What a weekend it’s been. Long Billed Dowitcher, Curlew Sandpipers, incredible weather, and that’s just for starters. I’ll begin at the end however with a brilliant encounter this evening involving a Great Skua and Swansea Pier. The Skuas presence was first spotted yesterday and it was still around this morning, Read more…
After being promised Indian summers for the last two years that have then completely failed to materialise it would appear that we are instead to be treated to an Indian autumn. In a move completely out of character for the last week of September, temperatures have been soaring into the Read more…
Last week was something of a red letter day for the birding scene on Gower with an invasion of American waders. Following up on reports concerning a couple of suspicious looking birds, Barry Stewart and Mark Hipkin were amazed to find both a Pectoral Sandpiper and a White Rumped Sandpiper Read more…
A look around Bracelet Bay on Sunday turned up at least twenty Mediterranean Gulls split between their usual piece of roadside grass and the beach below. As always I studied each one to see if any were ringed and found three that were. The first was a juvenile bird (Green Read more…
The remnants of Hurricane Katia have been battering the Welsh coast over the last couple of days resulting in a relatively high number of Grey Phalarope making landfall. At least two individuals have been present at Kenfig today along with another at Ogmore and a possible sighting in Cardiff Bay. Read more…
My best wildlife encounter by far last weekend involved a very friendly Kestrel. And when I say very I do mean very. We were having a spot of lunch sat on the rocks just around from Oxwich Point when Emma indicated that I should turn around pretty sharpish. I duly Read more…
Following our visit to Manorbier and St Govans we headed over to Bosherston Lily Ponds in the hope of finding some Otters. Our previous two visits here have both been later on in the year, and on one of those occasions we had a superb encounter with a very inquisitive Read more…
We have just had an extended weekend here in the UK which fortunately coincided with some excellent weather. My girlfriends family were staying with us for the duration which meant that we got to visit some of my favourite locations on Gower, but often from a different viewpoint to our Read more…
You’ll have to excuse the suitably vague location details in this post, but our prize finds from Sunday are a Schedule 1 protected species and I don’t want to inadvertently jeopardise their breeding success. All I will say is that I was somewhere on the Gower coastline and to my Read more…
I’ve just got back from a very enjoyable late evening walk at Rhossili. The air was alive with the sound of calling Crickets, but the real star was to be found sat on one of the gate posts on the way down to the beach. This is a Convolvulus Hawkmoth Read more…