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.

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.