Great Crested Grebes off Neath Rivermouth

After seeing the Lesser Scaup at Eglwys yesterday, Neil Edwards and myself bumped into Mark Hipkin at Baglan. There was no sign of the Velvetes Scoters but the number of Great Crested Grebes was very impressive with at least 347 birds present in two or three rafts. There were also 14 Red-throated Diver and the Black Redstart by the worm farm. Not sure if there were any grebes in the western part of Swansea Bay, but the numbers off the Neath River alone indicate that the bay is now likely to qualify as being of National significance; the qualifying threshold in The Waterbirds of the UK 2007/08 (Holt, et al. 2009) being given as 159. The map below shows the current BTO winter atlas distribution based on records on the MapMate system. [Well done Mark for filling in much of the NPT coastline]

Grebes and Divers Galore!

First of all apologies for the poor quality photos! They show one of the many Red-throated Divers in the Bay. Today I saw at least 12 Red-throats in small groups throughout the bay, but judging by the numbers flying around I would suggest that there are over 20 birds present.

The Grebe numbers dwarf the diver numbers by comparison. The Great Crested Grebe is a common bird,but seeing them in such vast numbers is quite something. I counted 165 birds off Aberavon beach in the morning and 196 birds off Crymlyn Burrows Beach this afternoon. The Grebes could be seen in large rafts off Aberavon Beach while I was counting the grebes just off Crymlyn Burrows which reassures me that the counts involve different birds.

The Fem/imm Velvet Scoter also still present off Aberavon Beach