24 Tuesday Dec 2024
Posted in birds
S is for Siskin, those gorgeous little feathery bundles of yellow and black that perform acrobatics in the Alder trees in the cooler months as they poke around in the nuts, prying the tasty seeds loose with their sharp beaks (as featured in Siskins in the Alders, 30 January, and Alder seeds are delicious, 10 February).
17 Tuesday Dec 2024
Every couple of years we are fortunate to be visited by a passing, or lost, Long-tailed duck, and 2024 has been one of those years. In mid January this handsome juvenile touched down then lingered in Cardiff Bay for a week or so, and it was a real treat to see him on several occasions, a real highlight of my birding year (What a dude!, 27 January).
16 Monday Dec 2024
Posted in birds
Kingfishers featured on this blog back in January (Flashes of teal, 20 January), though I’ve actually enjoyed even better sightings of these stunning birds during several recent visits to Forest Farm Nature Reserve in north Cardiff. The reserve is a well known local hotspot for these birds, and some Kingfisher aficionados spend hours sitting in the hides there, hoping to get the perfect diving photo. Personally, I prefer walking the canals to try to find these beautiful birds in a less contrived situation, and that’s exactly where the sequence of three images below was taken. I managed to catch the moment the bird spotted a fish and began its dive but, sadly, both its speed and my slow reaction meant I didn’t capture the instant the bird hit the water. Still, it was a magical moment.
15 Sunday Dec 2024
Posted in birds
Seeing chicks and juvenile birds is always a delight, and I’m sure I’m not alone in spending hours watching their fluffy cuteness, and being entertained by their awkward antics as they discover the world around them and learn now to find food for themselves. And, of course, they feature often in this blog.
During 2024, we’ve seen Moorhen chicks (like the little cutie shown above) (First chicks of the year, 30 April), followed fairly quickly by a double dose of Great crested grebe chicks and Mallard ducklings (More chicks, 4 May). Just a few days later, goslings were the stars of the show (Canada goslings, 7 May), and then not one but Eight cygnets stole our hearts on 18 May. In June, there were Hungry noisy Blue tit babies, and the annual saga of the breeding attempts of my local Lesser black-backed gull chicks (Sad news, good news, 13 June), and a circuit of Cardiff Bay produced Canada goslings, more Lesser black-backed gull chicks, and the lovely Oystercatchers (Chicks of Cardiff Bay, 22 June).
A walk along Cardiff canals in late June offered close views of gawky little Cootlets that still had a bit of growing to do before they resembled the juvenile Coot shown above and a bundle of fluffy Mallard ducklings (Chicks of Cardiff’s canals, 27 June). The final blog of the bird breeding season was published in mid July when the plaintive cries of a Herring gull baby attracted my attention.
12 Thursday Dec 2024
Posted in birds
Tags
birding, birdwatching, Black-necked grebe, British birds, British grebes, grebes, Red-necked grebe
While Great crested grebes and Little grebes are resident birds in the lakes and rivers of my local area and always a delight to watch, it’s particularly nice to see some of their more exotic cousins. This year, in January, we had two of these rare visitors.
First up was the lovely little Red-necked grebe, shown above, that I blogged about on 18 January, and, while that beauty was still present on Cardiff’s northern reservoir, another grebe turned up, this time a Black-necked grebe, pictured below, in Cardiff Bay (Another rare grebe, 24 January). I’m hoping we’ll see more of these grebes during the coming months of winter.
07 Saturday Dec 2024
Posted in birds
Tags
birding, birdwatching, Black redstart, British birds, Cardiff City Hall, Cardiff City Hall Black redstart
As I write this, we’re being blasted by the full force of Storm Darragh and are hunkered down under a rare Red weather warning (red means threat to life, in this case due to the strength of the winds), so the outstanding views so many locals enjoyed of this particular Black redstart back in March seem just a distant memory (City Hall Black redstart, 8 March).
Another (or, possibly, the same) Black redstart was spotted at Cardiff’s City Hall in late Autumn, and it’s probably still there but has remained high up and mostly shy of people. Perhaps that will change as the winter progresses. I certainly hope so as these are beautiful little birds to watch and spend time alongside.
05 Thursday Dec 2024
Posted in birds
I never thought I’d see a Dartford warbler in my local area; in fact, I never thought I’d see any of the few that live in Wales. Yet, here, in these photographs taken on Tuesday in one of the local coastal fields, is the bird itself. (These are what we birders call ‘record shots only’, meaning that they are really quite poor images but you can at least recognise the bird species.)
This bird was found by local birder Alex last Saturday when he and several other local birders were on the trail of a swift species that had been spotted nearby (the swift was initially thought to be a rare Pallid swift but turned out to be a Common swift, still a rare sighting at this time of year when most swifts have already migrated to Africa).
The Dartford warbler was heard a couple more times on Saturday but not seen, despite a lot of eyes searching for the little skulker. It finally popped up for one birder around midday Sunday after him looking for three hours but then disappeared again. Several birders, including me, spent several more hours searching on Sunday and Monday but nothing.
Then, finally, when I returned on Tuesday, I got on to the bird almost immediately, as the Stonechats with which this species often associates, were chasing it. I enjoyed fabulous views of it for perhaps an hour and, as I had got the word out, several other birders were able to get there to see it too. I may not have got good photos but this little bird was certainly worth the effort to find it.
03 Tuesday Dec 2024
Posted in birds
During a recent walk I spotted this stunning creature posing beautifully in some fleeting sunshine, no doubt enjoying the sun’s warmth as much as I was, and I couldn’t resist taking a few photos. Starlings have the most beautiful plumage, don’t you think?
28 Thursday Nov 2024
Posted in birds
Another day, another bird blog. I was going to apologise for the proliferation of birds this week but I don’t think we can ever have enough birds in our lives and, hopefully, some of you feel the same. Fortunately, today’s bird was much closer than those I’ve featured in the last two days.
In fact, seeing one strutting happily along the towpath at Forest Farm last Friday and then this one in a grassy field, also at Forest Farm but during a second visit on Monday, was a particular treat as my usual, and sadly infrequent, views of Stock doves are as distant specks in farm fields, where they can be difficult to pick out from their Woodpigeon cousins.
And they are such beautiful birds that they need to be seen up close to appreciate the subtle colours and patterns of their plumage.
27 Wednesday Nov 2024
Posted in birds
Tags
birding, birdwatching, British birds, Common scoter, Melanitta fusca, Melanitta nigra, Velvet scoter
The day was bitterly cold, a strong wind from the north cutting right through the many layers I was wearing, as I watched snow showers shedding their flakes above the hills of Exmoor on the opposite side of the Bristol Channel. Why was I standing on a beach in sub-zero temperatures? Birds, of course.
As I mentioned yesterday, cold stormy weather can bring in rarities, and it had, again, in the form of three scoters, two Common scoters (Melanitta nigra) and a Velvet scoter (Melanitta fusca). For me, using only binoculars, no telescope, these were even more distant than yesterday’s Red-breasted merganser, just three little black sea ducks bobbing along in the choppy waters off shore. We’d had Common scoters in Cardiff Bay earlier in the year (Distant birds, 25 April 2024) but I’d only ever seen a Velvet scoter once before, off Musselburgh beach, in Scotland, on a short birding trip with friends back in May 2018. So, it was definitely worth risking frostbite for even a distant glimpse of this one.
– one of the Common scoters is on the left; the larger duck on the right is the Velvet scoter
earthstar 
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