Sunday 31 January 2016

Tresinwen & Strumble (31 Jan 16)

Nice Shag fishing off Porthsychan yesterday.  Pic below.

Coal Tit in the garden today - seems to be hoarding food somewhere on the farm.  Either that or it is binge eating!

Red Kite earlier over St Nicholas.

Saturday 30 January 2016

Strumble stuff

Lots of divers around in the past week or two mostly too far out to id to species.A Stonechat was a nice sighting as they have been thin on the ground recently!  Ken Barnett captured this rather nice Bonxie flying by on Wednesday the 27th, along with some porpoises!


Friday 29 January 2016

Divers and Firecrest

In Fishguard Harbour this afternoon 4 Great Northern Divers and 3 Red-throated.
At Dinas Cross a Firecrest.

Thursday 21 January 2016

Fishguard Harbour 21st Jan.

In the Stena side roost which was predominantly Black Headed Gulls at least 2 Adult, 2 x 2nd Winter & a single 1st Winter Mediterranean Gulls.
The Jackdaw roost which collects in the trees by Harbour Village quite spectacular this evening numbering in the hundreds.

Wednesday 20 January 2016

Birdy day at Strumble...

Recently the sea mammals at Strumble have been taking centre stage but today with perfect conditions (gentle if cold SSE  breeze and sunshine) we worked hard for a few porpoises.
However on the way in I spooked a female Kestrel off a roadside fence post which took up position on another just across the field.


Scanning out to sea searching for finds was less rewarding but a steady movement of divers mainly heading west was nice to see







Not great pic's due to distance and incompetence but they give a flavour and over an hour and a half in the morning I clocked 14 passing by 13 west, 1 east and odd ones on the water.There wera about twenty Scoter heading west, only one gannet also a steady too-ing and fro-ing of skeins of Auks as well as parties of mainly Black Headed but also a  fair smattering of \Common Gulls,

Kittiwakes and Fulmers being significant by their almost total absence! Only a single Gannet was seen but scruffy parties of mainly immature gulls wer seen following the porpoises but only when they started feeding with a certain amount of splashing. 

To see a Herring Gull dive in among some feeding porpoises and grab a fish about six to eight inches long confirmed my impression that they do actually (at least occasionally) profit from this practice!...The profit was a false one though. as a chase ensued and the Greater Black Back pair eventually out maneuvered it within a swarm of lesser gulls and pinched the catch!

Tuesday 19 January 2016

Bit of a Tour.

Started off intending to do the gull roost at Abermawr, birds were very distant but did have a Red Throated Diver in the bay & a group of Fulmars squabbling over something a bit further out.


Then left the comfort of the Home Patch & travelled to the outskirts of the city to the Dowrog where a Male Hen Harrier showed 3 times but apart from a group of 5 noisy Snipe over that was it.


Last call was Llangloffan bridge ( Just back in the patch ) where the hoped for species didn't show but in the time I was there a more or less constant procession of more noisy Snipe. 

Friday 15 January 2016

Fishguard Fort

Off the fort this afternoon 3 Great Northern Divers and 2 Great Crested Grebes

Tuesday 12 January 2016

Some stuff from today.

At the harbour earlier a single adult Med. Gull by the Dive Centre. The Woodcock watch in the freezing cold of the back garden produced 4 birds & in the gathering gloom a Peregrine, quite probably looking for a Woodcock supper.

Sunday 10 January 2016

Wdig Birder and a GND from yesterday...


Short days but nice rewards, we just managed to catch the GND before it got dark!


Saturday 9 January 2016

Firecrest

A Firecrest was at Pen Anglas this morning,little else of note.

Friday 8 January 2016

Fishguard Harbour & OBW 16.00.

Smaller Gull roost than of late with just 3 Adult Meds in the mostly Black headed.
On to the OBW with Walrus for closer views of the 3 Great Northern Divers on the Stena side, still can't find any Purple Sandpipers ( strange because they seem to be everywhere else ) although a single Ringed Plover was on the rocks & another Adult Med. flew in with more Black Headed. 

Fishguard Harbour

In the harbour this afternoon 1 adult and 1 1st winter Mediteranean Gull.
At Llanychaer this morning in my front garden a Mink not good news.

Thursday 7 January 2016

Now you dont see them than someone does!

Much windier today and bitter cold, Ken was already there when we arrived Anita Stijn and the walrus.






We only got the odd glimpse of a porp and no pic's. We did see a Bonxie (Great Skua) and Ken had one earlier a little flock of scoter three males and a female were following behind a guillemot. Usually its the other way around.
As we came back up to the car I noticed the great man of Strumble himself keeping an eye on things from his car! It was good to see him. He taught me a great deal but mainly patience, Thanks Graham.
As we left Adrian (Wdigbirder) was just arriving. He phoned later to say he had seen lots of Porpoises, so just goes to show timing is everything... sometimes!

Tuesday 5 January 2016

Fishguard harbour 16.00 5th Jan.

In the roost with the hundreds of Black Headed & Herring Gulls, a 1st Winter Little Gull, 5 Adult Meds, a single Kittiwake & a Great Northern Diver swimming around between them very majestically.
On the way back a Woodcock flushed from by the Vets in the lane & another 3 over on my half hour watch from the back door where I also had a Tawny Owl calling.

Sunday 3 January 2016

Manx Shearwater

An hour and a half sea watch at Strumble Head produce a Manx Shearwater, 9 Red-throated Divers and 94 Common Scoter.

Saturday 2 January 2016

Strumble surprises and keeps on giving!

Although I was looking for cetaceans today it was slow going to start with and as usual it was the birds that kept the interest going. These Cormorants attracted our attention the nearest one was struggling to eat something which at first looked to be an octopus.   




But... having examined the pic's I took, the "octopus" looks rather like a bunch of squid eggs! Now to birdy people this may seem quite insignificant but to someone who is interested in trying to understand why Strumble has been attracting Risso's Dolphins for many years, it was a bit of a eureka moment! Risso's Dolphins eat squid and here we had positive proof of squid and Risso's both being around at Strumble at the same time, prey and predator.


Loads of Scoter were passing by, a couple of largish groups sorry for lack of quality but pretty distant its only an estimate but I would have said around fifty+ 






Seven  divers passed by heading west and two heading east and odd ones on the water but none close enough to positively ID




Next surprise was  a flock of six shellduck not a rare bird but not seen that often at Strumble.


An otter was the next surprise swimming by under our noses spotted by a Dutch volunteer Stijn.


Not exactly a surprise as we have been seeing Risso's reasonably frequently recently but it was the reason for us all being there ...





Good old Strumble, not always easy but always worth spending time there! happy New Year.. so far so good!

Fishguard Harbour

In the harbour an adult Mediteranean Gull, a single Great Northern Diver and Great Crested Grebe.
Off Pen Anglas 16 Common Scoter.

Tresinwen & Strumble (02 Jan 16)

3 Mistle Thrush in the garden and a few Redwing and Fieldfare around.

Off the lookout 26 Common Scoter, 3 Red Throated Diver and an Adult Med Gull this morning.