28 Thursday Jan 2021
Posted in birds
In 2020, the Blue tit was the third most common bird to be recorded by people taking part in the annual RSPB Garden Birdwatch, which is happening again this weekend, 29 – 31 January.
So, if you have a garden, how about spending a relaxing hour enjoying the birds that visit your green space? You can read all about it and do your bit for citizen science by checking the RSPB website here.
25 Monday Jan 2021
Posted in birds
Like many people who enjoy walking with nature, I pick up the odd thing that attracts my eye: nuts and cones, galls, pebbles and fossils, skulls (small creatures – I only have a couple). And feathers, some of which I thought I’d share over the coming weeks. From the location where I found these two – under tall trees at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, and from the markings, I think these are Buzzard feathers.
23 Saturday Jan 2021
Tags
birding, birdwatching, Bramble seeds, British birds, bullfinch, Bullfinch eating Bramble seeds, female Bullfinch
At this time of year, I often see Bullfinches on Bramble bushes, nibbling on the seeds of those desiccated fruits that weren’t consumed by the berry loving birds in the autumn. This female was feasting happily close to one of the paths at Cosmeston last Monday.
18 Monday Jan 2021
Tags
birding, birdwatching, British birds, Cardiff Bay birds, Cardiff Bay Wetland Reserve, Meadow pipit, Pied wagtail, Stonechat
Cardiff Bay Wetland Reserve is not just about wetlands; there’s also a large swathe of grass where, during spring and summer, Bee orchids thrive (when the council operatives don’t cut them!) and where wildflowers bloom in abundance (ditto!). At the moment many hungry small birds can be seen in this area (when they’re not disturbed by dogs that should be on their leads in a nature reserve), searching for much needed insects and seeds. During my recent walks along the adjacent footpath, I’ve enjoyed seeing a pair of Meadow pipits, a male Stonechat, and several Pied wagtails grazing contentedly together.
16 Saturday Jan 2021
Tags
birding, birdwatching, British birds birding, Cardiff Bay, Cardiff Bay birds, Ring-necked duck, Scaup, Tufted duck
For the past couple of months it’s been wonderful to have both a female Scaup and a Ring-necked duck over-wintering in my local area. They spend most of their time amongst flocks of Tufted ducks in Cardiff Bay, either behind the Ice Rink or in the wetlands reserve, though they also venture occasionally to Cosmeston Lakes. Much of the time they can be found together, as if they’re aware that they’re the outsiders in the flock, though they can sometimes be found in separate locations. I was lucky during Thursday’s walk to see them both in a smattering of sunshine and together – in fact, I managed to get all my ducks in a row!
14 Thursday Jan 2021
Tags
birding, birdwatching, British birds, Cardiff Bay birds, Ely embankment, Turnstone, turnstones in Cardiff
We can’t let January pass without at least one photo of a Turnstone, or two …
11 Monday Jan 2021
Posted in birds
On my Christmas Day walk I wanted to spread some good cheer to my fellow creatures so, with humans being off limits, I went bearing seed to the small hungry birds in Cosmeston’s Cogan Wood. And I was delighted, and more than a little amazed, when the first bird to appear, before I’d even spread the seed about, was one of the resident Marsh tits, which came and sat in the bramble bush just a foot from my hand, waiting impatiently for me to back off. So, I was able to get probably my best photos yet of this charming little bird.
And, though I missed seeing a Marsh tit on my first visit to Cosmeston for 2021, I did see one on my second, and, once again, it was the first bird I saw when I got to one of their regular feeding spots. In fact, this tit was poking around for seed at the bottom of the tree stump, and then perched up on the bushes until I had sprinkled the stump top with seed. What a little star!
09 Saturday Jan 2021
Tags
birding, black-headed gulls, British birds, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, frozen lake, wintry weather
We’ve been experiencing sub-zero overnight temperatures over the past week or so and, some days, when the cloud or fog is particularly thick and dense, the daytime temperatures have also been very low. Still, I was surprised to see, on Thursday’s walk, when freezing fog had rolled in off the Bristol Channel, that the west lake at Cosmeston had partly frozen over. The birds looked a little confused by the conditions as well.
07 Thursday Jan 2021
By ‘Round Robin’, I mean a Robin (bird) that looks round because it’s fluffed up all its feathers to increase trapped air to keep itself warm, as opposed to round-robin, a tournament where each contestant competes with every other contestant (rather than a knockout competition, where contestants get eliminated in stages, in, for example, a series of quarter- and semi-finals). And then I wondered if the two robins were somehow related but it turns out they’re not. According to Wikipedia, in round-robin the competition the word robin is a corruption of the French term ruban, which means ribbon, though, if you’re a word nut like me, you might like to check out The Phrase Finder website, which has even more interesting information about the origin of the term.
06 Wednesday Jan 2021
Gulls are tricky – I’m sure I’ve said/written that on here before – so, when I heard that a 1st winter Caspian gull (Larus cachinnans) had been seen in Cardiff Bay, I enjoyed seeing other birders’ photos but didn’t for a moment consider going to see it. This was partly because it was only appearing at dusk, when it would fly in to spend the night with the other roosting gulls, and so I wouldn’t have time to see it and then walk home before it was fully dark, but mostly because I knew I wouldn’t be able to identify it even if I did go. So, imagine my amazement when, during a walk around Cardiff Bay on Monday, I bumped into my birding friend Graham, who was watching the Caspian gull, floating on the water only a hundred metres or so off the footpath, in the middle of the day. This was a lifer for me, so to say I was pleased would be something of an understatement!
earthstar 
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