Category Archives: birds

Canada goose DAKP

24 Tuesday Oct 2023

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It’s always interesting to learn a bird’s history. During last Monday’s jaunt around Roath Park Lake, as well as enjoying the Shovelers, I spotted this colour-ringed Canada goose so reported my sighting. This bird was ringed near Waterhead, Ambleside, in Cumbria, in June 2016 but has since decided it prefers south Wales.

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First, it checked out the lake around Caerphilly Castle, where it was spotted in July 2017. Later that year, in December, a report was sent in from Cosmeston Lakes, and the goose also checked in at the coast near Ogmore, in September 2018. Since then, though, Canada goose DAKP seems to have settled at Roath Park Lake, where it’s been since December 2019. Interestingly, there are some gaps in reported sightings: from early February to late July 2020, from October 2020 to May 2021, from February to August 2022, and from late March to late July this year. Whether this means it travels elsewhere to breed, or just fancies a change of scene from time to time is impossible to tell.

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First Shovelers

18 Wednesday Oct 2023

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We usually see the odd Shoveler or two at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park but none have turned up so far in 2023 so on Monday I took myself off on the train for a meander around the watery areas of north Cardiff. First, a circuit of the newly reopened Llanishen and Lisvane Reservoirs turned up distant views of a Ring-necked duck and a Goldeneye, then I stomped down through Nant Fawr woodland for a circuit of Roath Park Lake where there were at least six Shovelers.

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Some were hiding between the islands so I could only see them through binoculars but three were more obliging, nearer the lake’s edge on the eastern side. They rarely kept still enough for photos though, constantly employing their shovel-shaped bills to sieve small pieces of plant material and insects from the water’s surface. It was a pleasure to watch them, and I went home happy with my Shoveler fix!

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Redwings come rolling in

14 Saturday Oct 2023

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A week or so earlier than in recent years, the winter thrushes came rolling in, in small flocks and large, across the North Sea from northern Europe, to spend their winter months with us here in the British isles. Have you seen them? Here in south Wales, these first flocks tend to fly on through, south and west, and ‘our’ birds are either later arrivals or those earlier flocks coming back after eating up all the berries where they first alight. I’ve seen small numbers so far but I’m looking forward to getting closer views, of both the beautiful Redwings and the stunning Fieldfares, once they settle locally. (This photo is from a previous year.)

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A Cardiff Bay regular

04 Wednesday Oct 2023

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Though the numbers of Pied wagtails frequenting Cardiff Bay Barrage can vary considerably, from half a dozen to a couple of dozen depending on the time of year, there are a few permanent residents that have their own little territories. This is one that can often be seen, as here, stepping out along the tops of the concrete walls next to the sluice gates, searching around the mosses and lichens for the myriad of tiny insects that fill its tummy each day.

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The mipits are moving

29 Friday Sep 2023

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Yesterday, and on several other days over the past couple of weeks, I’ve heard the ‘pip pip pip’ call of birds passing overhead, a call I now recognise as that of the Meadow pipit (their name is shortened to mipit by most birders). At this time of year, these pipits move from their breeding grounds down to more southerly parts of Britain to overwinter where the weather is slightly milder. Though most fly straight across my area (yesterday I watched them heading out across the Bristol Channel towards Somerset and Devon), a few plop down in to the local fields to rest and refuel. Though they can be flighty and elusive, I’ve managed to grab photos of a couple before they’ve flitted up and off, on their journey south.

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An itch, those feet!

25 Monday Sep 2023

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Great crested grebes feature quite often on here but I couldn’t resist yet another grebe photo. I was watching this young bird successfully fishing for small fish when it stopped to scratch an itch. Great crested grebes spend most of their lives in the water, so we don’t get to see their feet very often. Grebe legs and feet are well adapted to their aquatic environment, with legs placed well back on their bodies and, as you can see, the lobes of their feet wide and flat to help propel them quickly through the water.

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A Flatholm gull

22 Friday Sep 2023

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At Cosmeston, during Monday’s walk, I spotted this juvenile Lesser black-backed gull and was able to read the code on its left leg ring, F:D94. With a little searching on the European Colour-Ring Birding website, I found that the bird was probably ringed on the island of Flatholm, just over 3 miles off the south coast of Wales and a well known breeding site for Lesser black-backed gulls. I fired off an email reporting my sighting.

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Just a short time later I got an email back, saying that the ringing group on Flatholm has now set up a website for the birds they ring. I found the website easy to use and it gives you instant feedback about the gull you’ve seen. F:D94 is one of this year’s breeding successes and was ringed as a chick on Flatholm on 1 July. So, for any birders amongst my followers, if you happen to spot a Flatholm bird (they have a tiny metal ring on their right leg and, on their left, a blue plastic ring with an alpha-numeric code that starts with an F), please do report your sighting on their Flat Holm Gulls website.

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Imperfect concealment

12 Tuesday Sep 2023

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Is it a canny eye for detail or simply good luck that both these Green woodpeckers chose Hawthorn trees bedecked with red berries to perch on?

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The combination of green leaves, red berries and beige-ish bark and branches is almost a perfect match for the joyful colours of the birds but, if this is an attempt at camouflage, though they haven’t quite nailed it I’d give them an eight out of ten for effort.

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