Great white egret, Lamby lake this morning.

Great White Egret

News of a GWE at Lamby Lake, Cardiff late morning, flew off over Lamby Tip - perhaps on the top pool there? [RM pers comm.]
There were 3 reported from Goldcliff earlier, which flew off towards Uskmouth, Gwent.

Llynfi Valley Nightjars

Have now checked all the valleys clear-fells and found 15 pairs in total holding territory. 9 pairs in East Glamorgan and 6 pairs in West Glamorgan. With ongoing forestry work this may well increase in years to come.

Nightjars : Llynfi Valley

Not rare I know but fairly localized in suitable habitat, I paid a visit last night to a local site in the hope of getting some photos and also to try out the high ISO capabilities of my camera.
"Churring" started at 10.00am and a male bird took flight shortly after carrying out a circuit of the clearfell, a stunning bird calling as it flew.
All shot with Canon 70-200mm IS L MkII wide open @ 2.8/200mm and at 16,000 ISO, quite pleased with the results considering it was almost dark.....

Rhaslas

As you may or may not be aware, the opencast developers who wish to erase Rhaslas pond and have a massive opencast site in its place, have lost their case - a refusal of application -  albeit only Round 1 in the process of negotiation. The developers will surely appeal against this decision, however it is a tremendous boost for all who have campaigned vigorously for Rhaslas Pond to be kept, along with the surrounding hillside. Well done to all concerned.
The other part in this Shakespearian tragedy is that Rhaslas could form part of the new 'super' Gwent county, as Caerphilly is already administered as part of Gwent, Policing & NHS etc. Could we lose Caerphilly to Gwent - I quote the CO of the BEF at First Ypres, 'there will be no withdrawal!' The recording area boundaries for East Glamorgan are as they stand today & will remain so. The river Rhymney is the border, with the exception of the eastern Cardiff UA (Wentloog & RGW), this was agreed with Gwent in 1996. Rhaslas will remain in Glamorgan, as will all of the western half of Caerphilly for the recording of all avifauna. So to all Glamorgan listers, please rest easy in your beds.

Long-tailed Duck on Kenfig Pool

Apologies for my prev post - I did not realise that if you are not a FB user you can't view any posts there. With Paul Denning's permission here are his two pix of the Long-tailed Duck that Graham Powell found on Sat 20th Jun. Lower photo by G. Powell.

Purple Heron at Kenfig Pool

With Cliff Woodhead's permission: two of his shots of the Purple Heron for use by GRC.

Purple Heron : KNNR

Few record shots of the Purple Heron at Kenfig Pool from this afternoon, I had been in the south pool hide for about 45 mins when it flew from the west side reeds at 5.00pm halfway across the pool then turned and flew back to land and perch in trees on the west bank......

Heavily cropped and oversharpenned.

Purple Heron at Kenfig Pool

Each time a rarity turns up at Kenfig my ability to take a decent photo seems to have slipped a bit. Here's a phone-scoped picture from this morning.

This was the most obliging purple heron I have ever known. It remained in view pretty much all day. Thankfully club member, Kevin Williams was in the southern hide this afternoon and got much better and closer pictures. These are back of camera shots again taken with my phone. Thanks to Neil for finding the second purple heron at Kenfig in two years.