This is a follow up to yesterday’s blog about the amazing sighting of three phalaropes on Cardiff’s Lisvane Reservoir last Tuesday – in fact, the birds stayed at the site for several days, giving happy birders from miles around the chance to see them, though, incredibly, there has been a much larger number of Grey phalaropes than normal in the waters around south Wales over the past ten days, driven inland by stormy seas.

North Wales birder, journalist and author Julian Hughes reported on social media on Sunday: ‘With several sites in Wales hosting multiple Grey Phalaropes over the weekend, 2025 is now the best year this century, with 112.’ Surprisingly, this is not the highest number on record; it seems 1960 ‘will take some beating, however. 227 were seen from The Smalls lighthouse alone in just 12 days, during 18-29 September’.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog about the Red-necked phalarope, the Grey phalarope is slightly larger than its cousin, and its bill is slightly thicker. The photo below shows all three phalaropes together, the Red-necked is the bird in between the two Greys.

Although these three birds were mostly foraging along the edge of the reservoir, phalaropes usually feed while sitting on the water and their feeding style is quite unique for wading birds: they often swim round in circles, which disturbs the water, stirring up insects, midges or other water-loving invertebrates. Amazingly, since seeing the three phalaropes on Lisvane Reservoir last week, we’ve had another local sighting, a single Grey phalarope on the River Taff near central Cardiff. This bird was a little more distant but I took a few short video clips of it feeding – not spinning right round due to the force of the water, but actively, constantly weaving from side to side as it picked at tasty titbits.