Quick visit to Llanwonno yesterday eve – just 1 Nightjar heard churring but no flights seen. Midges were vicious!
Cosmeston this morning – 1 juv male Blackcap, 1 juv Common Whitethroat, 2 Chiffchaff, 1 Mistle Thrush, 2 Green Peckers and a few Swallows passing through.
This afternoon in Penarth – House Martins visiting 3 nests on Barclays Bank building.

News just gleaned from a Whatsapp group [and Twitter] just now [17:15]. 10 Cattle Egret going to roost at Cardiff Bay Wetland reserve. It’s on the #glambirds Twitter feed on the right of this page.

Entertaiment this morning was from a Cormorant which had caught, and proceeded to swallow, a HUGE Eel . The closer images of the Cormorant are big crops as can be seen from the one uncropped image where the bird is about the same size as the cental focus point in the viewfinder, even at full 600mm 35 mm equiv zoom. The camera I use these days is a Sony RX10IV, whihc has a 25-600mm 35mm equivalent zoom. A juv Green Woodpecker flew across W paddock. All in all pretty quiet. Managed a nice shot of the underwing of a Gatekeeper. Rain arrived at about 1 p.m.

Went to Cosmeston early [for me at least – 9 a.m.]. By now it will be rammed. 12:30 y’day the car park was full but still endless streams of cars coming in driving round & round, ignoring the one way signage. Away from E lake it was OK people wise. Saw my first Gatekeeper there today, Green Woodpecker, and a Buzzard sitting on s post near the Medieval Village whihc then did a fly-over, as did a passing Heron.

W. lake – 3 ad Little Grebes, ad GC Grebe + 2 young, 4 Black-headed Gulls, 50 Sand Martin, 4 Swift; W. paddock – 5 Mistle Thrush, 2 Green Woodpecker, 3 Linnet.
Yesterday – 3 Chiffchaff in the snipe paddock, 50 Sand Martin, 10 House Martin, 3 Swift, 1 Common Whitethroat W paddock, 1 Buzzard.

Did my WeBS count this morning. 80 Redshank at the rivermouth at Green Point and another 30 on the riverbank by Lamby Way, 1 Little Egret at the river mouth and 6 Shelduck. 2 Common Sandpipers by Lamby Way, one paddle boarding downstream on some floating debris! About 100 Starling by Rover Way at Green Point [all checked very carefully!].
At the heliport bay just 1 Shelduck and about 300 Black-headed Gulls [nothing unusual with them]. Also Lesser Whitethroat singing briefly there.

Shortish walk in blustery conditions this morning. Great Spotted Woodpecker in trees behind the dragonfly pond bench was a new one for quite a while, as was a Stock Dove which flew over. A Green Woodpecker was in the same tree as the Great Spot. In the conservation area two ‘Wood’ birds [-pecker and -pigeon] were keeping each other company [see photo below. There were 3 fly-pver Goldfinches by teh said bench, and over W and E lakes there were c.30 Sand Martins and c.10 House Martins, some of the latter of which were immature birds, being a brownish-black colour.

News from other media. Common Tern feeding on R. Taff opposite Channel View 9:05 – 10:15 at least. 2 Black-necked Grebes on Lisvane Reservoir this morning.

News from the last couple of days: a Cuckoo and Sparrowhawk were seen briefly on 27th May. Yesterday there were 6 Swift, 30 Sand Martin and about 10 House Martin over the lakes, a Green Woodpecker calling near E. paddock and a Common Whitethroat in the fenced in paddock near the dragonfly pond – I’ve seen 1 there about three times this spring. For me personally it’s been a v quiet spring at Cosmeston apart from the Blackcaps. This morning there was a single Mistle Thrush in W. Paddock.

No sign of yesterday’s Cuckoo today. 20-30 Sand Martins fighting the wind over W lake plus a few House Martins, and an ad Grey Heron flew in there. A Buzzad was over W paddock and a Green Pecker flew by, and I had a friendly Pied Wag whilst I drank my take away latte. A lot of Small Skippers were ahout despite the wind.

A drake Tufted Duck was on E lake and a single Swift flew over E paddock. In W paddock a Blackcap flew out of the snipe area, and a Green Woodpecker was calling nearby. A Buzzard clumsily hovered over W paddock. On walking up onto the hill by dragonfly pond a Sparrowhawk flew from the snipe area direction, passing <3ft away low to the ground. On my cresting the hill a grey bird flew up off the ground to my right, and I assumed it was the Sprawk. At this time it was raining heavy fine horizontal drizzle. It landed briefly in a bush and for that brief moment my brain PC rang alarm bells and the term ‘Cuckoo’ registered on the ‘system’ but then it took off just as my one handed hold on my bins got on to it [I had the dog on a lead]. In the afternoon Alex Bevan saw a Cuckoo, so …..

A few Swallows passing through. The W lake GC Grebes now are 2 fully grown stripey imms [from a clutch of 4] and 3 half grown [from a second clutch of 4 of a different pair]. They were all just too far off to get decent photos. A few punky Coot chicks still around. Also had 3 Song Thrushes and a couple of Chiffchaffs singing.

Only birds of note were a couple of Swifts and a Buzzard … and this Cormorant which had caught an Eel in ther middle of West Lake.

The Pyramidal Orchids are doing very well in E paddock and 3 Mistle Thrush flew out of there this a.m. Met a friendly juv Robin in W paddock, where a Grey Heron flew over. O/W the 2 GC Grebe families are doing OK except I think the 2nd pair have now lost 1 of their 4 humbugs – the first pair had 4 also, and lost 2.
Downside – the car park is now open again as is the cafe for take-away drinks [not sure about food]. Car park pretty full but park in general OK with plenty of space. Incredibly I saw three people with looked like a kayak on the far shoreline of W lake, in the Conservation Area. I called the ranger who I know, and when she eventually went to investigate they were out on W lake paddle boarding! They were told to leave. Also idiot young lads jumping into E lake by the bridge despite the warning signs. Silly season!

At the Cardiff end towards Roath Dock, Song Thrush, 1 Oystercatcher on the environment building docking ramp, 1 Common Sandpiper across flew from the direction of the Norwegian Church onto the shore somewhere by the new path, juv GC Grebe playing hide & seek, quite a few Greenfinch which seem to like that end of the barrage. No Swift, and the Swift tower call system making a weird croaking noise so the repair not successful. Lots of Sand Martins at the Roath Dock nest holes. Count the resting Sand Martins in the twiggy bush – they like perching up there. I reckon there’s 18 or 19.

Very pleased to see that a second pair of Great Crested Grebes have also hatched a family of 4 chicks. Let’s see if they can all progress to adulthood. The first cluthc of four are now down to 2 almost fully grown juvs now so they shd be safe. Yesterday there were 2 immature Herons by the far side of W lake but they weren’t there this morning. This morning there were a few House and Sand Martins over E lake and a Green Woodpecker near the dragfonfly pond. The drake Tufted Duck was also present on E lake yesterday but I couldn’t see the female.