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.

Shortish morning visit produced 10 Redwing and 12 Fieldfare feedig on worms on W paddock, plus 4 Mistle Thrush and 6 Greenfinch feeding with them. W lake had just 2 Pochard in a quick check as I rushed to avoid the rain.

20 folk enjoyed the nice sunny day for the first GBC outing of 2023. We spent 3 hours at Cosmeston, slightly irritated by the loud gunfire due to a local clay pigeon or pheasant shoot, which seemed to have kept some birds away or at least hidden in cover. West lake had the usual Tufties plus 8 Pochard and 6 Gadwall, 4 Great Crested Grebes and 2 Little Grebes and a brief Kingfisher was seen by a few. A small flock of Teal few around [possibly disturbed from a pool hidden in Cogan Wood by the gunfire, but they didn’t drop in]. In Cogan Wood after some patient watching most had views of a Marsh Tit as it dashed in and out to snatch up sunflower hearts deposited in a favourite place. The same location produced Blue, Great and Coal Tits, plus Long-tailed Tit and Nuthatch. West paddock gave us Green Woodpecker but no Hawfinch showed.
Some of us went over to Cardiff Bay by the Ice Rink where we saw the female Scaup and 2 female Goldeneye and a fly-by drake Goosander. After that, round the other side at Porth Teigr, by Roath Basin, we had nice views of the male Black Redstart.
In all we logged 47 species – the full list is here.

Cardiff Bay Barrage – Penarth > Porth Teigr & Adventurer’s Quay & back. A Grey Wag was by R. Ely mouth at Penarth Marina, 3 Pied Wags on Barrage, 1 Common Gull on the buoy ‘chain’ and 64 Cormorant on the inner ‘jetty’. 2 prs of Goosander in the Bay nr the feeder dock [and 1 fem offshore in the channel]. Male Black Redstart showed well in the usual place opp Adventurer’s Quay apartments. Also noted were Great Crested Grebe, Mute Swan, Coot, Moorhen, Crow, Jackdaw, House Sparrow, Herring Gull, Black-headed Gull. Feral Pigeon.

Back at ‘Cossie’ over the last couple of days, there have been up to 7 Pochard on W lake plus around 30 Teal, ususally skulking around the edges, also 5 Gadwall and the usual Tufted Ducks, 2 Great Crested and 2 Little Grebes and small numbers of Redwing and Fieldfare. Also since boxing day, Hawfinch have been seen again in the same area that they have appeared for the last 2 winters, in trees on the N edge of Cogan Wood, about 50m beyond the Dragonfly Pond. I haven’t seen them myself although I did check this morning but it was very windy so not ideal.