Tag: Llanishen

Lisvane & Llanishen Reservoirs

On By Rob ThomasIn SightingsLeave a comment
Pretty blustery this afternoon! On Lisvane: 10 Canadas, 9 Little grebes, 8 Pochards, 39 tufties, only 6 coots, 8 mallards, 1 kingfisher -flew over to Llanishen Res
 
Llanishen Res: 5 coots (my largest count here since the res was drained -presumably including some of the usual Lisvane birds), 2 moorhens, 30 mallards, 3 teal, 1 Kingfisher (seems to be my 1st record from Llanishen -presumably the one frequenting Lisvane) -which eventually flew off towards the Nant Fawr. c20 redwings feeding on the banks of the Res. No snipe or water rails visible today.

Lisvane & Llanishen Reservoirs

On By Rob ThomasIn SightingsLeave a comment

A final look at the reservoirs for 2013, in fading light. On Lisvane: 1 Y-L gull, among a good roost of 80 LBB gulls, 12 herring gulls and 161 BH gulls. Gunshots from just north of the reservoir caused the whole flock to fly off at 15:50. Also, 48 tufties, 5 pochards, 2 mallards, 11 little grebes, 30 Canadas, 11 coots, 1 heron, 2 grey wags.

2013-12-31 15.47.27

On Llanishen: 1 water rail, 57 mallard, 12 teal, 4 coots (my highest count here since the res was drained!), 2 tufties, 5 common snipe, 2 pied wags. Happy New Year everyone 🙂

Lisvane & Llanishen Reservoirs

On By Rob ThomasIn SightingsLeave a comment

No sign of the barnacle goose on Lisvane Res today, but 41 Canadas present (exactly the same number as were with the barnacle yesterday, per D.G.). 45 tufties, 18 pochards, 2 mallards, 13 coots, 10 little grebes, 1 kingfisher -fishing silently along the south shore, 1 heron plus the usual gulls.

Llanishen: a good count of 74 mallard, 18 teal, 2 coots, 1 tufted duck, 26 common snipes, buzzard, gold crest, mistle thrush etc.

North Cardiff, Christmas Eve

On By Rob ThomasIn SightingsLeave a comment

I’ve been making a list and checking it twice –but there aren’t too many interesting birds on it…

Lisvane: 30 pochard, 49 tufties, 12 little grebes, 12 coots, no mallards, geese, swans or GC grebes.

Llanishen: water levels very high so lots of places for birds to hide among the willows: 6 teal, 1 coot and 34 mallards were visible.

Roath: 4 little grebes, the long-staying LBB gull blue AKZ, and a colour-ringed BH gull that stayed just out of readable range.

Happy Christmas and good birding to all :)

North Cardiff round-up

On By Rob ThomasIn SightingsLeave a comment

Roath Park Lake: 2M teal, quite a lot of disturbance due to scrub clearance on the islands today.

City Hall: 1peregrine

Llanishen: 2F shovellers, 27 teal, 2 moorhens, 15 mallard, 1 tufted, 1 common gull. Only 1 snipe visible and no sign of the recent water rails -but the water level is very low again now. 18 magpies among the big corvid roost.

Lisvane: 35 pochard, 87 tufties, 38 Canadas, 19 mallards, 12 little grebes, 12 coots, 3 common gulls and as dusk approached a mid-tone yellow-legged type gull, seemingly a 3rd winter.

North Cardiff

On By Rob ThomasIn SightingsLeave a comment

Highlight was a great view of 2 water rails at Llanishen south pool –my first record of this species at the site! The water level has dropped again, exposing some mud. Also present on Llanishen were 33 teal, 1F shoveller, 13 mallards, 3 moorhens, 12+common snipe, 1 common gull and 4 pied wags. 

Lisvane: 56 tufties, 18 pochard, 17 mallard, 15 little grebes but no GC grebes today, 39 Canadas, 12 coots and the usual gulls.

Roath Park Lake: 4 teal. Llanishen station: 1 “silver” leucistic jackdaw.

Lisvane & Llanishen

On By Rob ThomasIn SightingsLeave a comment

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

On By Rob ThomasIn SightingsLeave a comment

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

On By Rob ThomasIn SightingsLeave a comment

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 & Llanishen Reservoirs

On By Rob ThomasIn Sightings1 Comment

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

On By Rob ThomasIn SightingsLeave a comment

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

On By Rob ThomasIn SightingsLeave a comment

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.

North Cardiff, night and day

On By Rob ThomasIn Sightings3 Comments

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.

Rhaslas & N Cardiff

On By Rob ThomasIn SightingsLeave a comment

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

On By Rob ThomasIn SightingsLeave a comment

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.