October dawns..

 An interesting variety of species during the second week of October

A Glossy Ibis was first seen by Malcolm Price on the 8th October. It was feeding on the grass by Swallow boats on the Ceredigion side of the estuary at high tide. It was seen again the following morning and photographed by Tommy and Jen

Glossy Ibis - Tommy Evans

Also on the 8th, 2 Whooper Swans were seen from Curlew hide on the Teifi Marshes.

Whooper Swan - Tommy Evans

Also on the 8th, a Great Egret dropped briefly onto Mallard pond - note the Coot.

Great Egret - Jen Evans

Mallard hide was also the place to be a couple of days earlier when an Otter spent a while there fishing.

Otter - Jen Evans

The monthly Wetland bird survey for the BTO on the 12th was as expected for October. From Curlew hide the highlights were 8 Goosander, 2 Lapwing, 1 Common Sandpiper and a Redshank.  The now resident two Coot are still on Mallard pond.

The Canada Goose flock was on the river at Pinog behind BV Rees, 870 were counted and 4 Greylag Geese. A second Common Sandpiper was here too.

On 4th Joshua birding during Storm Amy..

.....At Mwnt this morning 5 Arctic Skuas, 90+ Gannets (mostly immatures), 1 Common Scoter, and 1 Manx Shearwater. Hard to keep the scope steady so will have missed quite a few others!

The following day the 5th. Mwnt 8-10am........

We saw 2 Leach's Storm Petrels, 3 European Storm Petrels, 1 Great Skua, 1 Black Guillemot, 7 Arctic Skua, 8 Common Scoter, 1 Mediteranean Gull, 3 Manx Shearwater, 132 Razorbill and an early Red-throated Diver.

First Redwings on the 14th on the reserve near the river viewpoint. 

Redwing

It is proving to be a bumper year for fungi with fruiting bodies appearing on dead wood and grassland in may different habitats. It is particularly worth looking in churchyards at the moment for Waxcaps which favour short grass.

This freshly emerged waxcap was in Llechryd. A lot of Waxcaps are very similar so identification is an interesting challenge. 

(Wendy J and Rich D)