08 Monday Mar 2021
In yesterday’s post I mentioned the birds I’ve been seeing recently in Alder trees, in particular the Alder-cone-seed-nibbling Siskins.
At Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, in the Cwm George woodland behind Dinas Powys, at Grangemoor Park and, yesterday, at Hamadryad Park – this year the Siskins seem to be everywhere there are Alders, nibbling on seeds, squabbling with Goldfinches, hanging upside down from slender stems … it’s been a joy to watch their antics.
04 Thursday Mar 2021
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birding, birds nesting on houses, birdwatching, British birds, Collared dove, nesting birds, urban birds
I didn’t turn up any interesting birds during my woodland walk on Tuesday but, on my way home, I spotted a pair of nest-building Collared doves at work. One, perhaps the male, was flying out to collect the materials – I spotted a lot of pine needles – and the other, I’m guessing the female, was sculpting the nest, poking and prodding, sitting and twisting around to form the bowl. Now I know where they are, I’ll be keeping an eye out for chicks.
02 Tuesday Mar 2021
Posted in birds
In the world of social media, reaching 500 followers means I’m very small fry as a blogger but, to me personally, it’s a huge deal, and I just want to say a sincere ‘thank you’ to you all for supporting my attempts to share the beauty, the fascination, the mystery of the natural world around us. Your follows, likes and comments are all very much appreciated. Diolch!
22 Monday Feb 2021
Posted in birds
Where the Mute swans do their grooming and preening, there is always a profusion of white feathers, large and small, stiff and downy. I grabbed this one because I liked the way it showed the constituent parts of the feather.
Rather than repeat what others have so ably published, I thought I’d just post the pretty pictures here and, if you want to learn more, you can check out this particularly good post (with excellent illustrated drawings to aid their explanations) on The Cornell Lab website.
20 Saturday Feb 2021
Posted in birds
Now that the cold-weather ‘Beast from the East’, a freezing Arctic blast, has passed and been replaced with much milder temperatures, the birds have decided it’s spring.
This week I’ve heard Song thrushes and Blackbirds belting out their tunes from the treetops, Dunnocks singing from the bushes, male Greenfinches wheezing a welcome to prospective mates, and Skylarks songflighting above the local farm fields, which is all wonderful, but it also means the thrushes that have been over-wintering in Britain will be heading back to their breeding grounds.
These Fieldfares are probably the last I’ll see, until the winter thrushes return again later in the year. They may already have started their long flight back east, to the Scandinavian peninsula, Finland or northwest Russia, according to the BTO website.
17 Wednesday Feb 2021
Posted in birds
I was standing at a regular feeding spot on the edge of one of the lakes at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, checking the gulls that were floating on the choppy waters, watching them watching me. Amongst the many Black-headed gulls, there was one Common gull, a species which, despite its name, is not so common in my local area.
There was a bitter easterly blasting across the lake and I knew the birds were hungry, hoping for a handout. So, I obliged, sprinkled the contents of the seed container I had brought with me on to the grassy bank.
The reaction was instant, a screeching of throats, wings flapping, an excited flurry of hungry gulls heading for the bank, knowing they had to be quick, to beat their fellows, to gain even one seed.
As I’d hoped, the Common gull came with them, and its slightly larger size meant it had an advantage, used its bulk to muscle in and claim more than its share of seed. And, of course, that meant I was also able to get some reasonably close photos of it. A win for the gulls, and a win for me.
15 Monday Feb 2021
Posted in birds
Pheasant feathers – these long tail feathers, in particular – have long been prized as adornments to fashionable hats, and such feathers are still available in large quantities today, due to the huge numbers of pheasants that are bred and released throughout Britain for the sport of the shooting fraternity. Though there are no pheasant-breeding farms in my local area, these birds can frequently be heard, if not always seen, as soon as I step outside our urban streets.
13 Saturday Feb 2021
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First, they were berry-eaters, stripping trees and shrubs of every luscious fruit. Now, they are frantic leaf-turners, wanna-be worm-pluckers, competing with the Song thrushes and Blackbirds for every tasty wriggler. Soon, the Redwings will be gone, flying back to their breeding grounds to produce next year’s berry-eaters and worm-pluckers. I will miss them; the worms probably not so much.
10 Wednesday Feb 2021
Posted in birds
Redshanks are well known for being flighty birds – as soon as they spot something out-of-their-ordinary, or there’s a sudden movement within their range of vision, they start body-bobbing and, if the disturbance continues, they’ll signal their kindred with a noisy cry and fly off. That usually means every other wader in the vicinity also reacts to their alarm, and it’s why Redshanks have long been known as the sentinels of the marshes.
In my area, it’s more a case of them being sentinels of the river embankment. And now that I’ve learnt to recognise their behaviour and see that first body-bob, I know to stop, stand still and wait for them to calm down. As long as no other pedestrian comes along to disturb them, my patience and stillness are often rewarded with some lovely time spent watching them feeding or just snoozing. I’ve found it can be very relaxing watching a bird sleep.
08 Monday Feb 2021
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If you think our Magpies are black and white, look again.
earthstar 
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