Nice day in Neath

The Neath Estuary from time to time throws up some great days birding. Today was one of those days. I usually access the river from the Neath Canal via the Square Pond. I had a brief encounter with a fem/imm Black Redstart in the field with horses opposite the Metal Box playing fields. In the same field was a rather obliging Water Rail.
The estuary was full of life with Dabchick, Little Egret, Teal, Mallard, Goosander and Lapwing all in good numbers as well as plenty of Gulls.

As it turned out I wasn't the only one keeping watch over the estuary!

Water Pipit City!

A walk across Neath saltmarsh with Mark Hipkin revealled how good this site is for Water Pipits. Although 4 were seen well enough to id to species, maybe as many as 15 birds were seen in total. Most typically only gave flight views, but a group of a dozen or more birds, all giving Water/Rock Pipit calls, showed white bellies and white outers in flight. 2-3 of these seen on the ground were indeed Water Pipits. Never seen so many together in our area!