Just 30 species today to kick the year off. A couple of good ones at Cosmeston, which can betricky – first 5 Hawfinch flew a loop out of the edge of Cogan Wood, beyond the dragonfly pond, then looped back in again. Had then perched briefly then lost them. Plenty of Redwing there and a Green Woodpecker. Second, in Cogan Wood I was pleased to see a Marsh Tit and get a couple of pix, although the light was very dull, and then some distance further along the path, 2 more Marsh Tits – defo different individuals. A male Bullfinch in the wood was nice to see too. Other than these, plenty of common species incl the usual Tufties on the lakes [52 in all] and a drake Pochard, 3 Little Grebes and 2 Great Crested. At our garden feeder at breakfast, a Coal Tit was an addition for the day. The 2 Magpies in the photos were fighting over the scrap of bread on the ground – I’ve never seen one pinned down like that before.
In the afternoon I deciced to take a trip to Newport to see if I could see the Waxwings that have been feeding on a Rowan in Rogerstone, for a while now – this was my first convenient opportunity, and although the rain had come in, I went anyway. I got to the location and lo & behold there they were, 14 of them resting at the top of a large tree. The rain was getting heavier but I persevered and took some record shots and had a good look at the birds and then regained the shelter of the car and headed home. A bit of a smash & grab raid but they were nice to see.
Here’s a link to the full list for today.

Decided to avoid the mud of Cosmeston and walk across the barrage this morning, then around Porth Teigr and back. Just off the orange buoys inside the barrage locks there was a female Goosander and a single Common Gull on the buoys, and a Rock Pipit flew in and landed by the inner shore. Farther along a flock of around 12 Linnet flew past, as did a flight of 16 Cormorant over the Bay. By the feeder dock where the Sand Martins nest a lady pointed out a Kingfisher sitting on a railing, which then flew down to a ledge on the dock wall. I grabbed a pic but it was rather too far off for a decent image. Round at the Porth Teigr area by Roath Basin there was a decided no-show by any Black Redstarts, although it was quite gusty. A Chiffchaff was flitting around in scrub by the bridge next to the Gloworks building [Common Chiffchaff I’m sure – I detected no greyish tones suggestive of Sibe], and there were just 3 Meadow Pipits on the rough ground by Gloworks. On the return leg there were 3 Common Gulls on the orange buoys and 53 Cormorant sitting along the inner jetty [there had been none there on the way out]. Kingfisher below, 1 as taken on max Zoom and one cropped from the same image as much as I dare.

Just a quick visit this morning, dodging a nasty shower at one point. First bird on arrival was a male Great Spotted Woodpecker atop a tree behind the dipping pond. A Cetti’s Warbler gave a quick burst there too. There were 24 Tufties on E lake and 8 on W lake, plus 4 Gadwall near the posts [visible in omne of the pix below]. The W lake posts had 3 smart aduilt Cormorants all sporting their white thigh patch. One was partiularly white headed but I’m not claiming it as a full sinensis.! I just scanned W paddock from the gate and the only bird on the deck was a male Pheasant by the hedge, and whilst I was watching that, a female Sparrowhawk shot across from left to right. A sharp shower as I returned to the cafe produced a full rainbow.

Delighted to see this female Great Spotted Woodpecker at our garden peanut feeder this morning in the rain, although it was soon spooked by a marauding squirrel. Even more delighted when it was back again this afternoon and through the kitchen window, I managed to get a nice still and some video showing her having a real go at the peanuts. The video is via a link to my Youtube channel [file too big to upload to ths site].

I did a pretty productive Rhymney WeBS count this morning, conducted at Green Point. A veritable murmuration of Redshank and Dunlin, c.1000 and c.1500 respectively, 40 Lapwing, 32 Wigeon, 80 Pintail, 60 Teal, 86 Shelduck, 40 Mallard, just 1 Curlew, 2 Cormorant, plus 9 Pied Wags and 3 Meadow Pipits. The waders were very restless, settling then flying around en masse, and frequently the Redshank would settle on the water and swim around in a tight group. No pix as I didn’t take the camera. For those that don’t know, Green Point is the area by the rivermouth, on the opposite side of Rover Way to the Tesco superstore. Be v careful crossing Rover Way at the lights – it’s not a pedestrian crossing.

Avoided the mud of Cosmeston late morning and walked across the barrage instead. Just 3 Pied Wags on the barrage and the usual bunch of Sparrows, although there were 50 Cormorant resting on the inner ‘jetty’. At Porth Teigr just the male Black Redstart was on the favoured pile of rocks and wouldn’t come closer to the fence. On the way back a Kestrel was hovering across from the Swift tower and there were 5 Redshank on the mud outside the barrage.

A large feeding party of Long-tailed Tits were by the lower end of Mile Road, with a Goldcrest in tow. Managed a miraculous couple of shots of a LTT despite having to hold the camera one-handed at full zoom, with the pup on the lead in the other hand! Whilst I was by the dipping pond, a Sparrowhawk made a couple of rapid passes. The Casualty filming is still going on at the far end of West Lake, despite its supposed status as a ‘conservation lake’. I hate to think what a quagmire the grassy bank there will be when they’ve finished. Anyway despite that there were 7 Gadwall in the middle of W lake, an increase on the 2 pairs of recent days – maybe the extra three have been pushed out of the reeds by the disturbance of the filming, which has involved the roof of a car in the water, and attendant frogmen, and a jetty being installed by ther waters edge to support equipment. The tree shot was just ‘cos it was nice to see them illuminated by the strange bright round object in the sky.! FInally there was ratty feeding on some spilt bird food seed.

Pretty quiet this morning – filming for ‘Casualty’ by the far end of W lake didn’t help. However sitting in the cafe having coffee with my ‘last of the summer wine’ pals, I was fortunately facing the windows and a female Goosander flew in and settled on E lake for a short while then few off and headed towards W lake and poss beyond.

At Cosmeston on 5th Dec, my first Treecreeper for a while, in the wooded area on the right, 50m beyond the main bridge.
On 9th Dec a circuit of the lake at Parc Tredelerch just gave 45 Tufted Duck and some Coot and a pair of Mute Swans.
Today, 10th Dec, at Cosmeston, east lake had 122 Tufted Duck in amongst which were 2 female type Scaup, and there were a further 45 Tufted on W lake. Also a fem Pintail was reported. I also logged 2 Little and 2 Great Crested Grebes. There were c.30 Redwing feeding around the conservation area and a small flock of Goldfnch were there too.

This morning, a Snipe flew out of the snipe enclosure and there were a good number of Redwing feeding in the bushes and flying back & forth across W. paddock. There were 2 pairs of Gadwall on W lake and 35 Tufties.
On Monday [4th] there was a pair of Pintail on W lake plus 2 female type Scaup with the Tufties, and a Common Gull, the first one I’ve seen in the park this winter.

V v cold and pretty misty this morning. Main highlight was a Little Egret just about discernible in a tree by W lake. There were 38 Tufties on the water but I was unable to find the Pochards or Gadwalls from the other day. There were plenty of Redwing & Fieldfare flying about but none settling anywhere decent for photos apart from one Redwing by the lower dovecote field. I walked through Cogan Wood but had no luck with Marsh Tit, just the usual Great, Blue & Coal Tits and Nuthatch. Other common birds were Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Long-tailed Tit, Goldcrest and a couple of Bullfinch, plus I managed a couple of shots of Blackbird and Mistle Thrush.

Regular Cardiff Bay birder Gareth Stamp had an amazing 3 Firecrests together this morning, in scrub & trees near the old Custom House along the Cardiff side of Penarth Head. They had moved on to feed somewhere else by the time I arrived although I did check all the trees up the hill to Paget Terrace. As I walked back to the car park area, a Wren was scolding away from the top of a vertical twig stuck in the rocks of the outer harbour, so I got a few nice portraits.