With a short trip to the Owl Sanctuary to keep the girl friend happy we thought we'd had our Owl fix of the day, until we got back to Llandegfedd where we were greeted by this years Tawny Owl chick at the entrance of our nest box. That is the second year in a row that the box has only produced only 1 chick and I think that might be down to the general shape of the box. Modern tawny owl boxes are designed with extra room to accommodate a larger clutch because, when faced with small living quarters, owl chicks have a tendency to eat the smaller chick so that it has a better chance of survival and therefor a quicker growth rate with 2 parents feeding fewer chicks. 

In the last couple days, Llandegfedd has produced some great birds with another Osprey sighting (very late recording) and also a very tired Whimbrel on the North banks (Both spotted by local Birder Craig Constance). 

In other news, I spoke this month about our small numbers of breeding Mandarin at Llandegfedd but till this date, I hadn't really got photographic evidence of breeding.. until now! This female Mandarin was spotted with 5 chicks just off the Fishermans car park. 
Reed Warblers seem to have bumped up a little in numbers with 3 males singing.