This time of year can be fairly quiet in Cardiff Bay bird-wise. Any migrating birds have mostly passed through, and the weather has been quite calm, which means that none of the rarities we are lucky enough to see during the winter months have yet appeared. The one bright light in my birding day when I walk around the Bay is the return of those birds that left to breed elsewhere but have now returned to overwinter in the Bay’s calmer conditions.

One of those birds is the Meadow pipit. Though there are Rock pipits in the Bay all year round, they look very grey compared to the rich spicy brown of the Meadow pipits newly moulted plumage so they’re easy to identify, even when they perch on the Barrage rocks.

Most of the time, the Meadow pipits can be found poking about in grassy areas, looking for tasty insects but, when disturbed, they frequently pop up on to higher spots, like fences, until they feel it’s safe to fly down to the ground again.