Garden

Mistle Thrush numbers now at 14, either around the garden or in the field next door. Usually appear early evening and squabble with the resident Magpies.

Lots of action around the feeders with plenty of young across several species. 4 juvenile Great Spotted Woodpeckers with adults. 3 juvenile Nuthatch with adults. Other family groups include Great, Blue, Coal and Long-tailed Tit, Chaffinch, Dunnock, Robin, Blackbird. Wren have used old swallow nest in garage and had 3 young. Sizeable House Sparrow colony. Wood Pigeon and Collared Dove present with young.

Quieter for birdsong now – Blackcaps quiet but Chiffchaffs still going strong along with Song Thrushes. Haven’t heard Cuckoo in woods below house for a few weeks now.

Pied Wagtail daily and Grey Wagtail regular. Bullfinch pair still present but no sign of any young. Similar with Jays (who have bred the last two years)

Regular raptors over include up to 4 Common Buzzard at a time, Red Kite (usually singular), Sparrowhawk, Kestrel.

Carrion Crow and Jackdaw using garden whilst Raven (usually 2) staying high overhead.

Lockdown has been great to focus on what is immediately outside and better understand the dynamics between species and the timing of everything.

No sign of yesterday’s Cuckoo today. 20-30 Sand Martins fighting the wind over W lake plus a few House Martins, and an ad Grey Heron flew in there. A Buzzad was over W paddock and a Green Pecker flew by, and I had a friendly Pied Wag whilst I drank my take away latte. A lot of Small Skippers were ahout despite the wind.

A drake Tufted Duck was on E lake and a single Swift flew over E paddock. In W paddock a Blackcap flew out of the snipe area, and a Green Woodpecker was calling nearby. A Buzzard clumsily hovered over W paddock. On walking up onto the hill by dragonfly pond a Sparrowhawk flew from the snipe area direction, passing <3ft away low to the ground. On my cresting the hill a grey bird flew up off the ground to my right, and I assumed it was the Sprawk. At this time it was raining heavy fine horizontal drizzle. It landed briefly in a bush and for that brief moment my brain PC rang alarm bells and the term ‘Cuckoo’ registered on the ‘system’ but then it took off just as my one handed hold on my bins got on to it [I had the dog on a lead]. In the afternoon Alex Bevan saw a Cuckoo, so …..

A few Swallows passing through. The W lake GC Grebes now are 2 fully grown stripey imms [from a clutch of 4] and 3 half grown [from a second clutch of 4 of a different pair]. They were all just too far off to get decent photos. A few punky Coot chicks still around. Also had 3 Song Thrushes and a couple of Chiffchaffs singing.

• 

Male Bullfinch flying over, calling; fledgling Robin in shrubs and then a Hummingbird Hawkmoth paid us a brief visit.

Very busy today.Gangs of youths in the water near the bridge,same as reported previously.

A flock of 100+ gulls overhead seemed to be catching insects of some description.I would have thought it too early in the summer for it to be flying ants.

As we were cycling through Frampton (near Llantwit Major) this afternoon we disturbed a Song Thrush “dealing” with a snail on the road. I commented that the last time we had seen this happen was during the “Beast from the East” and my wife said “and that was in Frampton too” (the Lincolnshire one)

Only birds of note were a couple of Swifts and a Buzzard … and this Cormorant which had caught an Eel in ther middle of West Lake.

• 

Wood Warbler singing and showing well in woodland around the old workings this afternoon.

The nesting season is currently at peak, both for the range of species nesting and for many individual taxa (e.g. finches, larks, warblers). Yet a few species have already completed their breeding cycles and are now more widely in evidence. Many Mistle Thrushes are forming post-breeding flocks – I counted 31 in a gathering at one site earlier this week. Most of the Crossbill population nests in late winter, and from late spring onwards many of them move (‘irrupt’) to find new areas with supplies of conifer seeds – they’ve been very evident in recent days, and may be seen or heard calling over any location, with or without suitable trees. Another early nesting species is Goshawk – at the sole (confidential) site where I’ve been able to monitor progress the young have fledged from the nest, with probably three juveniles calling nearby in the woodland.

The Pyramidal Orchids are doing very well in E paddock and 3 Mistle Thrush flew out of there this a.m. Met a friendly juv Robin in W paddock, where a Grey Heron flew over. O/W the 2 GC Grebe families are doing OK except I think the 2nd pair have now lost 1 of their 4 humbugs – the first pair had 4 also, and lost 2.
Downside – the car park is now open again as is the cafe for take-away drinks [not sure about food]. Car park pretty full but park in general OK with plenty of space. Incredibly I saw three people with looked like a kayak on the far shoreline of W lake, in the Conservation Area. I called the ranger who I know, and when she eventually went to investigate they were out on W lake paddle boarding! They were told to leave. Also idiot young lads jumping into E lake by the bridge despite the warning signs. Silly season!

• 

• 

At the Cardiff end towards Roath Dock, Song Thrush, 1 Oystercatcher on the environment building docking ramp, 1 Common Sandpiper across flew from the direction of the Norwegian Church onto the shore somewhere by the new path, juv GC Grebe playing hide & seek, quite a few Greenfinch which seem to like that end of the barrage. No Swift, and the Swift tower call system making a weird croaking noise so the repair not successful. Lots of Sand Martins at the Roath Dock nest holes. Count the resting Sand Martins in the twiggy bush – they like perching up there. I reckon there’s 18 or 19.

Approx. 50 Mediterranean Gulls were on Swansea Beach around 2 p.m. opposite the university. Mute Swans with 4 young on Singleton Park boating lake. Moorhens with 4 young on Brynmill Park lake. Young Tawny Owls heard and seen in Singleton Park at 10 p.m.

3 female Blackcaps (just fledged), Willow Warbler singing behind Ysgol y Ddraig, 2 Grey Wagtails under bridge at Llantwit. (Yesterday at high tide a seal swimming up the channel about a quarter of a mile offshore.)

Very pleased to see that a second pair of Great Crested Grebes have also hatched a family of 4 chicks. Let’s see if they can all progress to adulthood. The first cluthc of four are now down to 2 almost fully grown juvs now so they shd be safe. Yesterday there were 2 immature Herons by the far side of W lake but they weren’t there this morning. This morning there were a few House and Sand Martins over E lake and a Green Woodpecker near the dragfonfly pond. The drake Tufted Duck was also present on E lake yesterday but I couldn’t see the female.

• 

• 

Reed Warblers continue to sing/hold territory at least two sites; Cetti’s regularly singing at two or three sites. Lesser Whitethroat singing at Grangemoor Park. Mute Swan with six cygnets.

A pair of Hobbies were displaying at the end of May at a site in the east of the county. For obvious reasons, I won’t specify the location, but the birds are in the former coalfield (far to the N of the M4) at an altitude of between 200 and 300 metres (depending on where they have since settled). The area will be monitored through the balance of the summer, but given that they are established at the location concerned, I would consequently expect them to be fairly widespread through the lower ground in the Vale of Glamorgan to the south, as well as more sparingly into the hills. It’s well worth searching out this species if you enjoy a challenge – they are hard to locate and can remain undetected even in well-watched areas, but experience elsewhere is that even incidental sightings of Hobbies usually denote undiscovered breeding pairs (Schedule 1 restrictions apply). The birds return to the same areas each year, so records from previous years are still worth following up.

Very quiet at the moment bird-wise but here’s a few Corvid pix. A juvenile Crow was ‘anting’ in the empty car park [3 images of the bird by the kerb stones]. You can see the ants on the plumage if you look carefully. And the remaining two are portraits of a Cosmeston regular who hangs out around the entrance and car park and by the ‘swan feeding’ corner of E lake. He’s known to afficionados as ‘Beaky’ due to the extra long hook on the tip of his upper mandible. I say ‘he’ but of course its impossible to sex them on outward appearance as far as I know. For good measure there’s a nice photo of a confiding female/imm Blackbird I saw by the coast parth at Sully on Saturday 6th.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

We were able to conduct our WeBS today, first time since ‘Lockdown’ began!

It was glorious in the woods and down by the lake – so green, lots of birdsong, ducklings and wild flowers. Unfortunately our WeBS was not so accurate because the permissive path across the lake bridge has been temporarily, but reluctantly, closed by the landowner since it is too narrow to maintain safe distancing.                                                The swans nested as usual, but this failed. It was very close to the bridge and path. We’re hoping they may try again.

Coot , Mallard , Moorhen , Mute Swan  , Blackbird , Blackcap , Blue Tit , Carrion Crow ,
Chaffinch , Chiffchaff , Collared Dove , Dunnock , Great Spotted Woodpecker ,           House Sparrow , Magpie , Robin, Song Thrush , Swallow , Woodpigeon , Wren

Dipper juvenile on the stream next the hide path Grey Heron 3 Blackcap 4 one eating Cherries. Chiffchaff 2. Azure Damselfly 3 Broad-bodied Chaser 1