A brief walk around this morning via the Medieval dovecote field and the adjacent large field above Sully Brook gave me a couple of ‘year ticks’ in the form of a singing Common Whitethroat in scrub near the dovecote ruin itself, including two brief ‘butterfly’ song flights, and then farther on in scrub in the large ‘island’ of vegetation in the next large field, a singing Lesser Whitethroat. Neither bird was particularly showy due to the pretty cold stiff wind.

Yesterday morning at Cosmeston, I had my first Willow Warbler of the year, singing by the Mile Road, but too high in the trees for a decent photo. Farther up by the main bridge a Chiffchaff was more obliging and I got a couple of nice shots of it singing. A female Wheatear was in the newly planted sapling area by Sully Brook and there may have been a male too. Earlier someone had seen 4 there. The drake Pochard was still present. I also saw my first hoverfly of the spring – a Tapered Drone Fly {Eristalis pertinax}.

In the afternoon I took my camera to Cardiff Bay to have another look at the 1stW Little Gull, and hopefully get some pix. The light wasn’t as good as the other day but it was still in the same area off the Ice Rink boardwalk, very active as usual, catching insects. I managed one shot where an insect is about to be snapped up.

I surveyed a tetrad in the Vale of Glamorgan today for the Welsh Ornithological Society all Wales Rook survey this afternoon, sadly with a nil result – it was around Penmark, centred on ST050690. Driving home I thought it’d be rude not to call in at the Bay to see the Little Gull which was first reported this morning. One of my favourites – they’re so great to watch in flight. This was a ‘W’-winged’ first winter bird. No camera but hopefully it’ll stay put and be there tomorrow and not decide to head out to the middle of the Bay!.

At Cosmeston in intermittent rain this morning a few Sand Martin were present and what sounded like a tidy flock of feeding vocalising Siskin but they were well hidden and I only managed to get eyes on 1! Haven’t had a flock there for quite a long time. They were above the far end of the E lake boardwalk.

Finally caught up with a Wheatear on the barrage this morning – a smart male which insisted on hiding on the seaward side of the outer rocks after very brief views in the open [too brief for a pic]. Rock PIpits [3] were more obliging and there were 4 Pied Wags and 6 Linnet briefly.

During a walk round this morning, decided to take the path through Cogan Wood. First encounter was a nice Red Admiral, although it had lost part of each hind wing. Best surprise was hearing an unfamiliar song, which turned out to be a Marsh Tit singing up in tree. I’ve only ever heard the “pitchu” call before, but this was a fairly rapid “seew seew seew seew seew seewv …”. Promising sign tho’ – a pointer to possible breeding – there’s certainly a pair resident even tho’ they’re not always obvious.

In misty fine drizzle this morning: a few Sand Martins around the ‘Dr Who’ feeder dock and Roath Basin. Fem Black Redstart was on the large rectangular block on the waste ground, and a very smart ad male Grey Wag was chasing a female by the feeder dock. Couple of Chiffies noted.

Carried out my WeBS count at high tide this morning. Best birds were 146 PIntail [130 off Green Point and 16 at the heliport]. Still at Green Point there were c.300 Redshank & 80 Dunlin, 3 Cormorant, 30 Shelduck [low count but I believe many were off RGW], 33 Teal. There were 2 colour ringed Redshank in the flock, which had settled in reasonably close ‘scope distance. Also at Heliport Bay were 15 more Shelduck and 22 Turnstone and 2 Oycs on the beach.

It’s been pretty quiet at Cosmeston over the last few days, but this smart adult Common Gull was resting by E. lake on Tuesday 7th. They are not as regular in the park as they used to be in the winter.

We had a successful [mostly] but chilly trip to the Forest of Dean today with another big group [22 participants]. It was too cold & still, apparently, for raptor soaring so just a few Buzzards were seen from the viewpoint despite patient waiting and scanning. Highlights were Crossbills at the viewpoint, Hawfinch up in tall trees by the sportsfield in Parkend, Marsh Tit, Goosander [9 redheads] and Mandarins at Cannop ponds. 45 species in all. List here: https://drive.google.com/…/10ceHJ3fmRMb3rP…/view…

Things are pretty quiet at the moment. Two days ago 3 Teal [1m 2f] flew out of one of the ‘rides’ in the snipe enclosure and Hawfinch have been seen recently athough not by me. Today the female Scaup from Cardiff Bay was on west lake, 3 drake Pochard are still hanging around plus a few Tufted Ducks. Little Grebes are whinnying and two pairs of Great Crested Grebes have been displaying. By east lake shore this morning there was a lot of pretty vigorous fighting between drake Mallards. A Jay was hopping around in the trees behind the bird table and eventually showed well enough for me to grab a shot. Looking forward to the first Sand Martins over W lake in the next week or two.

An amazing 25 GBC members enjoyed a trip to Ogmore today, Sun 26 Feb, on a sunny but cold day. Despite ‘dipping’ on Purple Sandpipers along the foreshore rocks [which were fully occupied by anglers] we totted up 42 species, during an outing which included a walk up the estuary as far as just short of the water treatment works bridge. Highlights included a group of 9 Brent Geese offshore of the rivermouth, 3 Goldeneye, 4 Goosander, Wigeon, Teal, Gadwall, a Common Sandpiper and others to make up a total of 42 species. Somde other examples, – a couple of folk saw Chough, and we had just 2 Turnstone and an Oyc on the foreshore rocks, Redshank, Grey Wagtail, Stonechat ….. A few photos I grabbed are below. Click here for the full list.