A small influx of pochard over the last week; 13 present this morning, with 17 little grebes, 1 kingfisher and the usual regulars. No sign of the recent green sandpiper. Other bits and pieces over the last week included a red admiral at Llanishen Station on the 12th and a late chiffchaff briefly in my garden (Llanishen) on the 14th.
Author: Rob Thomas
Rhaslas
Through the mist at Rhaslas this morning we could just about make out 2 goosanders, 15 wigeon, 1 teal, 1 mallard, 3 tufties, 2 pochard, 1 gc grebe, 4 snipe, kestrel, buzzard, raven, redwing over and 100+ starlings.
Lisvane & Llanishen
WeBS count this morning included on Lisvane: 1 green sandpiper, 2 mute swans (flew to Llanishen), 5 pochard, 11 tufties, 8 mallard, 5 cormorants, 1 heron, etc.
On Llanishen: 32 teal, 6 mallard, 2 coots, 2 little grebes, 13 Canadas, 42 common snipe, 8 linnets, c35 meadow pipits and 4 skylarks. The big counts of snipe and teal reveals how much remains hidden when counting from the perimeter fence!
Lisvane & Llanishen
Lisvane: a female goosander (unusual here) flew in at 14:20 and stayed for 15 minutes before departing south. 5 pochard, just 9 tufties, 10 mallard, 15 little grebes, 4 GC grebes, 1 kingfisher.
Llanishen: 1 common snipe, 2 little grebes, 17 mallard, 2 tufties, 1 coot, 1 teal, c20 linnets and c20 meadow pipits. Many hundreds of woodpigeons on the move.
North Cardiff
Roath Park Lake: Kingfisher at the wild end, excellent egg on toast at the cafe end.
Lisvane: no sign of yesterday’s green sandpiper today, best of the regulars was 17 little grebes and 2 pochard.
Llanishen: the south pool seems to be slowly filling, and is now bigger than at any time since the reservoir was drained, extending about half way to the middle pools. 2 teal, 1 little grebe, 1 coot, 10 mallard, and 2 mute swans, also a white-winged jackdaw in the big corvid roost and a stunning female peregrine stooped low over the south pool at dusk, heading towards the Llanishen tax office tower where it presumably roosted.
Lisvane Reservoir
This morning, 1 green sandpiper on NW shore (still there at dusk per Mike Powell), 1F sparrowhawk, 1M pochard, 26 tufties, 4 GC grebes, 14 little grebes, 15 mallard, 11 coots, 2 mutes, 1 heron, etc.
Lisvane & Llanishen Reservoirs
Lisvane: best bird was a very vocal green sandpiper on the SE shore, hopping to and fro over the fence to llanishen. 64 tufties, 4 pochards, 12 mallards, 2 mute swans, 7 coots, 4 GC grebes, 11 little grebes, etc.
Llanishen: 26 mallards, 3 teal (likely to be more hidden in the flooded vegetation), 3 mipits, c20 redwings, gold crest in a big tit flock, 4 pied and 2 grey wags, F sparrowhawk hunting.
Rhaslas Pond & Llanishen Reservoir
Rhaslas with Mike Hogan, Sophie-Lee Williams et al.: 15 wigeon, 6 mallard, 1 teal (with broken wing), 2 GC grebes, 1 cormorant, 1 kestrel but no sign of Wednesday’s merlin. 2 mipits, 28 starlings, 2 skylarks, 2 pied wags, otherwise quite quiet. Pink wax cap (Hygrocybe calyptriformis) by the dam.
Of note: the proposal for opencast/surface-mining in the area surrounding and encompassing Rhaslas pond was submitted on 10th October 2013. The full proposal can be found here:
http://www.caerphilly.gov.uk/site.aspx?s=oMR4sZmcAxsXPse6F8ZuQA==
…and the Environmental Impact Assessment can be found here (scroll down to Chapter 8, ecology & nature conservation):
Click to access ES_Volume1_Technical_Assessments_Part1.pdf
At Llanishen: 2 moorhen (highest ever count here for me!), 6 mallard, 8 Canadas, M&F sparrowhawk soaring together.
North Cardiff night & day
Lisvane: 95 tufties, 4 pochard, 7 mallard, 7 coots, 7 little grebes, 4 GC grebes, 1 mute swan, 33 Canadas, 1 heron, 5 mipits, 5 redwing.
Llanishen: 2 wigeon, 58 mallard, 2 teal, 1 mute swan, 7 skylark over W.
Roath Park: all present and correct. Nothing unusual.
Fox and owl survey: 3 foxes & 3 tawny owls across 4 sites. 26 redwings over in 100 minutes of timed counts (= 15.6 per hour, up from 2.4 per hour last week)
Earlier today at Rhaslas, a male merlin was seen by Sophie-Lee Williams.
Llanishen Reservoir
Dusk visit: 72 mallard, 2 wigeon, 19 teal, 1 moorhen, 1 common snipe.
North Cardiff, night and day
During a tawny owl / fox survey tonight, just 4 redwings called in 100 minutes of timed counts (= 2.4 per hour). Also, 6 tawny owls across 4 sites and no foxes!
Earlier, at Lisvane: 1 GBB gull among the lessers, 4 common gulls over heading S (first of the autumn here for me), 1 kingfisher, 15 little grebes, 8 GC grebes, 2 mute swans, 2 Canadas, 42 tufties, 5 coots and 20 mallards.
Llanishen: 1 jack snipe again watched feeding at dusk, 2 common snipe, 29 teal, 26 mallard and 1 little grebe.
Llanishen Reservoir
A Jack snipe was observed foraging close to a single common snipe at dusk, allowing a direct comparison of size, pattern and foraging action. Also, 24 teal, 82 mallard, 2 Canadas and 4 redwings. The mute swans have departed from the south pool.
Roath Park Lake
A shoveller was new in with the 2 teal at the “wild” end of the lake today.
Rhaslas & N Cardiff
Rhaslas with Mike Hogan & Sophie-Lee Williams: LB dowitcher still present this morning, though ponies at the NW corner had pushed the bird down to the SW shoreline. The other highlight was the first short-eared owl of the winter up here, flushed from the NE shore and flew over the bank into the moorland towards Fochriw. Also present were 28 wigeon, 7 teal, 5 mallard, 1 snipe, kestrel etc.
Yesterday around N Cardiff – Lisvane: 1 common sand, 49 tufties, 12 mallard, 11 little grebes, 8 gc grebes, 2 coots, 2 cormorants, m sparrowhawk etc.
Llanishen: 17 teal, 2 little grebes, 2 mute swans, 6 mallards.
Roath: 2 teal.
Lisvane & Llanishen Reservoirs
Lisvane: 1 kingfisher, 14 little grebes, 8 GC grebes, 35 tufties, 5 coots, 6 cormorants etc. A few late butterflies out in the sun; 1 small copper, small tortoiseshell and small whites.
Llanishen: 1 wigeon, 5 teal, 1 tufted duck, at least 121 mallards, 9 Canadas, 2 mute swans.
Lisvane & Llanishen Reservoirs
Canada geese on the move today -138 on Lisvane and another 103 on Llanishen made for a lot of noise! Also, 34 tufties, 30 mallard, 2 teal, 2 mute swans, just 4 coots, 9 GC grebes, 9 little grebes, c20 linnets, M+F sparrowhawk locking talons, raven and a few meadow pipits going over.
Rhaslas and Roath
Looming out of the fog at Rhaslas this morning were 3 pintails, 14 teal, 36 wigeon, 6 mallard, 1 common snipe, and a male stonechat.
Roath Park Lake still has 1 teal at the “wild” end; a male coming out of eclipse.
Lisvane & Llanishen Reservoirs
Lisvane: 1 kingfisher fishing from the E bank, 17 little grebes, 11 GC grebes (including 2 young, contra yesterday’s report!), 31 mallard, 32 tufties, 11 Canadas, just 4 coots, no pochards, 34 swallows, chiffchaff etc.
Llanishen: After yesterday’s influx of teal, just 2 remained today, with 17 mallard, 2 mute swans, 1 common snipe (first of the winter) and a male sparrowhawk.
Lisvane & Llanishen Reservoirs
A minimum of 29 teal on Llanishen was a good total for this site. On Lisvane, just 1 pochard among the tufties, and only 1 of the 2 young GC grebes seems to have survived. Nice to bump into Dan J-J doing the WeBS count.
Lisvane and Rhaslas
Lisvane, dry: 1 green sandpiper on the E shore. 1 greylag and 1 greylag-type hybrid among 84 Canadas. No wagtails…
Rhaslas, very wet: 2 golden plover, 2 dunlin, 1 teal, 8 mallard, 1 tufted duck, 3 little grebes, 2 wheatears, 8 swallows etc.
Glamorgan Bird Club 
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