Not in S. Wales, but a club trip.
We had a big turnout for the trip to the Forest of Dean yesterday – 19 folk. A dull, still, but thankfully dry day. Sadly we ‘dipped’ on the key species – Goshawk and Hawfinch … and the mythical Lesser Spotted Woodpecker! Even so we logged 41 species. Stars of the show were the Mandarins at Cannop Ponds – see the photos. There were around 20 by the stone works, a large group of them on the grass by the lake. One cheeky male was up on the fence below the bird feeder, picking off the spillages! I did have a pic of that but it was pretty poor so it was binned.
Here’s the list: https://drive.google.com/…/1ZMJS1H4Gv…/view…

visited at first light,06h35,expecting to see Little Egrets flying out from the island roost.Instead 24-Little Egrets were together at the waters edge at the western end of the island.I returned at dusk to find 23 Egrets in the same place.Is it possible they are roosting there and not in the island’s trees? I will check again in the coming days.

A walk round E. and W. lakes at Cosmeston this morning to avoid the extremely muddy paddocks. The female Scaup was still present on E. lake and was more active than yesterday when she was asleep all the time, plus I had my camera today. The Great Crested Grebes are displaying most days. Of other interest, on blossom at the back of W lake I had my first hoverfly of the year, so I’ll have to start tuning in to those again. I think this one was the ‘Common Drone Fly’ i.e. Eristalis tenax [fingers crossed]. The last pic is of a distant lone Buzzard keeping an eye on the plantation.

A variety of waders along the coast over high tide this morning with Curlew and Oystercatcher on Sully Island, Turnstone on Sully beach, Ringed Plover and Dunlin on Bendrick Rock and 2o Redshank in Barry Old Harbour. A female Scaup, found by Graham Smith, was on Cosmeston’s East Lake.

Yesterday morning on Flemingston Moor a flock of 26 Little Egret was notable.

Common Sandpiper 1 Ringed- neck Duck male and female Tufted Duck 69 Great Crested Grebe 2 pair displaying Grey Heron 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker drumming Mistle Thrush 2 Song Thrush 1 singing Grey Wagtail 2

Much of the moor is still flooded and waterbirds present late morning/early afternoon today included 1 Shelduck (first time I’ve seen one here), 23 Little Egret (highest ever count here), 3 Grey Heron, 1 Little Grebe, 1 Egyptian Goose, 13 Greylag and 131 Canada Geese, 10 Coot, 2 Moorhen, 12 Mute Swan, 3 Cormorant, 2 Lapwing and 9 Mallard.

We had an excellent public walk on Saturday morning. Welcome to some new folk. Despite the murky weather, ten of us found 50! species between us. Partly because there was an incoming tide, and that the rain held off, we decided that we were up for a trek down to Sker. We were rewarded by seeing Purple Sandpiper, Oystercatcher, Ringed Plover, Turnstone, Curlew, Rock Pipit, and Golden Plover arriving. Back at the centre by noon, most of us were keen to carry on down to the pool where we found lots of waterfowl, (no Long-tailed Duck, or Bittern were seen) Goldeneye, 6 Great Crested Grebe, lots of Pochard, Teal, Tufted Duck, – I’ll post the full list later!

Many thanks to my co- leader, John Western, and the help other expert birders!

Jean Haslam,

Walked along the Sully foreshore from the cricket pitch car park to the carvans and back along the rocky shoreline. Pretty high tide so just 7 Oystercather, 12 Turnstone, a couple of Curlew, 2 Rock Pipits and a Grey Wag to see, plus around 6 Pied Wags near the parking area.

Curlew, Oystercatcher, Rock Pipit, Turnstone and Pied Wagtail on Sully beach over high tide early this afternoon. Later on Sully & Cog Moors 2 Teal, 2 Shelduck, 4 Grey Heron, 3 Little Egret, 2 Cattle Egret and 33+ Rook.

Yesterday morning 26 species on a short walk along the road at Penllyn Moor included 100+ Stock Dove, 2 Kestrel, 1 Sparrowhawk, 1 Stonechat, a calling Green Woodpecker, 1 Raven, singing Skylark and a distant flyby Cormorant.

Walked thru Cogan Wood late morning after squelching along the path past the dragonfly pond and failing on Hawfinch, although we did flush a Green Woodpecker. Delighted to have good views of 2 obliging Marsh Tits along the slope up to the exit at the SE end of the wood. Didn’t take camera due to rain threat, nor any seed but they actually followed us up the slope right to the junctiojn with the path that goes round the back of W lake. W lake had 3 drake and 1 duck Pochard. Earlier in the morning Wayne Strong had a fem Pintail on W lake that flew off towards Cardiff and presumably the Bay.

GBC volunteers have recently helped two farms in South Cornelly participate in this year’s Big Farmland Bird Count. This is an annual event organised by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust and involves counting, recording and reporting bird species on farms.

Ty Tanglwyst dairy farm was participating for the third time this year, and despite some quite wet weather at times, the count on the morning of 5^th February produced a total of 25 species. This year’s highlight was undoubtedly a flock of c. 100 Linnet moving regularly between the fields and adjacent woodland.

The full list of species seen and/or heard at Ty Tanglwyst was: Herring Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Redwing, Blackbird, Song Thrush, Robin, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Dunnock, Wren, House Sparrow, Woodpigeon, Collared Dove, Feral Pigeon, Carrion Crow, Jackdaw, Magpie, Jay, Linnet, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Pied Wagtail, Grey Wagtail, Stonechat and Nuthatch.

A couple of days ago on 13^th February and Ty Draw farm was participating in the Big Farmland Bird Count for the first time. If anything, weather conditions were even wetter than at Ty Tanglwyst, but nonetheless 24 species were recorded including a flock of 15 Skylark, a couple of which were singing.

The full list of species seen and/or heard at Ty Draw was: Herring Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Fieldfare, Redwing, Blackbird, Song Thrush, Starling, Robin, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Long-tailed Tit, Dunnock, Wren, House Sparrow, Woodpigeon, Feral Pigeon, Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Jackdaw, Magpie, Linnet, Chaffinch, Meadow Pipit and Skylark.

More information on the Big Farmland Bird Count can be found here.

A walk along the Sully coast starting just after sunrise coincided with a ‘high’ high tide at 12.2 metres, leaving just a narrow strip of beach for waders to use.

36 Turnstone and 3 Oystercatcher were on Sully beach near Burnham Avenue car park, and 4 Curlew and 11 Oystercatcher were further east on the playing fields. Sully Island held a single Grey Plover, 2 Turnstone, 3 Ringed Plover, 9 Dunlin (all on the rocks at the western tip), as well as 66 Oystercatcher, 3 Curlew, 4 Shelduck and a Cormorant. No sign of the recently present Brent Geese.

Later on Sully and Cog Moors there were 2 Cattle Egret, 10 Grey Heron and at least 7 Little Egret.

The Siskins were back in the Alder near the dipping pond this morning, quite high up but I managed to get 4 half decent shots out of a load taken. The Little Grebes are very active and vocal at the moment, and the Great Cresteds have been practice displaying.

This morning’s WeBS count at Barry Old Harbour was on the falling tide. Just three waterbird species present: 6 Oystercatcher on rocks below Parade Gardens, 2 Shelduck and a flock of 24 Redshank (just one less than my highest count here of 25 in February 2016). Gulls present included 2 adult Great Black-backed Gulls, along with small numbers of Black-headed, Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls.

Waterbirds at Cadoxton Ponds included a Kingfisher, 6 Moorhen, 1 Cormorant and a flyover Grey Heron. Sparrowhawk and Raven were also present, and birds singing there included Song Thrush, lots of Dunnock, Robin, Wren, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Woodpigeon, Cetti’s Warbler and Greenfinch.

Back to the flooded moor at Flemingston on Friday morning (9th) for the Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS).

Waterbirds recorded for the survey comprised 18 Greylag Geese, 1 Egyptian Goose, 118 Canada Geese, 6 Cormorant (on a pylon), 6 Grey Heron, 20 Little Egret, a pair of Wigeon, 10 Mallard, 9 Mute Swan, 2 Moorhen, 1 Water Rail, 1 Lapwing and a Coot (first Coot recorded here since March 2020).

Gulls recorded were 1 Black-headed Gull, 33 Herring Gull and 31 Lesser Black-backed Gull.

Raptors present were Peregrine (on a pylon), Kestrel, Sparrowhawk and Buzzard.

Cosmeston yesterday & today. A Common Gull yesterday allowed some nice shots. There haven’t been many this winter. Today a Water Vole was swimming by the dipping pond boardwalk and I managed to grab a shot before it disappeared beneath. In an Alder there, there were c20 Siskin feeding but they flew off N towards the golf course. Up by the dragonfly pond quagmire, there were a few Fieldfare and Redwing, and 2 Green Woodpeckers. One of the Gret Crested Grebe pairs have been doing some preparatory displaying recently, and the Little Grebes have been very vocal.

A visit yesterday afternoon (8th) between downpours to what’s once again an extensively flooded moor after recent rain. Lapwing (18) had returned after being absent on my previous visit. Other waterbirds and gulls present included 1 Egyptian Goose, 3 Greylag and 107 Canada Geese, 1 Little Grebe, 25 Mallard, 7 Mute Swan, 2 Grey Heron, 16 Little Egret, 2 Moorhen, 1 Cormorant, 2 Great Black-backed Gull plus Herring, Lesser Black-backed and a single Black-headed Gull.

Song Thrush, Dunnock, Robin, Wren and Collared Dove were singing, and other birds present included 1 Stock Dove, 3 Stonechat, 1 Buzzard and 15 Pied Wagtail.

The is a huge area of flooding at the watermill and nearby fields we saw

Grey Heron 4 Little Egret 2 Mallard 26 Teal 59 Wigeon 46 Shelduck 3 Canada Goose 50 Mute Swan 3 Moorhen 2 Curlew 33 Herring Gull 28 Black-headed Gull 2Gret Spotted WP 1Carrion Crow 12 Song thrush 1 Pied Wagtail 4 at Portobello Goldeneye 5 unusually no gulls.

A nice find by Wayne Strong this morning at Cosmeston was 2 adult Cattle Egrets in the dovecote field, with the small herd of cattle that are now grazing there. No photos from me – they were too far away for anything decent. Also via Wayne, an adult Med Gull moulting into breeding plumage was on E lake near the sluice in the NW corner. There’s a couple of pix I took below which give a nice comparison of overall structure compared to Black-headed Gull, for any gull ‘newbies’. A couple of other pix of common birds of Cogan Wood taken a few days ago when I was failing to tempt Marsh Tits with some seed.!

A male daily for the last seven days in my garden in Cardiff.