At the first feeding stump down the slope from the southern entrance to Cogan Wood, an obliging Marsh Tit was coming down to seed. It was mostly snatch and grab but it perched at one point and reposnded to my imitated ‘pitchoo’ call and allowed for quite a few photos, albeit in rather poor light. Walking back down the Mile Road I came upon a confiding Bullfinch feeding on buds above my head.

Had all 5 thrush species this morning. Plenty of Blackbirds, single Song Thrush and Mistle Thrush in W paddock where there were about 6 each of Redwing and Fieldfare. A Mistle Thrush was singing 2 days ago. On arrival this morning a Great Spotted Woodpecker was seen calling from the top of a tree by the car park, a Green Woodpecker flew over E paddock and a distant one was heard calling there, and another was in a tree by the dragonfly pond. W lake had the usual Tufties, plus 5 Pochard and 3 Shoveler, a pair of Little Grebes doing lot of whinnying, and 2 Great Crested Grebes, and finally a single Common Gull. Yesterday a Goldcrest was singing by the main bridge and today there were a number of Great Tits singing.

Late afternoon, there were 3 Black Redstarts on waste ground opposite the Adventurer’s Quay appartments – 2 males and a female.

Yesterday saw a white-heaed Cormorant on the W lake posts. Photos confirmed it as a standard ‘carbo’ bird rather than the continental ‘sinensis’ subpsecies which is always charaterised by a white head. The one pictured is a breeding plumage adult [due to the white thigh patch] but the cropped head photo shows the ‘gular angle’ as being clearly acute and nowhere near the almost 90 degrees that sinensis would show. It was on the adjacent post today. Also yesterday a Cetti’s Warbler sang briefly near the café.
Today, the highlight was a smart adult winter Mediterranean Gull on the grass overlooking W lake bay. There were also 4 Gadwall by the W lake reeds [3 drakes and a duck].

Highlight this morning was the drake 1stW Scaup that had disappeared yesterday. It was on E lake with the Tufties. W lake still had the 15 Pochard from 22nd and a pair of Gadwall. 2 Little Grebes on E Lake.

There were 15 Pochard on W lake Cosmeston this morning in amongst the hoards of Tufties, and there were 7 fem Teal on the far side. Couldn’t find yesterday’s Scaup on either lake, nor the Shoveler or Gadwall pairs. There were some nice reflections of sleeping drake Tufties, and a Grey Squirrel feeding on something natural rather than scraps thrown down by humans. A Jay was by the central Mile Road and the paddocks revealed a couple of Green Woodpeckers.

In a brief visit this morning: 1 1stW Greater Scaup was with the Tufties on W lake, plus a few Pochard, a pair of Shoveler and a pair of Gadwall. I couldn’t find the Wigeon that Graham Smith had seen. The Tufties still number about 200, and most of them are drakes. A Great Spotted Woodpecker flew over E paddock and I managed to snap a confiding female Pied Wag that was feeding in the mown patch just outside the entrance gate into E paddock.

Bitterly cold walk across the barrage this morning – risked it despite my nasty cold, to accompany family members. There were about 8 Cormorants in the water just inside the locks and one caught an Eel and had some competition! Pretty c**p photos as I wasn’t prepared. By the inner barrage shore there was a pair of Goosander [crap pix there too – light was dire], and a Peregrine flew over at the Cardiff end. No luck with the Black Redstarts although Anne thought she had a v brief glimpse of one. There were 86 Tufted Duck just past the Norwegian Church [as at Cosmeston, nearly all of them drakes], and a Grey Wag was near there too.

Thirteen participants visited the two above locations yesterday 12th Dec. Birds are never close there but we were treated to 58 species including huge flocks of Golden Plover and Lapwing, often spooked into the air [possibly by a female Merlin which we had super scope views of], and 1000’s of Dunlin over the main shoreline near the R. Parrett mouth. Other highlights included 2 female Marsh Harriers, but no male Hen Harrier that had been seen the day before, nor two Pink-footed Geese. 12 wader species wasn’t bad, including a few Avocet and 10 Snipe standing in a row from the small hide at the point. A few lucky group members got a Short-eared Owl as they left. A few pix here to give a flavour of this great location. A full trip list is here.

During a quick walk this morning, a conservative estimate of c.150 Redwing feeding on the newly mown E. paddock, together with a flock of Goldfinch. The number of Pochard with the ever present Tufties is now up to 14.

Walked across the barrage in mizzle and headed to Porth Teigr Way to try & see the Black Redstarts [3 of them!] initially found by club member Evan Jones. Conditions & light were awful but on arrival I heard a call and saw one on top of the roofs of the Adventurer’s Quay appartments, which obligingly flew down into the waste ground by Porth Teigr Way and used a large concrete block as its favourite perch. [See map]. The birds commute back & forth between the waste ground and the appartments. On the way back I got some nice shots of a Grey Heron standing on one of the old mooring structures in the Bay, and there were two Ravens foraging along the inner barrage shore.

Walked along the Sully foreshore this morning by way of a change from the mud of Cosmeston. As we pulled into the dirt car park by the cricket ground there were 2-3 Rock Pipits feeding around a large puddle with a couple of Pied Wags. I backed the car in and parked and then looked out of the windscreen to see a Rock Pipit sitting on the bonnet looking at me! I wasn’t quick enough to grab a pic with camera or phone. I got out of the car slowly and it was very confiding and went back to feeding around the puddle, allowing for the shots below. In one you can see it has caught what looks like a small shrimp like creature. There were around 8 ‘Rockits’ in total, some feeding on the cricket pitch. No waders even tho’ the tide had only just started to recede, but it was v windy blowing up-channel, producing some impressive waves [for Sully].

In the last few days there have been anything up to 30-40 Redwing in the W paddock area, and an occasional Fieldfare. The 200 or so Tufties are comnstantly present, with about 10 Pochard and a pair of Gadwall that are not visible every day. The photos are from yesterday. The Heron was resting on the horizontal dead tree by E lake near the main bridge. When we arrived I imeediately noticted the big size difference between the two immature Herring Gulls shown. A Green Woodpecker was actively feeding in E paddock until we inadvertently disturbed it when it flew up on to the kissing gate into the Mile Road, where it kept and eye on the Magpie. One of the Cardiff Bay female Ring-necked Ducks was reported in the afternoon at Cossie today [on BirdGuides], and a Black Redstart near Atlantic Wharf, Cardiff.

A circuit of Cosmeston this morning revealed around 50 flighty Redwings in the W paddock area, with a few Fieldfare in with them. They were very restless and none settled suitably to give a chance of any photos. There were 10 Pochard on W lake, plus a pair of Gadwall and on E lake there were about 200 Tufted Ducks sitting along the far shore of E lake, out of the wind. A Grey Wagtail was by Sully Brook opposite the medieval village. I guess it’s the same individual I’ve seen on 2 prev occasions recently, in other locations.

V brief visit this a.m. Saw just 2 Fieldfare in W paddock with a few Redwing. 6 Pochard on W lake and 3 Teal and the usual mass of Tufties.

This afternoon at the wetland reserve boardwalk the female Ring-necked Duck was on show, although a scope was needed as it was about halfway along the stretch of water. Also the 2ndW Caspian Gull found yesterday by Gareth Stamp, was out in the bay [scope definitely needed!]. Fortunately Gareth turned up and got me on to it – pure snowy white head and long parallel-sided bill and some grey on the upper parts. Couple of noisy images below [the light was fading] to give some idea. The second image is cropped from the first and post processed a fair bit!

Nothing too notable but those worth noting all began with ‘b’ – Blackcap (f), Bullfinch (m), Buzzard, oh and Blackbird!

Also a few Redwing by the lower Dovecote field by Sully Brook and there were 10 Moorhens out of the water foraging by the Swan area. John Wilson