Category Archives: birds

90/366 Dawdling

30 Monday Mar 2020

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As many of us are doing during our Covid-19 lockdown, and as I don’t have the solace of a garden, I’ve been spending a lot of time staring out my windows. And one thing that has been entertaining me has been the antics of a pair of Jackdaws who are nest-building in a neighbour’s chimney. They’ve chosen a great spot, well weather protected and in the house of a woman who constantly has her bird-feeders full.

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3 March. It was before the lockdown that I first noticed a little courtship grooming happening, and it was a couple more weeks before the couple decided to build a nest together.

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22 March. Structural work has begun. Twigs, large and small, are being carted in from various neighbourhood locations.

26 March. A+ for effort. E for spatial awareness. I thought Jackdaws were meant to be smart birds.

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29 March. Delivery of the soft furnishings has begun.

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30 March. Today, activity seems to have stepped up a notch. Not only have I seen this wool (?) being brought in but both birds have been in the tree in front of my house, breaking off live twigs to take to the nest.

I’ll keep watching and bring you another update soon …

88/366 Down by the riverside

28 Saturday Mar 2020

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Today’s exercise walk saw me up and out of the house by 7am for a stomp down to Cardiff Bay and the embankment path alongside the River Ely. There was, and still is, a bitterly cold wind blowing, pushing small waves up on to the stones of the embankment so I was surprised to see any birds there at all. But the further up river I went the more sheltered it became and the embankment foragers appeared.

200328 1 redshank

First up was this Redshank, poking about at the water’s edge, its feathers ruffled by the wind gusts.

200328 2 turnstones

Next, in a corner where rubbish often accumulates, three Turnstones were poking about amidst the branches and twigs, plastic bottles and other assorted detritus.

200328 3 mallard

Two Mallards came waddling hopefully up the stones while I was watching the Turnstones. Sadly, I didn’t have any seed for them today.

200328 4 grey wagtail

Lucky last, and most colourful, was this bright little button, a Grey wagtail, which was singing a little song to itself as it pottered along.

80/366 Today’s Bay birds

20 Friday Mar 2020

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Finally, we’ve had a rain-less day and, though there was a bitterly cold wind blasting across Cardiff Bay, I had to take advantage of the dry weather so walked an 8-mile circuit right round the Bay. The first highlight was my first two Wheatears of the year, a bit distant, and only popping up very briefly from amongst the huge Barrage boulders, but it was lovely to welcome them back for the summer.

200320 1 wheatear

The Bay was buzzing with Sand martins – I must’ve seen at least 20, perhaps more, at various times during my wander, and it was a joy to watch their aerial antics.

200320 2 sand martin

Though it’s now several weeks since the big floods pushed a ton of rubbish into the Bay, the huge accumulations have still not been cleared. In fact, most of the rubbish slicks have seen no clearance action taken at all. The ONLY positive thing about this is that the Goldfinches and Linnets seem to be finding plenty of food amongst the garbage.

200320 3 linnet

I simply had to include this male House sparrow, as today is World Sparrow Day.

200320 4 sparrow

This lovely female Stonechat was dotting back and forth across the footpath through the wetlands reserve, and let me get quite close for photos. There was no sign of the male today though.

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79/366 The twister

19 Thursday Mar 2020

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During a recent wander through Cogan Wood, after a spell of nasty weather, I was dishing out sunflower seeds to all the small birds, the tits and Robins and assorted others, when I noticed this Nuthatch with an elongated and twisted beak. The deformity wasn’t stopping it feeding or carting away and stashing two or three seeds at a time.

200319 nuthatch October2017

October 2017, the twist is not very pronounced

I had a nagging feeling that I’d seen the bird before and, sure enough, when I checked my photos, I had images from two previous sightings, the first in October 2017, the second just a couple of months ago, in January 2020, always in the same spot in the wood. The twist was minor in the first photo but appears to have got worse as the beak has grown longer.

nuthatch 200102 cosmeston

January 2020

Apparently, the Nuthatch lives about three years on average. Obviously, I don’t know how old this particular bird was when I first saw it but it will be interesting to keep an eye out for it to see how long it manages to survive. I hope it lives long and prospers!

nuthatch 200306 Cosmeston

March 2020

74/366 Juvenile Cormorants

14 Saturday Mar 2020

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First, there was one juvenile Cormorant, sitting on the edge of the canal, keeping an eye on passers-by, ready to dive into the water if anyone came too close.

Then there were two, presumably siblings. Number two had been fishing, diving in the constant search for sustenance, though I didn’t see it catch anything.

200314 juvenile cormorants (3)

Deciding it needed a rest and to dry off, number two jumped up on the canal edge, and proceeded to shimmy and shake, the water droplets spraying in all directions, just like a dog shaking itself after a swim.

And then, as I’m sure you’ve seen all Cormorants and Shags do, number two spread out it wings to drip-dry in the weak sunshine, while number one kept a weather eye on me. Lovely creatures both!

200314 juvenile cormorants (7)

73/366 Egg-citing news

13 Friday Mar 2020

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Mr and Mrs Coot are pleased to announce the laying of three eggs! I can’t tell male from female Coot – I’m not even sure if it’s possible to tell which is which – but one of them was sitting tight on the nest when I visited this morning.

200313 coot (1)

However, this small area of water has two pairs of Coots in residence, and they are uneasy neighbours. First, they were simply trying to intimidate each other.

200313 coot (2)

Next thing you know, there’s a full scale battle underway.

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And the sitting Coot left the nest to join in the tussle, which is how I know there are three eggs.

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Luckily, the skirmish didn’t last long, and the eggs were soon safe and warm under their parent once more.

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72/366 Sand martins

12 Thursday Mar 2020

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When I walked through the park this afternoon, three Sand martins were riding the blustery winds over Cosmeston’s west lake, twisting and swerving this way and that, hunting for tiny flying insects, feeding up after their marathon flights from Africa. What a joy it was to watch them!

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69/366 First Chiffchaffs

09 Monday Mar 2020

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Spring migration is underway! Our county bird recorder yesterday reported seeing his first Sand martin for 2020 and today I’ve seen my first Chiffchaffs, newly arrived from overwintering in the warm countries around the Mediterranean or perhaps somewhere in west Africa. Such long migratory flights by such little birds – incredible!

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I saw or heard five Chiffchaffs during my walk along the coastal path this morning and then another three at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park. Above is number three and below is number seven. Hearing them singing their ‘chiff chaff’ song made my heart spring!

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64/366 ‘A wonderful bird’

04 Wednesday Mar 2020

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A wonderful bird is the pelican,
His bill will hold more than his belican,
He can take in his beak
Food enough for a week,
But I’m damned if I see how the helican.
~  The Pelican, Dixon Lanier Merritt, American poet

I met the stunning Great white pelican (Pelecanus onocrotalus) above at the Kuala Lumpur Bird Park in Malaysia in May 2013. The great thing about the bird park was its huge aviaries, where the birds had plenty of space and a relatively natural environment to roam in. The American white pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos), below, were gathering to roost on the Fox River, in De Pere, in the US state of Wisconsin in July 2015.

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I can’t help but wonder what the pelican with its beak open is doing – scratching an itch?

60/366 Barefaced crow

29 Saturday Feb 2020

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Barefaced crow is one of the common names for the Rook (Corvus frugilegus), and it’s easy to see how it came about, though it’s not so much that its face is bare but rather the top of its large, pale beak (compare the Crow on the left, the Rook on the right).

Though there’s a rookery in a nearby town, and used to be one in the woods at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, I haven’t seen a lot of Rooks in my local area … until this winter. Now, I see them quite often, in the farm fields north of the park itself, usually in the company of Jackdaws and Carrion crows.

200229 rook (2)

I was fascinated to read in my Fauna Britannica, that ‘If a death (especially of the head of the household) occurred in a family owning the land that supported a rookery, there has been a widespread tradition that the Rooks must be told.’ Let’s hope that doesn’t prove necessary!

200229 rook (3)