Future Rarity?

I was surprised to find a Grey Partridge this Saturday 29th June on the outskirts of Ogmore-by-Sea, whilst looking for Little Owls. This is my first in the Ogmore area since spring 2001, when I recorded a pair on three separate occasions at Ogmore Down. I'm not sure whether to take any encouragement from this sighting, but good to see nevertheless.

Birds of Conservation Concern (BoCC3) - Red List Species

Spotted Flycatcher - chilling

A couple of days around the Upper Neath Valley, during the last week has been very enjoyable. Some real brighten-up-your-day birds have been on show. The reason for the real sense of satisfaction felt when watching these birds (certainly in my case) lies partly in their individual characters, but also sadly because of their apparent steady decline at the national level!

Nightjar - in territorial dispute

Spotted Flycatcher, a rather laid-back bird in my opinion and certainly not going to be rushed into fly-catching, has returned a 81% decline in population in the 25 year period up to 2009;
Nightjar, exuberant and seemingly fearless at times (I've been known to duck on more than one occasion in their presence over the years!), has shown a 51% decline in range;
Tree Pipit, with a wonderful song that goes on all day that makes me wonder whether the male birds do anything else other than sing, has returned a 70% decline in population in the 25 year period to 2009;

Tree Pipit - parachuting while singing

Luckily in our recording area there are still reliable places to see these birds, where they breed. In the case of the 3 shown above, interestingly, all were making use of artificially created habitats, more by accident than design, and promisingly there were concentrations/hotspots of each species. Other highlights from today included a fairly late male Cuckoo and 3 Crossbills, including a stunning brick red male.

Ref. - Eaton MA, Brown AF, Noble DG, Musgrove AJ, Hearn R, Aebischer NJ, Gibbons DW, Evans A and Gregory ND (2009) Birds of Consevation Concern3: the population status of birds in the United Kingdom, Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. British Birds 102, pp296-341

Kenfig Rivermarsh

Purple Heron still present and seen well in flight. Other highlights included a Hobby and an out of season Green Sandpiper. Lots of  the commoner Warbler activity too, plus 5 Lapwing

Lavernock Seawatch

am:   4 Storm Petrel, 200 Manx, 2 Gannet, 2 Fulmar, Common Scoter

evening:   Storm Petrel, 3 Bonxies, Arctic Skua (AB), 3 Gannet, 2 Sandwich Tern

Sabine's Gull

A Sabine's Gull [age unk] & Pom Skua off Porthcawl 19.00hrs this evening (AB, AH).

Storm Petrel, Bonxie & Whimbrel [5] at Port Talbot Harbour (RJ & GR)

Lavernock seawatch

17:00-20:00 all d/c

Pom skua (pale phase) 18.35, 4 Bonxies, 6 Kittiwake, 3 Gannet, 20 Manx, Guillemot, auk sp., 2 Fulmar.

Seawatch porthcawl 22.6.13..

8.20-10.20 am.
1 ad bonxie d/c
3 storm petrels d/c
Auk sp 4 d/c
8 Gannets .2 adults rest immatures.d/c
9 Fulmar.
Manxies at least 8000 d/c. We counted 375 in 5 min and this steady flow continued till we left, so 8k being a fair estimate.
With JR and later AMe and NS

NPT Nightjars

A look for Nightjars west of Glyn-Neath yesterday evening returned activity from 5No 1km squares. At least 6 individuals involved, but double counting between neighbouring squares could not be ruled out. Multiple sightings involving birds that had alighted on the forestry tracks, with male and female birds noted.

New British List

The eighth edition of the British List has just been published in Ibis

Or if you want the plain list

http://www.bou.org.uk/thebritishlist/British-List.pdf

Red-necked Phalarope video

A video grab from the video I took of the Red-necked Phalarope at Kenfig yesterday. The video can be found on the link below

Red-necked Phalarope video - Click here

Pre-2000 records shown by smaller tetrads.