Bitterns in need of a helping hand

The Bitterns at Kenfig and elsewhere are under great stress at present as feeding areas are extremely limited. If anyone can help provide fish, or provide a donation to buy fish, this will go a long way to help the 5+ Bitterns at Kenfig NNR survive the continued freezing forecast. I have spoken to Dave Carrington (Reserve Warden) who will be very grateful to receive donations in any form. This morning while Derek Moore was bringing to my attention the benefits of supplementary feeding for Bitterns, Mike Clark managed to record his own successful efforts at supplelmentary feeding, possibly the reason all the photographers have been getting such good results recently? However, fish is not cheap and a cumulative contribution is far more likely to have long-term success. If you are able to help, Dave can be contacted at dgcarrington@sky.com or you can contact the reserve on 01656 743386.

Bittern with supplementary food (c) Mike Clark

NB. Please do not throw fish onto the ice (which will attract gulls and crows and deter the Bitterns). It is important that Dave coordinates any feeding. 

Gower Birds 2009

The latest edition of Gower Birds is now available priced at £5.00, plus £1.00 p&p from Peter Douglas-Jones at Croftslea, 28 Brynfield Road, Langland, Swansea SA3 4SX ( peter@douglas-jones.biz )

Gower Birds is a comprehensive record of birds reported in Gower, Swansea and Neath Port Talbot and has been published annually since 1968. The latest edition is now available and back numbers may also be ordered from Peter Douglas-Jones.

Watering Hole

The small area of open water still remains at Eglwys today. I spent just over an hour and a half (from 14:30) there today taking photos, video and generally enjoying the scene. It was noticeable that the turnover of wildfowl was pretty high. 2 male Wigeon flew off early on, returning before I left. 22 Gadwall came in towards the end, some Mallard and Tufted Duck moving throughout. Also this fine male Goosander appeared after about 20mins


The Goldeneye cover so much distance while feeding when the reservoir is free of ice that they appear almost like a caged animals in these conditions. Today, a few of them seemed to be diving under the ice to feed. They can be quite flighty in normal conditions so seeing them at such close quarters was a bonus.


Adult and 1st winter drake Scaup in front of a female Goldeneye and Tufted Duck.
Tufted Duck x Pochard hybrid in front of a female Tufted Duck.
A party of 22 Gadwall came in towards the end. They don't seem to be feeding here at all so, presumably, they like roosting here with the other duck?

New publication about a Gower nature reserve

Rosemary Mason & Palle Uhd Jepsen have produced a second book on their local nature reserve, entitled 'The Year of the Bumblebee: Observations in a small Nature Reserve (2)'. This fascinating and beautifully illustrated photo-journal is highly informative on many levels and illustrates how a seemingly small contribution can have an enormous beneficial effect at a local level. Check out http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1737995 if you're interested in buying this book.

Kestrel at Crymlyn Burrows

Following on from Chris' reply to the post below earlier I wanted to try out a new way of posting video footage. This way is definitely the way forward! Thanks Chris.

I've also attached the URL below just in case it is easier to find with mobiles, ipads, etc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mou95sJhtXw

Not good weather for Ducks

With the recent run of very cold weather Eglwys Nunydd reservoir is now almost completely frozen over. There were 2 areas of unfrozen water which both held concentrations of waterfowl. The first video shows the frozen reservoir and location of the best unfrozen area.



The scene shown below is one you might expect to see at Slimbridge or another wildfowl sanctuary. 14 Species of bird are shown in the this next clip, including some nice records. An amazing sight I'm sure you'll agree, unfortunately the birds are clearly finding things difficult in this weather. Hopefully they will get a break before long.



Have a go at finding all 14 if you like. I'll sure a lot of you will find all 14 and who knows there may be one or two I've missed!!

Garden frost

Southern Polypody (Polypodium cambricum) 

Viper's-bugloss (Echium vulgare) [great for bees in summer]

Male-fern (Dryopteris filix-mas)

Close up of ice crystal structure