Our SOUTH WALES tour from 29th August – 3rd September produced some excellent birding and enjoyable experiences for all concerned. Our first afternoon was spent in the valley at Pant Norton where a good selection of migrant passerines included Spotted Flycatcher, Lesser and Common Whitethroats, Willow Warblers and Blackcaps, as well as a juvenile Yellowhammer begging for food from a male. Three Sparrowhawks and a Stoat rounded off a nice introduction to the tour in warm sunshine. Day Two was spent on North Gower where we excelled ourselves with two Ospreys perched on posts at Wernffrwd, at least two Peregrines, twenty Greenshank, three Spotted Redshanks, 150 Black-tailed Godwits in a wide array of plumages, a couple of Pintail, 35 Common Eider, 2000 Oystercatchers, an adult Yellow-legged Gull, Kingfisher and large numbers of Little Egrets, Eurasian Curlews and Common Shelducks, which all made for a great spectacle. Day Three produced great views of more Little Egrets, Spotted Redshanks, Greenshanks and other waders including Green Sandpiper, Ruff, Common Snipe, Little Ringed and Ringed Plovers, Northern Lapwings, Knot and Dunlin as well as large numbers of Common Teal, Common Shelducks and Northern Shovelers at Goldcliff Reserve on the Gwent Levels. We also found a late Common Swift and a Grey Wagtail and Dipper at Candleston near Bridgend on a windy but humid day. Day Four was windy and sea watching was the most productive aspect of the tour with an Arctic Skua, sixteen Manx Shearwaters, five Common Scoters, a Sandwich Tern and two Harbour Porpoises offshore, along with three Northern Wheatears on the seafront. New waders for the tour at Sker Point were 150 Sanderling and a small count of Ruddy Turnstone, but we also enjoyed excellent views of a hunting Peregrine and a large display of Autumn Ladies Tresses that were pointed out to us by Carole. The highlight of a very windy day five was a Black-necked Grebe at Kenfig Pool, but otherwise, we noted just a Common Sandpiper, a couple of Northern Fulmars, our first Rock Pipits and a few Speckled Wood butterflies – ultimately rewarding after a very difficult day, where the wind was not really conducive to any type of birding at all as it was also from the wrong direction for sea watching! Our final morning began at Eglwys Nunydd Reservoir, where we soon picked up the Sandwich Tern and quickly after a Common Swift was found. News of a Black-necked Grebe near the entrance reached us and we were rapidly in place to enjoy excellent views of what was almost certainly the same bird as at Kenfig yesterday. After much searching, we picked up the Black Tern that was first found yesterday and we watched this bird for some time as it flew back and forth along the reservoir – a very nice bird indeed. We stopped briefly at the northern end of Kenfig National Nature Reserve where a large flock of Barn Swallows were feeding, but principally we looked at flowers enjoying more Autumn Ladies Tresses, as well as Vipers Bugloss, Common Toadflax and Evening Primrose and butterflies that included Grayling, Small Heath and Meadow Brown. We concluded the tour at Bridgend station where we said our farewells after what had been a very successful and enjoyable few days birding.
