Category Archives: birds

Drake Goldeneye

14 Saturday Jan 2023

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Almost a month ago we had the pleasure of two Goldeneyed gals cruising around in Cardiff Bay. Now, and for the past few days, perhaps due to the very blustery weather we’ve been experiencing, we’ve had a drake Goldeneye visiting. He mostly maintains a discrete distance from the water’s edge but, yesterday, was close enough for slightly better photographs. He’s a very handsome bird, his head a glossy dark green, his body and wings a stunning pattern of blacks and whites, and I particularly like his white cheek patches. If yet another squall hadn’t come in, I would’ve stayed longer to watch him but I’m hoping he will linger and provide more viewing opportunities in more clement weather.

230114 goldeneye drake

Spreading its wings

11 Wednesday Jan 2023

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To get this photo, I got drenched, hailed on, flashed by lightning and rumbled by thunder … but it was worth every drop of rain. Seen here with the Tufted ducks it has befriended and a local Gadwall, this female Ring-necked duck is one of two that have been in the local area for several months. They have mostly spent their days together on Lisvane Reservoir in north Cardiff but the turn of the new year has seen this particular duck spread its wings, spending a day or two in Cardiff Bay, and several days, as today, at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park.

230111 ring-necked duck

Little poser

09 Monday Jan 2023

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I always stop when I hear Long-tailed tits, partly because their little flocks are often accompanied by other small birds, which might include something of particular interest, but also because they’re just a joy to watch as they flit from branch to branch, picking up almost invisible invertebrates, hanging upside down or leaning sideways to check every crack and crevice. They’re mostly too quick for sharp photos but this little poser paused for a moment or two on a fence post, just long enough for a couple of reasonable images.

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New year, new lists

02 Monday Jan 2023

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Yes, I make lists. Each year, a new page in my notebook, new pages in the spreadsheets on my laptop. I only keep two lists, one for the birds I see and one for the butterflies, which, unless I’m very lucky, won’t have any names added for a few months yet. I don’t do this in competition with other listers but rather as a way of comparing one year with another, and also of remembering. Just as photographs trigger memories of places and events, so too do my lists. And then there’s the personal challenge, particularly on the first day of the new year, to see how many bird species I can find on a walk around Cardiff Bay (31 in 2018, a whopping 47 in 2019, 44 in 2020, 40 in 2021, 45 in 2022). And this year’s total? Well, incredibly, yesterday’s 9-mile walk resulted in a total of 50 bird species, which was definitely helped by the lingering presence of Black redstarts, the Whooper swan, and this female Scaup.

New year, first bird

01 Sunday Jan 2023

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In previous years my first birds, seen or heard, have variously been a wee Robin that would tick-tick-tick its way around the tree at the front of my flat in the pre-dawn light, one of the many Lesser black-backed gulls that whirl around this seaside town, and a Blackbird whose alarm call rang out while I was still abed, probably in response to a prowling cat. This year, as last year and the year before, it was a little Robin, this one singing a merry tune as it sat in the tree. The RSPB website says Robins usually only live a couple of years but the oldest recorded was 11 years 5 months, so this could possibly be the same bird as in previous years.

230101 robin

Are you ready?

31 Saturday Dec 2022

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It’s time to wash off the dirt and grime of another year, enjoy a refreshing sluice down, jiggle and squirm to clean off the final flecks of dust, then shimmy and shake to flick off all that water before enjoying a thorough preen to prepare for the new year ahead. Are you ready? Set? Let’s goooooooooooooo …

221231 goldfinch

Little limper

27 Tuesday Dec 2022

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This morning’s weather was dismal, drizzle turning to steady heavy rain, so it was a delight to watch this little Moorhen. I’ve seen it before – it’s a juvenile, I think, from one of this year’s early broods, and it has a limp – its right leg looks weaker than its left, perhaps broken and rehealed when it was younger. But that doesn’t hold it back. It hobbles around as well as its kin and, perhaps to its detriment, it is quite fearless. When I walked slowly along the path, it popped up out of the water and headed straight towards me, presumably equating humans with the provision of food. Fortunately, it can still fly well too, so was able to flit quickly back to the safety of the lake when a dog headed our way.

221227 moorhen

Orange legs

22 Thursday Dec 2022

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As a follow up to yesterday’s post about our local Redshanks, I thought I’d write about those legs, which, to my eye, are orange not red. A few months ago, I wondered aloud on social media why so many birds have such bright orange legs and was informed that, on a recent episode of the BBC’s Winterwatch television programme (I don’t have a tv so didn’t see it), it had been suggested that orange-coloured legs ‘are effective in disturbing benthic creatures when feeding/stirring the sediment’.

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Another idea suggested on the Canadian Science.ca website is that ‘bright orange feet may reveal that the male is good at foraging (carotene comes in the diet)’, though the writer of that article also acknowledged that there may be several other factors at play, and that scientists don’t actually know the answer to the fascinating ‘why orange feet?’ question. So, if you have your own theories, or verified scientific knowledge, please do share in the comments.

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Two Mipits

20 Tuesday Dec 2022

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Often, my first indication of the presence of a Meadow pipit (Mipit is the contraction often used by birders) is its pip-pip-pip call as it flies away. They are notoriously flighty birds, despite their markings providing such good camouflage that we often hear them before we have any chance of seeing them. I hear/see these birds in the fields at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park and also along the edges of Cardiff Bay, which is where the two birds below were foraging for food.

221220 meadow pipit (1)

This first bird was fossicking around the pebbles and amongst the vegetation of the embankment of the River Ely where it flows in to Cardiff Bay.

221220 meadow pipit (2)

And the second bird was on the edge of the Barrage. I’m fairly sure this was a juvenile – rather than fly away immediately on seeing me, it huddled very close to the board edging the grassed area, as if that would make it invisible.