A whistle stop tour of Swansea Bay to get a count of Great Crested Grebes found them still in good numbers. Counts from Aberavon Beach, Crymlyn Burrows and finishing at Blackpill just before HT. 326 Great Crested Grebes in total is still surprisingly high for this period of the winter. It was clear also while doing the count that gull numbers were good, particularly Black-headed Gulls. A rough estimate would put Black-headed Gull numbers across the bay at 2000+ and likely even 3000+
Large White-headed Gulls were less conspicuous with only small gatherings here and there on the sea. Amongst the gathered gulls on the sea off Blackpill was an immature Iceland Gull that I suspect was a 3cy. However, by the time I found it it was getting dark quickly. My attempts to get closer views were foiled by it flying off when I was closing the distance and as such I'm only really happy about it being an immature Iceland Gull. General paleness and clean looking primary tips seemed to discard the possibility of it being a Kumlien's.
It seems unlikely this bird is the same as the reported ad Glaucous Gull at Blackpill on Monday and further details of this bird will be gratefully received.
The Lesser Scaup was showing very well on Cosmeston Lakes CP today and very nice images taken by Andy Burns can be viewed via the Glamorgan Birds website
Late news yesterday - Red-throated Diver (7), Bonxie and Little Gull (3) were all seen to fly west past Common Cliff (BS)
No comments:
Post a Comment