My first nest of the year! A pair of little grebes were nestbuilding and displaying noisily among the willows on Llanishen South pool. Also 1F pochard, a pair of tufties, 14 coots, 15 Canadas, 11 mallards, 1 moorhen, 9 teal and 6 snipe.
Author: Rob Thomas
Lisvane Reservoir
During a short break between rugby internationals, 1 yellow-legged gull was on Lisvane Reservoir before flying off towards Pontprennau/Pentwyn. GC grebes are arriving back (6 today, 2-3 last week), and pochard are departing (9 today, 15 last week). Also, a female blackcap in Lisvane village.
Lisvane & Llanishen Reservoirs
Lisvane continues its quiet spell, with 15 pochard, 28 tufties, 8 coots, 14 Canadas, 2 GC grebes, 9 little grebes, 1 mallard.
Llanishen south pool -packed full of snipe!
Llanishen -full count for WeBS, including walking through the marshy reservoir basin, by permission of Celsa UK. 1 little grebe, 22 coots, 2 moorhens, 6 Canadas, 12 mallard, 32 teal, and another huge count of min. 197 common snipe (but no Jack snipe or water rail this time). Also, 4 reed buntings and 4 meadow pipits. 48 linnets nearby, at Llanishen Rugby Club.
Lisvane & Llanishen Reservoirs
Lisvane: 23 pochard, 25 tufties, 3 GC grebes, 11 little grebes, 8 mallards, 36 Canadas, 2 coots, heron, 2 ravens and a sparrowhawk.
Llanishen: 1 chiffchaff (Collybita type) foraging silently in hazels at the SW corner. 16 teal, 6 snipe, 2 tufties, 15 mallards and 12 coots.
Lisvane and Llanishen, plus Cardiff blackcaps
Lisvane: 2 GC grebes “dancing”, 8 little grebes, 24 pochard, 30 tufties, 6 mallard, 4 coots and a heron.
Llanishen: At least 33 teal and 53 snipe out in the open, viewed from the perimeter fence so surely many more hidden. 7 tufties, 1 little grebe, 16 coots and the long-staying dead Canada goose.
1F blackcap in my garden (Llanishen) today and 4/2/14. Apparently Steve Ormerod (RSPB chairman) currently has 5M & 1F blackcap in his garden near Roath Park. I wonder what the total winter population of Cardiff blackcaps is…?
Woodcock at Rhaslas
Dr Sarah Perkins (Cardiff Uni) has sent me this trail-cam footage of a woodcock foraging at Rhaslas, at 3am on 24/1/14. Here is a link to the clip on The You Tube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wigtESBUumI&feature=youtu.be
Lisvane & Llanishen Reservoirs
My first day back at the reservoirs after some warbler-related adventures in Senegal… feeling a bit chilly now! On Lisvane: a good count of 39 pochard, 32 tufties, 4 mallard, 10 little grebes, 1 GC grebe, 3 coots, 3 Canadas, and nothing unusual among the gulls.
On Llanishen, where the south pool is very full: 1F pochard (as far as I know this is the first pochard on Llanishen Res since the draining of the reservoir), a mind-boggling 17 coots, 1 moorhen, 13 mallard, 12 Canadas flew in, and 1 dead Canada floating in the south pool. Only 4 snipe and 5 teal visible from the fence, but as recent counts have revealed, there are undoubtedly many more hiding among the flooded vegetation.
Lisvane and Llanishen Reservoir WeBS
Llanishen: As part of the WeBS count, I walked (with permission of Celsa) through the basin of Llanishen Res. Highlight was smashing the Llanishen snipe-count record with a minimum of 123 common snipe, illustrating what an excellent wetland habitat it is becoming. Most of these were around the South Pool -at one point the air was full of snipe, with the count of 123 likely to be a bit of an underestimate to avoid the risk of double-counting birds that had already been flushed from further along the shore. No jack snipe were seen, however. Also present were 33 teal (another good count) 26 mallard, 5 coots, 1 water rail, 1F reed bunting and 18 linnets.
Lisvane seemed quiet in comparison: 42 Canadas, 18 mallard, 9 L grebes, 99 tufties, 21 Pochard, just 1 coot, and a female sparrowhawk.
Lisvane, Llanishen, Machen, Rhaslas
At Lisvane/Llanishen Res, very similar to yesterday -the highlight being the smashing of my record Llanishen coot count with an astonishing 7 present on Llanishen south pool today, along with 40 mallard, 3 teal, 2 tufted ducks, heron and 3 common snipe.
Report today of a black redstart in Machen (via Rhys “to the rescue” Jones)
Rhaslas at dusk: 26 wigeon, 12 goosanders, 7 tufties, 3 teal, 1 pochard. No short-eared owls seen, though Sophie-Lee Williams has found 2 SEO pellets in the shallow valley S of the dam wall, in the last couple of weeks.
Lisvane & Llanishen Reservoirs
Pretty blustery this afternoon! On Lisvane: 10 Canadas, 9 Little grebes, 8 Pochards, 39 tufties, only 6 coots, 8 mallards, 1 kingfisher -flew over to Llanishen Res
Llanishen Res: 5 coots (my largest count here since the res was drained -presumably including some of the usual Lisvane birds), 2 moorhens, 30 mallards, 3 teal, 1 Kingfisher (seems to be my 1st record from Llanishen -presumably the one frequenting Lisvane) -which eventually flew off towards the Nant Fawr. c20 redwings feeding on the banks of the Res. No snipe or water rails visible today.
Lisvane & Llanishen Reservoirs
A final look at the reservoirs for 2013, in fading light. On Lisvane: 1 Y-L gull, among a good roost of 80 LBB gulls, 12 herring gulls and 161 BH gulls. Gunshots from just north of the reservoir caused the whole flock to fly off at 15:50. Also, 48 tufties, 5 pochards, 2 mallards, 11 little grebes, 30 Canadas, 11 coots, 1 heron, 2 grey wags.
On Llanishen: 1 water rail, 57 mallard, 12 teal, 4 coots (my highest count here since the res was drained!), 2 tufties, 5 common snipe, 2 pied wags. Happy New Year everyone 🙂
Cardiff Bay Wetlands Reserve
Drake lesser scaup present at midday, among 112 tufted ducks. Also 22 teal, 6 little grebes, 4 GC grebes, 38 coots, 7 mute swans, 24 mallards, 3 snipe, 2 water rails, 5 cormorants etc.
Lisvane & Llanishen Reservoirs
No sign of the barnacle goose on Lisvane Res today, but 41 Canadas present (exactly the same number as were with the barnacle yesterday, per D.G.). 45 tufties, 18 pochards, 2 mallards, 13 coots, 10 little grebes, 1 kingfisher -fishing silently along the south shore, 1 heron plus the usual gulls.
Llanishen: a good count of 74 mallard, 18 teal, 2 coots, 1 tufted duck, 26 common snipes, buzzard, gold crest, mistle thrush etc.
North Cardiff, Christmas Eve
I’ve been making a list and checking it twice –but there aren’t too many interesting birds on it…
Lisvane: 30 pochard, 49 tufties, 12 little grebes, 12 coots, no mallards, geese, swans or GC grebes.
Llanishen: water levels very high so lots of places for birds to hide among the willows: 6 teal, 1 coot and 34 mallards were visible.
Roath: 4 little grebes, the long-staying LBB gull blue AKZ, and a colour-ringed BH gull that stayed just out of readable range.
Happy Christmas and good birding to all 
Lisvane & Llanishen Reservoirs, WeBS count
Lisvane: 1F goldeneye, 36 pochard, 59 tufties, 3 mallard, 13 coots, 14 little grebes and 1 common gull among the other gulls. No geese, swans or GC grebes today.
Llanishen: 1 water rail (photo), 1M & 1F shoveller, 42 teal (my highest ever count here!), 32 common snipe, 2 moorhens, 36 mallards, 1 heron and 5 meadow pipits.
North Cardiff round-up
Roath Park Lake: 2M teal, quite a lot of disturbance due to scrub clearance on the islands today.
City Hall: 1peregrine
Llanishen: 2F shovellers, 27 teal, 2 moorhens, 15 mallard, 1 tufted, 1 common gull. Only 1 snipe visible and no sign of the recent water rails -but the water level is very low again now. 18 magpies among the big corvid roost.
Lisvane: 35 pochard, 87 tufties, 38 Canadas, 19 mallards, 12 little grebes, 12 coots, 3 common gulls and as dusk approached a mid-tone yellow-legged type gull, seemingly a 3rd winter.
North Cardiff
Highlight was a great view of 2 water rails at Llanishen south pool –my first record of this species at the site! The water level has dropped again, exposing some mud. Also present on Llanishen were 33 teal, 1F shoveller, 13 mallards, 3 moorhens, 12+common snipe, 1 common gull and 4 pied wags.
Lisvane: 56 tufties, 18 pochard, 17 mallard, 15 little grebes but no GC grebes today, 39 Canadas, 12 coots and the usual gulls.
Roath Park Lake: 4 teal. Llanishen station: 1 “silver” leucistic jackdaw.
Lisvane Reservoir
A yellow-legged -type gull was present briefly this afternoon, but stayed at the back of the roost and departed northwards soon afterwards. Also, 55 tufties, 26 pochard, 8 Canadas, 27 mallards and 9 little grebes. Just one (juv) GC grebe -presumably the others are all in Swansea Bay!
Rhaslas Pond
1F goldeneye, 20 wigeon, 3 teal, 2 mallards, 2 snipe, 2 kestrels.
North Cardiff, night & day
Roath Park Lake: water levels are currently very low to allow cleaning/dredging -exposing lots of mud and water weed. 1F shoveller and a pair of teal today.
Fox & owl survey: 1 fox and 7 tawny owls across 3 sites. Just 2 redwing calls in 60 minutes of timed counts.
Glamorgan Bird Club 
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