My Ty Talwyn

Had to scrape the frost off the car this morning, but My Ty-Talwyn was baked in sunshine. 2 Red Kite, 4 Buzzard and a Peregrine were in the air. While winter thrushes were much in evidence, with a flock of Fieldfare numbering 18 and 2 flocks of Redwing numbering 26,28 for a total of 54. Starling numbers were about average for the time of year on 160 in 3 flocks of 120,30,10. A count of 46 Herring Gull were in a single field as were 320 Jackdaw, which is a sizable flock for here. Other birds present included Mistle Thrush (1), Song Thrush (1), Blackbird (2), Meadow Pipit(3), Skylark (2) and Raven (4). As I was leaving I looked back at My Ty-Talwyn from Waun-y-Gilfach (about 1 1/2 miles) and I could see a flock of 8 Geese passing over My Baeden and flying south-east, but they were too far to identify other than they weren't Canada's. It will be interesting to see if a flock is reported nearby later on the Glamorgan sightings page.

Stopped at the Ivy Bank at the Halfway House., Llangynwyd and there was still a small patch of Ivy still in bloom, amongst the last few remaining flies I managed to find an "Eristalis pertinax", so this now becomes my latest date for hoverflies in the valley. I think Paul Tabor has had one in December a few years back.

 confiding Meadow Pipits

Margam Abbey

Over the past month there has been a large eruption of Hawfinch from their eastern European breeding grounds for reasons not yet clear and they have been moving westwards in hundreds of thousands. This is a phenomena that has not happened before. They are being spotted all over Britain, current estimates is that there are 20,000 birds in Britain but experts believe that could increase dramatically over the winter as there are some 400,000 birds on the move.

Paul Parsons had found a small flock of six birds at the back of Margam Abbey last week, which is an ideal place for them to hang around and feed. Many people have been to see them and they have been reported up until at least this morning, so I decided to go and have a look.

When I arrived I immediately found a single bird in a Yew tree next to the Stone Museum, but couldn't get close enough for a photo and it promptly flew off when 3 Mistle Thrush landed in the tree. I hung around for about and hour but there were no more sightings and no sign of the flock, perhaps early morning is best when the sun is on the other Yew trees at the back of the Abbey. Poor weather forecast for the next few days means I'll have to wait a while to have another crack.

I also visited the small pond nearby as I haven't seen Mandarin in a while. A male bird was loosely mixing with the domestic ducks and was not ringed or pinioned, so I take it as a wild/feral bird rather than a collection individual.. Other birds there included Little Grebe and Tufted Duck. I also saw a Nuthatch hiding nuts in the chimney bricks of one of the houses nearby.

 Margam Abbey - The abbey was founded in 1147.

 Yew Tree in the Abbey graveyard that held the Hawfinch, next to Margam Stone Museum building that holds the original Bodvoc Stone from Llangynwyd.

 ♂ Mandarin - playing hard to get at the woods pond.

Llangynwyd massif

Ha!, just as I confidently predicted the hoverfly season was over and put up graphs and statistics for the year, we get a warm (16c) fine, calm and sunny day, so I stopped off at the Half-way House ivy bank for a look. To my surprise I recorded 6 species of hoverfly and they were Rhingia rostrata (f), Rhingia campestris (m), Melanostoma scalare (m, 2f), Platycheirus scutatus (m), Episyrphus balteatus (2m) and Eristalis pertinax (f). These constitute my first November hoverflies for the valley.

There was a surprising numbers of flowers still in bloom, very unusual for the time of year and included Hogweed, Angelica, Upright Hedge Parsley, Red Campion, Common Ragwort, Creeping Thistle, Gorse, Dandelion and Meadow Buttercup. This has allowed a few other insects to survive this long and included Common Carder Bee, White-tailed Bumblebee, Honey Bee, Ivy Bee, Red Admiral and a Ruby Tiger caterpillar crossing the path.

With the sun still shining I then went up top Llangynwyd, where last week it was virtually birdless, but this week My Ty-Talwyn was back to its former self with many good birds for the area noted. The first fields held 13 Meadow Pipit, Stonechat and 4 Snipe in the wetter channels. While overhead a flock of 27 Redwing passed by going east with a young male Peregrine in pursuit but being unsuccessful in catching any of the flock. A little time later a Great Black-backed Gull also passed by going east. The fields above Cwm Nant Gwyn had a flock of 580 Starling, while the heavily berried trees along the bridleway held the top prize of a fine male Ring Ouzel. Also amongst the berry [Hawthorn] trees were 4 each of Blackbird, Song Thrush an Mistle Thrush as well as 6 Redwing. Finally at the large field at My. Baeden there was a small finch flock that included 16 Linnet, 12 Chaffinch and 3 Reed Bunting. Also present were 4 Raven and Buzzard including the pale individual.

 Melanostoma scalare

 Rhingia rostrata - high up in the ivy, hence the crap photo

 Rhingia campestris - much lower down

 Common Carder Bee

Ruby Tiger - caterpillar [I think]