the verge as I was driving out of the village. Despite the bird tick they were probably the highlight.

134 Richard's Pipit
5 Brown Hare






Birds 134 Mammals 5 Herp 3 Butterflies 1 Total 143 Lifers 3

 

[Owene]

March 3rd

My third, I don't want to publicly say final but hopefully common sense will prevail, dip of an Iceland Gull at an open cast above Kenfig Hill. It was at least below the cloud line today and there were some nice displaying skylarks and an enjoyable chat with the county recorder but absolutely freezing. I guess dipping where you at least have to constantly check new herring gulls is a little more broken up than just staring at a bush that once had a skulky warbler in but I really hope by this time next week there are some new birds around or the weather has warmed up.

Ended the day with another dip, a potential county tick Spoonbill in a small cardiff park not far from the gwent/glamorgan border (neither county has actually existed for years). Seen quite a few in Gwent where I imagine this one was by the time I was looking but never one in glamorgan.

In between I had an enjoyable 40 minutes watching finches from my car in Fforest Ganol. They're fed as part of a hawfinch ringing programme but everything else has learnt to take advantage of it. Loads of chaffinches, squirrels and tits, a good number of greenfinches and eventually one absolutely beautiful Hawfinch.

135 hawfinch







Birds 135 Mammals 5 Herp 3 Butterflies 1 Total 144 Lifers 3

 

[ClarkWGriswold]

I plan on dipping that Gull tomorrow Owen. Lovely Hawfinch shots.

Rich

 

[Owene]

thanks, it was a gorgeous bird,

It was phil bristow's third go too, and there were plenty of gulls with more joining all the time but apart from three adult GBBG it was a constant stream of herring gulls, you were at least busy checking new comers and then checking the water again and I got two plant ticks but it was very very cold. Going right to the end of Crown road (you eventually come to a concrete block with parking spaces) is much much closer to the gulls than the parking suggestion on birdguides btw.

 

[Owene]

March 15th

Seeing reports of sand martins everywhere so stopped off down the hill in penarth marina on the way home from work.

Very wet but nice views of 50 or more Sand martins over the central bay. A local birder was scoping them for sign of anything else but with bins they seemed to just be sand martins.

Nice to get the first migrant of the year. The bay has loads of martins throughout the summer but these early ones tend to move on in waves. Be nice to start checking the bay for migrants again

136 sand Martin

Birds 136 Mammals 5 Herp 3 Butterflies 1 Total 145 Lifers 3