A non-muddy walk in the sun this morning across the barrage and round Porth Teigr. A male and female Black Redstart were still on the brownfield area opposite Adventurer’s Quay, although remaining distant in the central area. No song today although recent reports refer to the male in brief song. Also rather unexpectedly there was a Redwing in the same rock pile as the Redstarts. At one end of Roath Basin there was a very smart white-headed Cormorant and I did note a fly-over Linnet on the barrage, which was very busy with people, and an adult Great Black-backed Gull flew over the low tide mud outsde the barrage where there was a nice pattern of gull footprints. I wasn’t set up for the fly-off shot of the male Black Redstart but it does show the tail quite nicely.
Also below a pic of a Song Thrush which has been singing near the dragonfly pond at Cosmeston for a few days now, and a view across a very misty E lake.

A pair of Great Crested Grebes were displaying on W lake this morning. After the head shaking display this one suddenly adopted this inverted wing pose, which I’ve never seen before. It’s rather like the pose adpoted by Great Bustards when they are displaying.

There were 3 Common Gulls present this morning – quite unusual for the park. Usually just occur as singles. 2 were on the W lake posts and 1 on E lake.
Yesterday there were 5 Great Ctrested Grebes, 2 pairs and an obvious ‘gooseberry’ who was trying to get in on any action, which resulted in a lot of vocalisation and aggressive posturing with necks extending along the water surface.

Lovely day today for our trip to Somerset to visit Chew Reservoir. We scanned the vast expanse of water from Herriot’s Bridge and Heron’s Green Bay. Nearly all common wildfowl were seen and sharp-eyed Alan Rosney picked out the much wanted ‘redhead’ Smew at Heron’s Green Bay – this tiny ‘sawbill’ was pretty distant, with a group of Coot and a Black-headed Gull, but scope views were OK. We dipped on the reported Scaup. It was good to see many Goldeneye, the males often displaying. Several Great White Egrets were seen including the one shown, dwarfing a Little Egret. Blagdon Reservoir was also visited for a reported Ring-necked Duck but we didn’t find that although there was plenty to see. Finally we dropped in at Barrow Gurney ‘tanks’ by the A38 and eventually found the reported male Long-tailed Duck [well spotted David Rich!]. A good day out with by my reckoning, 56 species – click here for the list.

Highlights this morning were 2 adult Mediterranean Gulls on W. lake just starting to moult into breeding plumage – don’t often see 2 let alone 1. On E. lake by the bridge, was a female Scaup with some Tufted Ducks. Judging from my friend Annie’s response to my Whatsapp post, this was the female from Cardiff Bay, where it was apparently absent. Also on E. lake was a Common Gull, presuimably the one fiorm the other day. It was very distant unlike on 2nd.
In W. paddock there were around 20-30 Fieldfare and Redwing and the usual flock of c.20 Goldfinch with a few Chaffinch and 3 Greenfinch with them.

I went to the Ice Rink boardwalk late afternoon to see the Scaup that has been present for some time. A large number of gulls were present and they were being fed, and put on a good show. There was a very smart 2nd year Mediterranean Gull and a large Lesser Black-backed Gull which at one point was plunge diving headfirst to bathe.

1st and 2nd of February and the largish flock of Teal on W lake seems to have departed. There are currently 14 Pochard which is a reasonable count these days and the usual Tufted Ducks. Today, 2nd Feb, I couldn’t find any Gadwall today either. There are 2 pairs of Great Crested Grebes in full breeding plumage now and at least one pair have been in brief display. Little Grebe has also been whinnying occasionally. Both days there have been at least 24 Fieldfare and around 10-20 Redwing. In W paddock on 1st and in trees by the Mile Road today there were around 20 Goldfinch. An adult Common Gull was present on E lake on 1st Feb.

Sully Cricket field east to the caravan site and back along the shore, just as the tide had turned. There were 57 Black-headed Gulls on the sports field, and along the shore a nice little selection of waders, with 20 Oystercatcher, 1 Grey Plover, 14 Ringed Plover, 2 Dunlin and 20+ Turnstone. A lone Rock Pipit on the shore and an amazing 10 with 4 Pied Wags on the cricket pitch. Also logged a flyover Curlew, 6 Crow, 2 Greenfinch and a few Herring Gulls. There were birds roosting on Sully Island bnut I didn’t have my scope.

In the garden [Penarth] this morning we had both male and female Blackcaps together. The male had frst appeared on 18th. He feeds on the fat balls but the female was finding invertebrates in a nearby dense Box bush. Later at Cosmeston a Kingfisher shot across W lake and settled in the reedbed edge [long way away for photos], and by the Mile Road a very active Goldcrest tried to avoid the lens! In W paddock there were 15 Fieldfare and 2 Mistle Thrush.

I carried out a rescheduled WeBS count at the Rhymney Estuary this morning [due to high tide being too early on Sunday]. -2 deg when I set out! Main highlight was c.1500 Redshank. Tide was very high with a lot of Green Point under water. Only other waders were 50 Dunlin. Otherwise 23 Teal, 22 Mallard, 13 Shelduck, a solitary drake Pintail, 6 Shoveler, 2 Buzzardss sitting on adjacent pylons, 4 Rock Pipits and a Meadow Pipit. At the Heliport Bay another 14 Pintail, 24 Shoveler and 18 Shelduck. Sun glare made ID-ing wildfowl offshore impossible – all just silhouettes.
Later at Cosmeston at around midday a Little Egret flew over the dipping pond and headed towards the coast.

A wander round this morning produced 31 species. Highlights were 1 Green Woodpecker in E paddock, on W lake around 80 Teal, 150 Tufted Duck [both lakes], 6 Pochard, 2 Gadwall, a Chiffchaff flycatching in Sully Brook by the main entrance near Lavernock Road, plenty of common passerines in Cogan Wood but no show by Marsh Tit although one was seen earlier [Great, Blue & Coal Tits & Nuthatch]. I spent about 30 mins nar the Hawfinch spot but no show today.

11.30 ish. this morning at Cosmeston. 2 Hawfinch flew out of large tree opp the small copse on left past dragonfly pond. 1t landed briefly in tree by the snipe enclosure, then disappeared. Not relocated. There were C.90 Teal W lake and 1 Common Gull on the posts [1st one fr a while]. Finally caught up with the HF after several tries since the beginning of the year. Couple of shots below of a smart Mistle Thrush in the Medieval Village field.

Very very cold this morning. At the fatball feeder in the garden we had our first Blackcap for quite some time, a smart male, plus a few other vistors such as the Robin, a Blackbird, Great and Blue Tits and some Long-tailed Tits. I managed to grab some photos through the kitchen window so the quality not so good.
At Cosmeston some of the paths were treacherous, even those laid to gravel. West lake had 7 Pochard, about 12 Teal, the usual Tufties [about 100 in total on both lakes] and a couple of Gadwall although I suspect more of each of these skulking in the reed edges, especially the Teal.
Slightly irritating to see that a load of money is being spent on resurfacing part of the car park and re-laying kerb stones and a gravel path, yet still the so-called conservation area has obvious open access locations along the west perimeter where people go in to walk dogs, picnic etc etc, despite persistent protestations by myself and others.

This was a Club trip to a favourite location, and an amazing 21 members attended. A total of 65 species were logged. Highlights at Whiteford after a muddy squelchy slog out there, were c.40 Eider, innumerable Brent Geese, plus Pintail and Wigeon and also 3 Common Scoter which came out of the water and settled on a sandy spit with the Eider to preen and rest. I for one had never seen Scoter out of the water before, One was a smart adult male and some folk who’d never seen one before were able to see the yellow ‘saddle’ on the bill through the scopes. Other wildfowl were huge numbers of Shelduck and a single drake Red-breasted Merganser. Out in the water we found 3 Great Northern Divers and 2 Red-throarted Divers and a very distant Slavonian Grebe. Waders comprised Redshank, Bar-tailed Godwit, Curlew, Knot, Grey Plover, Turnstone and around 100 Ringed Plover on the beach and large numbers of Dunlin.
Some folk had to leave when we retured to the car park and the rest went to the marsh road at Llanrhidian to look for Hen Harrier. We had to split up as parking is limited and we were a large group. A small handful of folk saw a female Hen Harrier and one lucky observer caught brief views of a Barn Owl. A Kingfisher hovered over the saltmarsh and many Little Egrets were coming in to roost, plus a single Great White Egret. All in all a great trip. And we were lucky with the weather!
Click here for the full trip list [not all species were seen by everyone – almost inevitable with such a large group].

West lake had c.80 Tudted Duck, 5 Pochard and a good count of 9 Gadwall. There were 2 pairs of Great Crested Grebe, one individual of which was in almost full breeding plumage.