Snails on the menu at Crymlyn Burrows

Song Thushes will occasionally eat snails and it is well known that they use rocks as 'anvils' in order to smash the shells open. But I have never seen an anvil-technique like this one before. The recent very cold weather has forced large numbers of Song Thrushes to our coast in search of food. Near where I took this photo on the dunes at Crymlyn Burrows there were 40+ Song Thrushes within a 50m radius along with smaller numbers of Blackbirds and Redwings.
The recent cold temperatures have frozen the dunes solid and the thrushes have been making use of the rock-hard, frozen sand to smash the shells, in the absence of their traditional anvils.
Many snails are sheltering at the base of Marram Grass (Ammophila arenaria) but the Song Thrushes have discovered this and the shell fragments that can be seen scattered along the paths in the dunes are evidence. It will be interesting to find out whether this will have any effects on the dune system's vegetation come the summer?

Hen Harriers over the Nitten Field

Mark Newton and Rob Taylor saw 3 different Hen Harriers over the Nitten Field yesterday afternoon (1 male and 2 females) plus a Merlin which made a kill. There were also 2 Merlins seen here in the morning. Mark managed to get a couple of shots of two of the birds. They also saw at least 8 Woodcock flying around. For more of Marks photos check out http://www.welshwildlife.com/

It is difficult to judge how many Hen Harriers are around at present, but for the BTO winter atlas here are the records collated to date from the last 3 winters (red dots). All other records shown as small dots.

Almost a goodie!

This Green-winged Teal x Eurasian Teal hybrid was feeding just by the layby at Dalton's Point (SS536959) at mid-day. Hopefully I'll get to see the real McCoy there one day!

Snow cover in UK on 7th Jan

Hardly surprising that west Gower has so many birds, as this appears to be one of the few parts of the British mainland with at least few green areas showing! Click on image to see it full size.

Image from University of Dundee website (http://www.sat.dundee.ac.uk/)

Dark-throated Thrush at Nitten Field

Philip Croft had very good views of a female Dark-throated Thrush in the Nitten Field (SS423875) this morning. The bird was seen both in the hedge by the south-eastern corner of the field and also in the adjacent part of Mewslade Valley. Subsequent searches by Neil Edwards and myself for a couple of hours this afternoon failed to relocate the bird, though the field and valley were both alive with bird activity, so if it is still around it may take a bit more patience than we were able to give today? Gordon and Beryl Howe, the owners of the field told me that they are happy for birders to walk through the Nitten Field (please do not trespass in other fields) to search for the thrush. For anyone tempted to search for the bird the location of sighting is shown by the circle below:

Other birds seen by Neil and myself in and around the field included 6 Woodcock, 1 Snipe, 40+ Skylark, 30+ Fieldfare, ~100 Song Thrush, 200+ Redwing, 150+ Chaffinch, 1 Brambling, 50+ Goldlfinch, 15+ Yellowhammer & 50+ Reed Bunting - but who knows what else might be lurking in the Viel field system given the comparatively 'milder' conditions of south-west Gower?

To see the Nitten field in summer click:
http://goweros.blogspot.com/2009/06/nitten-field-mewslade.html

More garden feeder action

A Brambling from the kitchen window (in Gorseinon) brightened things up a bit this afternoon and there was another seen on feeders at Newton, Mumbles today.

Hen Harrier at Frogmoor

There was a male Hen Harrier being mobbed by Jackdaws and flying west from Frogmoor below Cefyn Bryn this afternoon. Also a Little Egret was disturbed from the thawed out mud on the tarmac road leading to Frogmoor. Over 40 Lapwings and 30 plus Snipe were seen flying over the meadow west of Stouthall.
David Painter