5^th December. With reasonable weather forecasted and chores done in advance, I had a morning of birding planned with a few potential targets. Another of my bogey birds from last year had been found in the Maesteg area and with memories of last years dip still fresh, I jumped in the car and drove through the worryingly wet conditions to be there for first light. I arrived at the parking spot for Llangynwydd Sewage Works in very grey pre-dawn light, donned wellies & waterproofs again and headed off towards "the spot". The path was well trudged and very muddy, so it was quite fortunate that I couldn't find my walking boots the night before! On reaching the willows where the bird had been sighted, I'd been caught up by a fellow birder and we grumbled about the grey morning whilst scanning for any sign of Philloscs. We both got on to a Chiffchaff amongst a flock with Goldcrest, Blue, Great and Long-Tailed Tit and when a third birder turned up we all finally spotted the Yellow-Browed Warbler . The light was dismal and shooting though a 12 foot fence and then thick branches was a real test of patience and endurance! I dabbled with the idea of manual focus but my arm would have physically dropped off trying to track the fast moving warbler as it flitted restlessly in search of food. The eyestripe was clearly visible as were the wing bars. It called sporadically, nowhere near as much as the bird I'd seen for half a second last year at Kenfig, so relocating it was more of a challenge. Considering how poor the light was and how difficult it was to focus, I managed a few reasonable efforts and was relieved to finally have an image of this great little bird. After over two hours of watching it, I moved on with towards Parc Slip. En route we stopped off at a few local birding spots, looking for Hen Harrier and winter thrushes but unfortunately drawing a blank. Snipe and Jack Snipe had been reported so we went hoping to find any sign of them. Near the car park the sun put in a belated appearance for five minutes and a Robin and a Blue Tit posed briefly for the camera. Scanning from the hides, a few dozen Teal and a Little Grebe were notable, whilst a Water Rail showed briefly but eluded my lens! Walking to the furthest hide a pair of Bullfinch also evaded me whilst a few Jays were evident. Alas, no Jack Snipe were visible, at least to us, as some were reported later that day but a pair of Lesser Redpoll feeding on seed heads were a nice sight before heading back.