Returning Pale-bellied Brent geese

01 Thursday Oct 2026

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Last Wednesday, on day two of my Weymouth / Portland trip, by sheer chance, as I was walking along the disused railway track next to Hamm Beach, I just happened to be the first birder to spot the first two Pale-bellied Brent geese to return to Portland from their breeding grounds.

Portland Bird Observatory warden Martin later told me this first sighting had been on the exact same date, 23 September, as in 2025. Brent geese come in two sub-species, Pale-bellied (Branta bernicla hrota) and Dark-bellied (Branta bernicla bernicla). Martin says the Pale-bellied return to Portland first as they have a shorter distance to travel from their breeding grounds in northern Canada; the Dark-bellied Brents breed in the Russian Arctic. There’s not a lot of difference in their arrival dates though, as the first six Dark-bellied Brents were reported at Hamm Beach on 28 September, just five days after the two birds pictured here.

According to another local birder, these two Pale-bellied Brents are an adult and a juvenile. They look almost exactly the same to my inexperienced eye but I believe the juvenile (below) has less of a white collar than the adult (above).

A Yellow wagtail up close

30 Wednesday Sep 2026

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If there hadn’t been four Glossy ibis at RSPB Lodmoor on day one of my latest birding week in Dorset, this gorgeous Yellow wagtail (Motacilla flava) would’ve been the absolute highlight.

Though I’d spotted, and heard, several dotting around the reserve, this one popped up from where it was foraging on the salt marsh into a tree above where I was standing chatting with two other birders.

The wagtail wasn’t at all bothered about our proximity, and proceeded to have a good preen, giving us excellent views and photo opportunities.

Though I’ve seen Yellow wagtails many times before, usually as they pass along the south Wales coastline during autumn migration, this was definitely my closest encounter with one, and by far my best photos. What a treat!

Four Glossy ibis

29 Tuesday Sep 2026

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Unfortunately I can’t share with you any images of the absolute highlight of last week’s return visit to the Dorset seaside town of Weymouth. It actually happened very quickly when I was on the train to Weymouth, travelling along the edge of Poole Harbour, so I didn’t have time to get my phone out, let alone my good camera. There were two White-tailed eagles sitting on the shoreline no more than 20 metres from the train!!!!! I could scarcely believe my eyes but, when I later asked online, the company that runs birding cruises around the harbour confirmed the location was indeed a place the eagles are known to sit. Incredible, and a lifer for me.

I was a bit concerned that I’d peaked too early, that the rest of the week’s birding would be disappointing compared to that experience but, as you can guess from the photos above, I needn’t have worried. These four black-looking birds are Glossy ibis (Plegadis falcinellus) and they are anything but black, their stunning plumage ranging from bronze and metallic greens through brownish purple. My Lodmoor photos don’t show this but I blogged about this species the second time I saw one, back in May 2018, and those photos and a short video give better views.

This species used to be rare in Britain but is now seen increasingly often and, according to the BTO website, pairs began breeding in Britain in 2022. Glossy ibis are mostly located in southern Britain, but do range further north. The bird I saw in that 2018 blog was at Druridge Pools in Northumberland, in north-eastern England.

The Lodmoor four were mostly distant and easily spooked, flying back and forth from the main waterways to what’s called the postbox pool, on the northern side of the reserve. (The other birds in the flight photos above and below are Black-tailed godwits.) This was just my fourth time seeing these stunning birds and my first time seeing more than one, so I was very pleased with my first day in Weymouth, especially as they weren’t all I saw that day. More on that tomorrow …

Small, yellow and very spotty

28 Monday Sep 2026

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Walking along a footpath, scanning the shrubs, the bramble, the plants – green, brown, green, green, green, brown, green, YELLOW! Not a red light but exactly the same effect: immediate stop. There, sitting on a Stinging nettle, making it particularly tricky to photograph, was a tiny 22-spot ladybird (Psyllobora vigintiduopunctata). Stunning!

Aphid: Aphis hederae

27 Sunday Sep 2026

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Yes, I’ve once again been staring at trees and shrubs, leaf fossicking, turning over leaves to see what lies beneath, though, in this case, I didn’t have to – the aphids were right there in front of me, so many of them clinging to the developing flowers of Ivy that the stems appeared black instead of green.

And, once again, I’m not absolutely certain of my identification but I’m fairly sure that these are Aphis hederae, Ivy aphis. They definitely resemble the images shown on the Influential Points website, though that website does mention that 12 aphid species can be found on Ivy in Britain.

And, once again, the iRecord database is showing a relatively small number of records for this species; mine is just the sixth Welsh record, and all the rest are scattered across southern England, with none showing in Scotland or Northern Ireland. This tends to support my theory that few people bother to check for or record aphid species. (If my record is, at some subsequent date, determined to be wrong, I will update this blog.)

 

A Mandarin in eclipse

26 Saturday Sep 2026

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This Mandarin duck (Aix galericulata) was first noticed at the end of August, hanging out with the Mallards on the former Glamorgan Canal at Forest Farm Nature Reserve. I didn’t manage to get there to see him at the time and, as I hadn’t seen him reported since then, I thought he must have moved on. Then, last Thursday evening, I saw a photo of him, taken the previous day, on social media, and thus my Friday adventure was decided.

You might think a bird like this would easily stand out from the Mallard crowd – and he should have – but I must have walked right past him when I first arrived at Forest Farm, and then I walked the full length of the Glamorgan Canal, and the feeder canal before finally noticing him as I was heading, dejectedly, for the train. Doh!

You may wonder about the words ‘in eclipse’ in today’s blog title. When they’ve finished breeding, male Mandarins, like many other duck species, moult their colourful breeding feathers, making them resemble for a time the plainer brown females of their species. This moult usually renders them flightless, meaning they need to find a relatively safe place to live while their feathers regrow (which means I should’ve realised this drake would still be at Forest Farm – lesson learned!). As you can see, this handsome little chap is perhaps half way through the eclipse process, with some but not all of his usually vibrant plumage already obvious. I’m planning another visit soon to check on his progress. And, if you’re wondering what he will look like at the end of the eclipse, take a look at my blog from October last year, A drake Mandarin.

Ruby boletes

25 Friday Sep 2026

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One day last week I went for a good mooch around Cardiff’s Heath Park, very pleased to immediately see that the ground was looking much damper than on my previous visit, though still not as wet as it usually is in the park’s area of woodland. However, the good news is that the rain we have had in the past couple of weeks has encouraged fungi to start raising their fruit bodies.

This is where I found the Dyer’s mazegill I blogged about last week, and this is also where I found these much-nibbled, still lovely Ruby boletes (Hortiboletus rubellus, previously Boletus rubellus), my first time seeing this species. I knew they were boletes from their chunky shape, and because they had pores rather than gills, though I didn’t recognise the species. It was the fact that they turned blue when touched that clinched their identification.

The First Nature website entry for this species gives the following information:

    • usually grow in groups rather than singly
    • often found on woodland edges, and low-nutrient grassland, under deciduous trees, especially Oaks
    • fruiting from early July to the end of September, though only occasional in southern Britain and rare or absent in the north.

A sunbathing slider

24 Thursday Sep 2026

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I know I’ve blogged about Cardiff’s ‘Mutant Ninja Turtle’-phase remnants before but, when I spotted this Yellow-bellied slider (Trachemys scripta subsp. scripta) during a recent visit to Roath Park Lake, I couldn’t resist taking more photographs, particularly as he was sitting atop an old Coot’s nest very close to the lake’s edge and had such a haughty look on its face.

Finally, a Wasp spider

23 Wednesday Sep 2026

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Though the Wasp spider (Argiope bruennichi) has become increasingly common since it was discovered for the first time in Wales in 2021, I’ve not found it an easy species to locate.

I saw my first at Grangemoor Park, in Cardiff, on 28 August 2021, not just one but seven stunning Wasp spiders in one small area. Two years later, I managed to see them in two locations, the first found by a local friend in Dingle Park in Penarth on 23 July, the second on 28 August, once again in Grangemoor Park (Spider survivors). Since that date in 2023, I’ve searched thoroughly and often in both those places, and at other sites where the spider has now been reported but found nothing.

So, you can imagine my surprise when I was, once again, mooching through the Common fleabane plants by the River Ely at Grangemoor Park and there, finally, in a hollow amongst the plants, was this large and beautiful specimen.

Striking a pose

22 Tuesday Sep 2026

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During a walk around Roath Park Lake one day last week, the three Little egrets caught my eye. These are two of them (the other was perched in a distant tree.). This first bird was shuffling along in the very low water by the islands, hoping to disturb tasty invertebrates in the mud below its feet, though how it could see them through all that vegetation on the water’s surface, I don’t know.

The second Little egret was a surprise, as it was fishing from the lake’s bank, something I’ve never seen them do before. So intent was it on spotting any movement in the water that it seemed oblivious to the busy pedestrian traffic along the footpath just a couple of metres behind it, though 99% of those pedestrians were so focused on their phones or busy chatting loudly to their companions that they didn’t notice the egret either.

It was a photographer’s dream though, as the bird was close, and the light was dull, meaning the usual flare from the egret’s whiter-than-white feathers wasn’t as difficult as in bright sunshine. Sadly, due to the bird’s rapid movement, my shots of it catching fish were all a bit blurry but it had obviously chosen its fishing spot well.

At the southern end of the lake, where you can walk across the embankment dam (this is a man-made lake), a juvenile Moorhen was perched on the low ironwork structure that fences off the water outlet. It was preening vigorously but paused when it became aware it was being watched, so I took a few photos.

The lake is home to many geese, both Canada and Greylag, the numbers varying depending on the time of year. Some birds, semi-domesticated, remain year round; others are wild birds that leave to breed elsewhere but return to winter at the lake. Many of the Greylags are white, their ancestors probably farmed geese, but some retain the grey colour and patterning of their truly wild predecessors. I liked the way these two seemed to be striking a pose.