Category Archives: birds

Hungry House sparrow

21 Wednesday Jan 2026

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I was actually watching an over-wintering Chiffchaff, dotting about in an area of scrub and tall reeds and occasionally giving its characteristic short call, when the ever-cheerful ‘cheep, cheep, cheep’ of the local gang of House sparrows distracted me.

And, as the Chiffchaff wouldn’t come out to play, I focused instead on the sparrows, as they’re always so entertaining to watch and much more cooperative photographic subjects. This handsome male was enjoying his luncheon, munching contentedly on the flower buds of a nearby Gorse bush.

The Cardiff Bay Ravens

19 Monday Jan 2026

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Cardiff Bay is home to a pair of Ravens, those stunning large black members of the crow family that have been much persecuted over the years by farmers and gamekeepers but, fortunately, are slowly recovering their numbers here in Wales.

Whenever I walk around Cardiff Bay, I look out or listen for them – their ‘kronk kronk’ call is unmistakeable. During one such walk, just before Christmas, I was walking across the Barrage when both Ravens flew in and landed quite close to me. I wondered if they would take food so I said ‘Hello, Ravens’ to get their attention, put down some of the berry-flavoured suet pellets I give ‘my’ crows, and backed off a little to watch. They hopped right over and, after checking out the pellets, wolfed them down. I was delighted.

I didn’t see the Ravens again until the new year (they’re early nesters so are probably busy refreshing their nest already), when I walked another circuit of the Bay on 9 January. Their behaviour that day led me to conclude that Ravens have inbuilt facial recognition software. Despite the fact that I’d only fed them once before, they appeared to recognise me and came hopping over, expecting food. And while ‘she’ ate the suet, ‘he’ chatted; Raven: ‘Kronk, kronk’, me: ‘Boop’, Raven: ‘Kronk, kronk’, me: ‘Boop’. This exchange went on for several minutes, with me looking around frequently to make sure no one was listening! I have no idea what we were saying but it was a definite, totally unexpected, and most wonderful conversation.

If you’re wondering why ‘Boop’, the sound is one used by Amy, on the YouTube channel @wingsandwildlands, when she communicates with her incredible captive-bred Raven, Fable.

Spring is in the air

17 Saturday Jan 2026

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It may be the middle of winter but today was a magnificent blue-sky day with real warmth in the sunshine and a high temperature hovering very close to double figures.

This gave me, and many other people I’m sure, the idea that Spring was in the air. And, when I walked across Cardiff Bay Barrage this morning, I noticed that the weather was making this pair of Mute swans feel rather frisky.

When I first spotted them, they were indulging in a lot of synchronised grooming, constantly ducking their heads under the water before cleaning and preening their feathers, rubbing their heads and necks together. Having watched this behaviour in many species of birds over the years, I was fairly sure this was going to lead to something more intimate, and I was right.

And, though mating amongst water fowl always looks like the female is going to drown under the weight of her mate and with her head forced under the water, these beautiful birds are always very tender with each other before and after the actual event. It may be a bit voyeuristic but their mating is a lovely thing to watch.

Target acquired

14 Wednesday Jan 2026

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I do love it when a plan comes together. I’ve now found most of the common bird species that inhabit my local area so I’m being more focused when planning my daily walks, trying to look specifically for particular species. This is when it helps that, after 10 years in the area and many hundreds (thousands?) of miles of walking its trails, I know my patch very well.

Though I try to avoid going to Cosmeston Lakes Country Park at the weekend (too many people and dogs), last Saturday was a glorious sunny day, the forecast for the following week looked quite grim, and I knew that the outer fields were usually relatively empty of visitors.

That was also where I figured I had the best chance of finding my target species, the Stonechat, as the habitat of the tree plantation that was planted about five years ago is perfect for chat species; they can perch up on the shrubs, tall grasses and smaller saplings while looking for insect prey to flit down and snap up. As soon as I went through the kissing gate into the plantation up she popped, this gorgeous female Stonechat; it was the perfect birding moment. And my pleasure continued as she moved around the field, with me following discretely behind, admiring her hunting skills and looking for photo opportunities. I particularly like my second photo, with the blurred pink hips of a Field rose as her backdrop. .

City Hall Peregrine

12 Monday Jan 2026

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Firstly, let me show the clock tower of Cardiff’s City Hall, as it’s really rather splendid.

The exquisite architecture of this tower is the perfect home base for two equally exquisite birds, a pair of Peregrines (Falco peregrinus).

The height of the tower provides these falcons with an excellent vantage point from which to search out unwitting prey, particularly from among the city’s Feral pigeon population, and is a safe, secure location upon which they can build a nest and raise their young.

I’ve seen Peregrines on this tower since I first moved to Cardiff ten years ago and, as these birds have an average lifespan of 10 to 15 years, it’s possible these are the same birds I first saw in 2015 though, of course, I can’t be sure of that. I can, however, be sure that it is always a joy to spend time watching them.

Red in beak and claw

09 Friday Jan 2026

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The images in this post are a bit gory so look away now if you’re squeamish.

If you’ve ever wondered why the correct name for the crow is Carrion crow, this is why.

I found these three birds living up to that name, taking turns to devour what looked like a dead rat, or some other small mammal, most likely road kill from the adjacent road.

I was surprised the birds weren’t arguing over their bloody prize, so I assume they were probably related, perhaps siblings.

I was on the other side of a fence from these Carrion crows but, even so, I was able to get very close to them as they were so focused on their tasty lunch.

Who’s watching who?

08 Thursday Jan 2026

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Am I watching the Sparrowhawk or is the Sparrowhawk watching me?

I was checking the rather boggy area near these trees and shrubs for any lurking Snipe (none seen) when I was distracted by a rustling in the branches. A bird flew out and away up the field, and I quickly realised it was a Sparrowhawk from its flight pattern (flap, flap, glide). Then, I got the feeling I was being watched and turned to find this second Sparrowhawk still sitting in the trees.

A good year for Redwings

06 Tuesday Jan 2026

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The local berry trees and shrubs – Hawthorn, Blackthorn, Buckthorn and, in parks and gardens, also Cotoneaster and Firethorn – have an abundance of fruit this winter, which means we have a corresponding abundance of thrushes feasting on those berries.

I find our winter visitors, the beautiful Redwings (Turdus iliacus), quite skittish birds, often difficult to get close to. And even when I do manage to sneak up on them, their bodies are frequently obscured, at least in part, by the branches and twigs of the trees in which they’re perched.

So, I was particularly pleased to spot this bird, which was so intent on the delicious Hawthorn berries it was devouring that it didn’t initially notice my approach so I was able to get several reasonably sharp images before a nearby Blackbird suddenly raised the alarm and the whole tree erupted with panicking birds.

p.s. As I’ve been writing this, I’ve just noticed 2 Redwings in the trees opposite my flat, a new bird for the house list.

First birds

04 Sunday Jan 2026

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As one of the people I follow on social media so aptly wrote: ‘Birdy folk do love a list. Especially a list that can be wiped clean and started afresh’. And, though I’m not by any means one of those obsessive listers who drive all over the country just to add a bird to their list, I do enjoy the challenge of walking around my local patch seeing what I can find for my new year’s list of bird species.

In recent years, when the weather has allowed, I’ve started the year with a circuit of Cardiff Bay, and that’s exactly how I began 2026. A bitterly cold wind was blowing out of the north west, which probably accounts for some missed birds – I think the resident Raven pair were probably huddled near their perch and the Linnets had found somewhere more sheltered to forage, but my total by the end of an eight-and-a-half-mile walk was a very respectable 43 species.

The highlights for me were, firstly, a Treecreeper (my first photo above) that I spotted on a street tree just a block from home – they can be quite difficult to find locally, but that was the second one I’d seen on local street trees in the past week.

Redshanks are one of my favourite bird species and, though I’ve seen several foraging for food on the mudflats outside Cardiff Bay Barrage this winter, the three birds that were stationed along the Ely River embankment on New Year’s Eve and again on New Year’s morning were the first I’d seen within the Bay itself. They tend only to come in during very cold weather.

Black redstarts have been absent from the Bay so far this winter, so local birders were very pleased when this female was located on 30 December, and very relieved that she decided to stay in to the new year. The same could be said of the Goldeneye pair that have been in the Bay on and off for a couple of weeks; fortunately for those of us birders who do love a list, they appeared together on New Year’s day. And so it began …

T is for tern

25 Thursday Dec 2025

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Terns are such skilled fliers that they are always a real delight to watch in motion and, during 2025, I’ve had the absolute pleasure of spending time watching four different species, mostly because of my three summer visits to Weymouth but we’ve also had a couple of tern visitors in Cardiff Bay as well.

First up were Common terns (Sterna hirundo) (above), seen in large numbers during my first visit of the year to Weymouth, which was particularly special as these birds breed at Lodmoor Nature Reserve (Breeding Common terns, 17 June). I saw the Common terns during subsequent visits too, and we were treated to super close views of a rare visitor to Cardiff in later September (below) (A Common tern up close, 26 September).

Little terns (Sternula albifrons) breed at Chesil beach in Weymouth and I saw several of these little beauties during an earlier visit to Weymouth, at Ferrybridge, on 10 June, though I didn’t see any of the chicks and my photos from that visit only showed distant specks along the beach. I managed to get better, though still not close views of Little terns during my second Weymouth visit – these are included in a post about Lodmoor’s distant birds, 7 August (shown below).

We had an Arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea) visitor in Cardiff Bay in September but it was always too distant for anything other than distant blurry record photographs, which is why I didn’t blog about that sighting. And my final tern species for the year was the Sandwich tern (Thalasseus sandvicensis) (below). These beauties were on show at Ferrybridge on 9 September and at Lodmoor on 11 September (Sandwich terns, 19 September). It was a terrific year for terns!