Great Northern Diver showed well from the Barrage by the fish pass for awhile around midday. Close enough to get a record shot.

Lisvane: highlight was a lapwing going over -scarce here. A good count of 122 tufties and 23 pochard, 34 Canadas, 8 mallards, 3 GC grebes, 3 cormorants, 6 L grebes, 38 coots, 1 heron, etc.

Roath Park Lake: 7 little grebes and a common gull, no sign of any shovellers or teal today.

Cardiff City Hall: male peregrine viewed from the Winter Wonderland ice rink, every 45 seconds from 4pm until 4:45 when a spectacular nosedive ended my birdwatching for the day.

Just another quick reminder – the first indoor meeting of 2015 is TODAY [Tues] 7:45 P.M. KNNR. Member’s Own – a sort of ‘bring and show’, where members can do short 20 min talks on a  topic of their choosing. I’m doing a 20 min Powerpoint on highlights of 3 visits to Extremadura. Do come along.

1 little egret feeding in field just off road near margam park entrance .

At 3:30 p.m. the GN Diver was right over by the barrage, seen from Ice Rink car park looking towards the southern half of the barrage.

In CBWR Lesser Scaup seen at around 4 p.m. and what must have been the hybrid just glimpsed skulking off into the reed ‘island’ – thought I had briefly seen a Gtr Scaup at the time, but it must have been the hybrid bird. Also 1 drake Pochard with the 50 or so Tufties. A good number of starlings flew in to roost but not enough to constitute a proper murmuration.

Some nice photos by Peter  of the hybrid I found this morning but in my scope the only difference  is the noticeably darker mantle; this presumably is the hybrid seen by Alex in Cosmeston.  Also 1 Pochard, 2 Kingfishers, 2 Kestrels and a Stonechat. In Hamadryad Park, a Water Rail and  a Goldcrest  showed in the ‘pond’ and a pair of Cetti’s showed well seen from the viewing circle by the fly-over. 3 Gooseander (2m,1f) were off the Taff Embankment. In Penarth Marina yesterday, there were still 5 Black Redstart (2m,3f) including 1 fem seen in Pierhead  View.

Great Northern Diver close to the Cardiff Yacht club moorings c.10:00 (seen from the Barrage side but not seen later on around midday from the boardwalk). Also male Goosander (female seen yesterday afternoon). Lesser Scaup and an odd hybrid (perhaps TuftedxPochard?) also on the reserve.

 
A couple of record shots of the hybrid on CBWR this morning (Lesser Scaup in the background of the shot on right).

70+ Tufties and 27 Pochard W lake. Also 8 Gadwall and 4 Teal. No sign of Pintail. 1 Green’Pecker. 6 Bullfinch [4m 2f] 3 nr dragonfly pond and 3 in conservation scrub area, 40+ Redwing and 10+ Fieldfare [again nr dragonfly pond], 2 Common Gulls W lake, 4 Cormorant, 1 GC Grebe and 1 Little Grebe, 1 very showy Water Rail by the cafe end of the boardwalk [prob the one that Andy Burns got some shots of t’other day].

G N Diver has been reported again in Cardiff Bay this morning, and the Lesser Scaup.

Anonymous Report of a GG SHRIKE on BirdGuides last night.. So decided to get there first light.. Had good binocular views of the bird (Very white against the grey of the willows it was in) but decided I needed to get closer.!! IT flew as I was creeping up behind a convenient blackberry bush.. 2 hours of waiting around and no show… Never mind there’s always tomorrow…..

Video of today’s Spotted Redshank off Dalton’s Point HERE

Other noteworthy sightings included 2 Greenshank, 8 Jack Snipe (a PWC bird I failed to see last year), 42 Common Snipe, 2 Red Kite and south of Loughor Bridge a flock of 569 D-b Brents, ~200 Wigeon & 8 Goldeneye.

Ringing on the marsh this morning resulted in 35 birds captured, including 2 chiffchaff, 1 siskin and three bullfinch.  More here: http://ow.ly/GLU2D

The number of teal on Oxwich South Pond was slightly higher this morning (34), with 13 mallard, 30 gadwall, 4 shoveler and a water rail among the other species seen.  There were 2 wigeon on the North Pond on 2/1 (not seen today), and 4 great crested grebe on the sea.

At Mumbles Pier the number of turnstone had increased to c. 34 on 2/1, and a great crested grebe was off Knab Rock.

Crossbills (this time 2m, 1f) viewed this afternoon (after 3pm) from the Llantrisant Forest car park at ST024847.

Note that there are signs in the car park saying it will be closed for forestry operations from tomorrow, and that it is hoped to re-open it on 2/2/15. There is some off-road parking near the roundabout on the A4119 about 0.5km north of the car park.

A Woodcock seen briefly as it left its roost at 1650.

Five Red-throated Divers on the sea south east of Tusker Rock, Ogmore-by-Sea, this morning.

At least 17 Hawfinch at Fforestganol this morning; 2 Bittern Kenfig Pool south, and 2 Sibe Chiffchaff north pool; Bittern at Forest Farm; Spotted Redshank, 2 Greenshank and 8 Jack Snipe at Penclawdd; L-t Duck off Crymlyn Burrows; Jack Snipe at Morfa Tip.

12 Brent Geese were at the mouth of the R. Thaw at least 6 of which appeared to be pale-bellied birds – tide was out so birds distant and only had binos. 5 Little Grebe on the lagoon, a couple of Shelduck on the beach, couldn’t find any Snipe on the lagoon islands. Single Curlew and a few Oycs were the only waders.

There’s a few Brambling with the large Chaffinch flock at Llantrisant forest, feeding on the Beechmast opposite the entrance to the car park. No Crossbills seen (or heard

A few waders at Sully at first light 2 hours or so after high tide. 13 Curlews flew in briefly to the playing fields but were soon moved on by walkers. On the beach there were 2 Ringed Plover, 1 Dunlin, 17 Oystercatcher, 13 Turnstone and 2 Grey Plover. A nice surprise was a Kingfisher. I have seen one near the Cadoxton rivermouth at Bendrick Rock before, but not this far east along the beach.

There was a noteworthy count of 210 Great Crested Grebes in the Blackpill section of bay yesterday, though relatively few gulls and waders, with 3 Bar-tailed Godwit being the pick of the crop. Chris or Alastiar may have seen more, but I could find no more than 8 Med Gulls before I left, two of which were colour-ringed; [White 31A7] & [Green RX20].

38 Canada geese 1 little egret 1 curlew 11 lapwing 1 little grebe 20 black h gulls 4 redshank