92/365 Barrage wags

02 Tuesday Apr 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature, spring

Tags

birding, birdwatching, British birds, Cardiff Barrage, Pied wagtail, wagtails

190402 pied wagtail (1)

Over the past couple of weeks local birders have been finding migrating Wheatears stopping over on the huge pile of rocks that is the Cardiff Barrage, the man-made structure that was built in the 1990s to cut Cardiff Bay off from the Bristol Channel and turn it in to a virtual lake. The Wheatears are returning from over-wintering in tropical Africa and, after taking a short breather on the Barrage, they head further north to their breeding grounds in- and up-land. Unfortunately, I couldn’t locate any Wheatears today but the many Pied wagtails were entertaining, flitting busily hither and yon.

190402 pied wagtail (2) 190402 pied wagtail (3)

91/365 New arrivals

01 Monday Apr 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature, spring

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

#365DaysWild, baby birds, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Cosmeston, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, Moorhen, Moorhen chicks

At 9am this morning, one of these Moorhen parents was still sitting on five eggs. By the time I got to the pond at 11.30 there were five newly hatched little bundles of fluff, two of which were already venturing out of the nest. And Mum and Dad were already mating, in preparation for their next brood. If these are the same Moorhens that bred at this site last year, they had three broods in total, I think, and those born first were helping the parents feed the subsequent generations. I’ll be keeping an eye on what happens this year.

190401 moorhen family (1) 190401 moorhen family (2) 190401 moorhen family (3) 190401 moorhen family (4)

89/365 A bunch of fluffy ducks

30 Saturday Mar 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature, spring

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

baby birds, birding, birdwatching, British birds, duckling, ducks, Mallard, Mallard duckling

These are the first baby birds I’ve seen this year – five little bundles of fluffy Mallard ducklings.

190330 mallard ducklings (4)

190330 mallard ducklings (2)

88/365 A time-step of Turnstones?

29 Friday Mar 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature, seaside

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

#365DaysWild, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Cardiff Bay, Ely embankment, Turnstone

Who was it that invented the collective nouns we use for birds? Whoever it was, they came up with some crackers, though it’s hard to see the reasoning behind some of them. A cluster of Turnstones I can understand, as they do like to huddle together at times, but a bind, a contradiction and a time-step? I suppose they do look like they’re doing a little rhythmic dance at times.

190329 turnstone (1)

The two in my photos were part of a small cluster of seven picking and poking amongst the stones on the Ely embankment this morning when I started my walk around part of Cardiff Bay.

190329 turnstone (2)

84/365 Sand martins, yay!

25 Monday Mar 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature, spring

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

#365DaysWild, birding, birds in Cardiff Bay, birdwatching, British birds, hirundines, Sand martin, spring migration

I’ve been following the reports of hirundines – that’s the Sand martins, House martins and Swallows – arriving for the last week or so, itching to get out and find some for myself. Finally today I plodded, slowly and still having trouble walking in a straight line, over to the other side of Cardiff Bay, and my stumbling was rewarded by the sight of at least half a dozen Sand martins checking out the holes in the walls of one of the old harbour docks as potential nesting sites. A couple of pairs looked like they were getting quite cosy.

80/365 Birding 2019 update

21 Thursday Mar 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature

≈ 14 Comments

Tags

#365DaysWild, birding, Birding 2019, birding in East Sussex, British birds, Glossy ibis

You may, or may not, have noticed that my daily posts have not been happening for the past eight days. This is because, during a visit with a friend in East Sussex, I was struck down by a nasty virus, which has left me stumbling drunkenly, still suffering vertigo if I move my head too quickly, and generally lacking in energy. I’m slowly coming right, with a couple of short walks out over the past couple of days, and today I made the trek by train – bus – train back home to Wales. It may yet be a couple of weeks until I can manage longer walks but I hope to be back to my daily posts tomorrow. In the meantime, I couldn’t resist looking through my holidays snaps and have updated my Birding 2019 page with the five new birds I saw while away.

115 glossy ibis

67/365 Small bird, big voice

08 Friday Mar 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

birding, birdwatching, British birds, dunnock, Hedge sparrow

You might remember the ‘Tiny bird, huge voice’ blog a week ago, about the sound being blasted out by a male Wren. Well, another bird, though not so small, can currently be seen, sitting high on tree branches and hedge tops, also blasting out its ‘Look at me’ song, though not as loudly as the tiny Wren. This small brown bird, once known as the Hedge sparrow, is the Dunnock, and he too sings a merry tune.

190308 dunnock

66/365 Singing in the dead of night

07 Thursday Mar 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

#365DaysWild, Being woken by a blackbird singing, birding, birdwatching, blackbird, Blackbird singing, British birds

190307 blackbird

Actually, my Blackbird’s not been singing in the dead of night but just after six most mornings, and it’s getting earlier as the days grow longer. Soon, I shall probably be cursing it but for now I love being woken up by the dulcet tones of a Blackbird’s song.

65/365 Birding in the Forest of Dean

06 Wednesday Mar 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

birding, birding in the Forest of Dean, birdwatching, British birds, Cannop Ponds, Mandarin, Mandarin duck

It was wet – leaving Cardiff, heading east the downpours were torrential! But that didn’t stop 16 of us hardy souls spending a day checking out various birding hotspots in the beautiful Forest of Dean. We dipped on Goshawks at New Fancy View and Hawfinches at Parkend – and I don’t blame the birds for trying to find shelter from the frequent heavy showers, but we came up trumps with the Marsh tits (two) and the gorgeous Mandarin ducks at Cannop Ponds (and I was chuffed to spot a Redpoll there too), and we had a lovely walk through the majestic towering trees at RSPB Nagshead. We may have got a bit damp around the edges but the rain certainly didn’t dampen our spirits.

190306 Mandarin duck