Goosander 5 (three females and 2 drakes)

Had a nice little 30 min session by the dipping pond this morning. A Cetti’s Warbler was foraging very actively in the vegetation below the Alder. Never in full view I only managed the single dodgy shot below. Also foraging around the pond edge there was a Water Rail which was even more elusive. The main body of the pond was frozen. Highlight was a female or immature Kestrel which seemed oblivious to me as it sat in trees overlooking the reedy area by the dipping pond boardwalk, looking for prey.
Spot the Cetti’s in the top LH photo …… not too difficult.

W lake had 13 Teal, 10 Gadwall and a drake Pochard with some Tufties. Most of the latter were on E lake [approx 160 of them]. Redwing were feeding on hawthorn at various locations [W paddock by the edge of Cogan Wood, in Cogan Wood, by Mile Road, and along Sully Brook].
The photo is of Rudolf the red-nosed Redwing!

A random collection with a thrushy bias, from a chilly saunter round Cosmeston this morning. In addition to the birds in the pix, there were 4 Gadwall on W lake and a pair of Pochard with the 100 or so Tufties on E lake at the golf course end, sheltering from the cold wind. I’m pretty sure the gull is an adult Yellow-legged Gull. The photo is a huge crop as it was right in the middle of E lake. The warm grey upper parts and v clean head are pointers for me. To left is Fieldfare, top right is Mistle Thrush.

Just a few common birds over the past few days, and the local hybrid Tufty x Pochard. Interestingly of the 120 or so Tufted Ducks now present only about 10% of them are females.

Yesterday, Sunday 7th, 14 club members braved the wet conditions and visited Slimbridge WWT [on the basis that most viewing is from hides]. We did pretty well and saw 61 species.Apart from a more or less ‘full set’ of common ducks, geese featured well with huge numbers of Barnacles, Canadas, Greylags, some distant Russian Whitefronts and a couple of ‘exotica’ – 2 Snow Geese and a Ross’s Goose. Highlight of the small birds was a very active Firecrest. From the Zeiss hide, a smart female Marsh Harrier flushed a large number of Teal. On the wader front yours truly managed to wheedle out a distant Little Stint in amongst the 100 or so Dunlin, and there were huge numbers of Lapwing and Golden Plover, plus an impressive 13 Ruff. The last shout that more or less topped the lot, was the arrival of 12 Cranes in front of the Zeiss hide, although they eventually landed out of sight below the sea wall.

Two Black-necked Grebes were on E lake Cosmeston this morning, found by Graham Smith. They were sheltering from the wind with Tufties, in the lee of the Mile Road. Light was pretty poor but they were nice to see. Last record there was on 7th May 2012 when 2 breeding plumaged birds were present.

Short walk at Cosmeston this morning before the rain. Tufties now number around 200. Today they were accompanied by 10 Pochard and 3 Gadwall [2m 1f]. There are notices about bird flu as there seems to be a local outbreak. There was a deceased Canada Goose on W lake recently.
This morning a Great Northern Diver was seen on Llanishen Reservoir.

Today a lone Fieldfare was surprisingly tolerant in a Hawthorn by the W lake viewpoint along the Mile Road. I’m sure this is the same bird that we saw on a Glamorgan Bird Club trip last week, and it has laid claim to that Hawthorn for its berries.

A few from a couple of days ago.. Reflections of Cormorant and Tufties, a distant drake Shoveler on W lake and a Coal Tit coming to food by E lake.

Green Woodpecker land as the frost turn to dew and Water Rail just pop out on ice for seconds

Pretty quiet on the small bird front this morning. This Song Thrush sat just above me on Sunday.
Today there were c. 120 Tufties, 2 drake Pochard and 50 Canada Geese.

10 hardy souls braved the bitter NE wind for a walk around Cosmeston this morning. We were off to a good start with 2 male Siskin in with a flock of Goldfinch feeding on Alder near the cafe and a Gt Spotted Woodpecker in a nearby tree,There was no sign of yesterday’s Wigeons but the drake Pochard was still present on W lake. A Fieldfare was resting in a tree there. A total of 5 Little Grebes were noted. We then spent a fair time among trees near the play park looking for a Yellow-rowed Warbler that had been seen for the prev 2 days. It was neck breaking stuff with those very tall trees! We had more or less gven up due to the wind when yours truly spotted a feeding flock and had a v brief view of the target bird but after ages craning our necks to try & follow this mobile flock, no-one else could get on to it sadly. There were Long-tailed Tits, Coal Tit, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Goldcrest, Treecreeper and Chiffchaff in the flock. Cogan Wood produced the usual tits & Nuthatch and along the Sully Brook field there were many Redwing. The Cormorant shown is part way through swallowing an Eel! 43 species were seen!
Click here for the full list.

Cosmeston late a.m. 3 Teal and 1 drake Pochard were on W lake with the Tufties. 1 each of Buzzard, Kes and Sprawk were over W paddock, 1 Redwing feeding on hawthorn there, plus Misgtle Thrush, and 3 Fieldfare fly-overs, quite high.

A Yellow-browed Warbler was reported early afternoon in sycamores between the Mile Road and the playground

This hybrid Tufty type was on W lake Cosmeston this morning. V distant so big crops. There was also a single drake Pochard and an ad Heron. No sign of the Firecrest that was seen yesterday morning by the main boardwalk. Also couple of Mipits in E paddock. All rubbish photos!

At Aust Salt Marsh

Got down to the barrage for first time in a while and eventually found the Red-throated Diver that was found a coupe of days ago. It was quite distant towards the Cardiff end off the dock area by the gas storage tanks. After coffee by Porth Teigr it fortunately came a little closer on the walk back and I Iucked in on some wing stretch shots. There was also a very confiding female Pied Wag on a wall by the sluices.

New arrivals in the rain this morning were 2 m and 1 f Pochard on W lake in amongst the Tufties. A Jay was by the dipping pond, carrying an acorn.

I found the people at club to very friend suggesting if club open pop and say hello and buy a coffee, if quiet you welcome to park but if practise or game that fair enough as bird on the pitch

In the light drizzle and v poor light at Cosmeston this morning. I was walking across W paddock when a Kes came and alighted in the hedge, but only briefly as a second Kes flew in a flushed it off. The camera wasn’t ready but they flew up fairly high then had a kind of dog fight. I think they were both young birds and there was no real aggression. Nice to watch tho’. One pic below shows how distant they were when I took the pix, hence they are pretty fuzzy.
The Woodpigeon is I understand, one that has been around for a couple of years, although I’ve never seen it before. As the pic shows, it has a pretty bad deformity of one of the bill mandibles, but it’s obviously coping OK as it was pretty plump.