September arrives...

Before September news- a couple of Arctic Skuas off Mwnt (Josh B) on the 31st August 

Also, in the evening of the 31st an Osprey with a blue colour ring 7H6 was photographed by Justin. This Osprey was ringed near Inverness in 2022 and has been a regular visitor to the Teifi

Osprey Blue 7H6 - Justin Yates

7H6 has been seen almost daily until today, the 12th, both in the estuary and fishing on the river through the marshes.  On the 1st and 4th, this was joined by an un-ringed Osprey.

Un-ringed Osprey - Stuart Hall

Also on the 1st, a Swift was seen from Curlew hide. 

Swift - Jason Medcraft

Following on from late August, the excellent variety and numbers of waders from Curlew hide continued into early September including 2 Ruff and 3 Curlew Sandpipers on the 1st.

Ruff - Diane Williams

On the 2nd Sept after the morning high tide there was still 1 Ruff,  1 Curlew Sandpiper, a Sanderling and adding to the variety, 3 Goosander

Goosander - Jason Medcraft

In the evenings, the Wagtail roost has been increasing on the marshes. Some are White Wagtails on the way south from Iceland. 

Pre-roost they have been gathering on branches in the river just upstream of the bypass bridge. A Yellow Wagtail was with them on the 1st.

The 3rd Sept started with the first Coot for a while from the river viewpoint. At Mwnt, highlights were a Wheatear, 14 Chough and an Arctic Skua. 

A similar mix of waders were still being watched from Curlew hide with the addition of a Mandarin Duck, and 5 Black-tailed Godwit in the evening. Since then the Black-tailed Godwit have been seen daily, often moving to the Creek at high tide.

Black-tailed Godwit - Diane Williams

A seawatch on 4th Sept at  Mwnt produced- a Balearic Shearwater,  a Sooty Shearwater and 2 Storm Petrels. On the 9th September the highlights were a Sabine's Gull, Leach's Petrel, Arctic Skua, Balearic Shearwater and a good passage of Common Scoter and Sandwich Terns. (Josh Brown)

Also on the 4th, 2 Wheatear were seen at Creek hide, an unusual sighting for the marshes. 

On the 9th Sept, a Cattle Egret was seen across the river from Curlew Hide. This isn't far from where one was last seen in February in the horse fields and pond behind the riverbank trees.

Cattle Egret - Mark Southgate

On the evening of the 10th, 30 Little Egrets roosting  in the estuary - maybe our highest ever count ....

The map below shows the tracking of a juvenile Oystercatcher from Iceland. The work behind this is in one of Graham Appleton's excellent Wader Tales blogs.

A Young Oystercatcher's First Adventure

A juvenile Oystercatcher's route- Graham Appleton

We are aware that many thousand Oystercatchers pass through the Teifi, some feeding, some just roosting, using the Teifi estuary and river valleys south to their wintering cockle beds and sands of the Gower. If you have a camera or telescope it is always worth looking through the flock to see if any are colour ringed.

(Wendy J and Rich D)