09 Friday Mar 2018
Posted in flowers, nature, spring, wildflowers
Monday’s walk took me around Grangemoor Park, looking to see what effects last week’s snow storm had had. Luckily, the park and its wildlife appear to have come through fairly well – no trees down, no signs of dead creatures (though they could have been hidden), and plenty of bird sounds all around. And then, the best thing, in a location where I had seen many last year, almost hidden under twigs, my very first Colt’s-foot flower of 2018. Spring really is on its way!
08 Thursday Mar 2018
Tags
#StormEmma, #TheBeastfromtheEast, birding, birdwatching, British birds, cold weather effect on birds, Fieldfare, Green woodpecker, Redwing, Song thrush, thrushes
Nature’s cold weather events may be lovely to look at – and I freely admit that, as a Kiwi unused to snow, I absolutely loved the heavy snow we had last week as a result of ‘The Beast from the East’ and Storm Emma – but such events come at a high cost, particularly to wildlife. The extreme cold and gale-force easterlies blew across from Europe thousands of Fieldfares and Redwings, and displaced a myriad of other birds: Golden plovers and Lapwing, Woodcocks and Snipe were all reported in parklands and farmers’ fields, all desperately looking for food.
I’d not seen many Fieldfares before this storm hit but a walk around local parks and Cardiff Bay on Sunday and Monday gave me the opportunity to see large numbers of them and Redwings.
In Penarth Marina Park, I spotted five of Britain’s six thrush species grazing (Song thrush, Mistle thrush, Blackbird, Redwing and Fieldfare) (accompanied by a Green woodpecker), and in trees alongside the River Taff, I got my closest views yet of Fieldfare – such beautiful markings.
Let’s hope they now have the strength to head back to where they came from and that the cold blast won’t have any long-term effects on their populations.
07 Wednesday Mar 2018
Preen: verb; (of birds) to maintain (feathers) in a healthy condition by arrangement, cleaning and other contact with the bill (Collins Concise Dictionary).
Interestingly, one dictionary said it also related to animals tidying and cleaning their fur with their tongue, but I’ve never heard the word used that way. Information as to the word’s origins varies according to which dictionary you consult – the Collins says it first appeared around the 14th century and probably comes from prunen, thence preinen, meaning to stab, pierce or prick, referring to the action of the bird’s bill when preening.
Preening is an extremely important action for birds, to keep their feathers in the correct position for flight and for the preservation of body heat; to clear away dirt and parasites; to assist with the process of moulting; and, in those birds that have a uropygial gland, to maintain their waterproofing by spreading oil from the gland over and through their feathers.
‘Who’s preening?’
06 Tuesday Mar 2018
Tags
birdwatching, Black redstart, British birds birding, passage migrant, Penarth marina, Phoenicurus ochruros
On the first day of my recent short break in East Sussex, I got a text from a birding friend, checking that I’d seen the news that a female Black redstart (Phoenicurus ochruros) had been seen in the Penarth marina area. As I’m probably one of the few people these days who doesn’t have a smartphone, I was offline throughout my holiday so, no, I hadn’t seen the news, and I just had to cross my fingers that the bird stayed around for a week until my return.
I got lucky! The morning after I got back, I was up and out early, down the hill, bins out and looking. She took a while to find but find her I did.
The Black redstart is a spring and autumn passage migrant and an uncommon winter visitor to Glamorgan, though in recent years birds have been seen in and around the Cardiff Bay area during the winter months. It’s a small bird, about the same size as a Robin, and, as you can see, the female is rather nondescript, mostly grey, with a reddish tail. As she positioned herself on the rooftops so she could spot any passing insects and was almost constantly on the move, my photos are not great but it was a real pleasure to catch up with this little beauty.
05 Monday Mar 2018
Tags
birding, birdwatching, British birds, Glamorgan Swift Project, nest boxes for swifts, Penarth swift champions, Swift, Swift nest boxes, Trinity Church Penarth, Trinity Methodist Church
As you all know, I’m a very keen birder and member of the Glamorgan Bird Club. A couple of months after I moved here to Penarth, I was delighted to hear Swifts screaming almost daily in the sky above my flat, and to see them practising their aerial acrobatics when I was out walking in the local area. I was aware that Swifts are an endangered species – in the last 30 years, numbers in Glamorgan have declined by 50% – and wondered what I might do to help. Here’s what happened:
11 June 2017 While on a club outing, I got chatting to Alan Rosney, the bird club’s committee member who co-ordinates the Glamorgan Swift Project. I mentioned that I heard the birds screaming overhead a lot and that there was a church across the road from me (the Trinity Methodist Church), with a tower that might be a possibility for some nest boxes. The next day I emailed Alan the church’s details so he could check it out and follow up if he thought it a possibility.
19 July 2017 Alan paid a visit to the folks at Trinity Church, to discuss the plan.
7 August 2017 A positive response from the church – the boxes could go ahead, ready for the following year’s return of the Swifts.
29 September 2017 Alan and other project members visited the church to check where the nest boxes might be located and for Howard, the box builder and installer, to measure up.
23 February 2018 Installation day, and Alan invited me along to see the result of my original suggestion. I had a lovely chat with Julia and Ian, other keen birders involved in the project, and with Chris, the church’s representative, and got to see inside the church tower but there was no way I was venturing up that ladder.
So the boxes are in, but there was an issue with the speaker system so that will be installed in late April / early May, ready to call the Swifts to come a’nesting. The speakers are set on a timer system to play the sound of screaming Swifts, in the mornings and evenings, to try to entice the birds to use the boxes. Of course, the birds might not oblige – we can but keep our fingers crossed that they’ll take a fancy to their new accommodation. The day they traditionally return to Britain is May the 4th so, little Swifts, I’ll be looking out for you from my living room window, and may the fourth be with you!
04 Sunday Mar 2018
Tags
birding, birdwatching, British birds, Buzzard, chaffinch, Cosmeston, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, Great tit, Lesser redpolls, Malard, nuthatch, Redpoll, Redwing, Reed bunting, treecreeper, Tufted duck
2 February A stride was required so I passed through Cosmeston as part of a longer walk. I did, as always, keep an eye out for unusual birds, though the only bird that fitted that category was a Buzzard in a tree by the dipping pond, exactly where a friend had reported it the previous day.
I scattered some seed around for my small and hungry feathered friends, and I did linger a while by the lake to take some photos of gulls. (I’m attempting to learn to recognise gulls of different ages but I’ll post separately about that when I’ve got more photos and information.)
4 February There are various routes I can take when I walk to Cosmeston; on this day I approached from the north, which produced a couple of Bullfinches near Old Cogan Farm and, further down Mile Road, a couple of Redwing feasting on ivy berries.
To escape the Sunday crowds, I headed off piste and almost immediately spotted a Green woodpecker and, seeing it fly to the ground, started stalking it. It flew off but then a mixed flock of tits and finches flew in, amongst which, to my very great delight, were 3 Lesser redpolls, a bird I’ve only seen once before and which is not often seen in these parts. They were feeding in an alder tree, moving often, doing acrobatics while suspended from cones, flitting from branch to branch, all of which made them difficult to photograph. But what a delightful 30 minutes I spent watching their antics.
9 February I was hoping to spot the Redpolls again today but lucked out, though I did spot a flock of perhaps 8 Redwings in the trees nearby. A handsome male Reed bunting was enjoying the seed a kind passerby had left on a fence post by the west lake, and it wasn’t just me who was finding the winds strong and gusty – this Tufted duck was having a bad hair day.
21 February This was school half-term holiday week in Wales, not a particularly pleasant time to visit a country park to enjoy the delights of nature as the parks are usually full of screaming children and frazzled parents at such times. I managed to avoid most of that by taking the paths less travelled but still found much of the wildlife was being scared away by the noise.
Still, I thought I’d make a list of what I did see: Great tit, Blackbird, Dunnock, Robin, Magpie, Goldfinch, Redwing, Carrion crow, Jay, Wren, Blue tit, Buzzard, Jackdaw, Long-tailed tit, Woodpigeon, Mistle thrush, Chaffinch, House sparrow, Starling, Green woodpecker, Reed bunting, Nuthatch, Coal tit, Coot, Cormorant, Mute swan, Black-headed gull, Lesser black-backed gull, Herring gull, Mallard, Tufted duck, Great crested grebe, Canada goose, Greylag goose and Pochard – not a bad list, with 35 bird species, and just one mammal, the ubiquitous Grey squirrel.
28 February South Wales was feeling the brunt of the ‘Beast from the East’, a freezing weather bomb from Siberia, when I paid my last February visit to Cosmeston so it was a short visit, partly for the exercise and I also bought a couple of bags of seed from the Rangers’ Office to feed the birds. You know they’re finding foraging tough when you see a Treecreeper come to the bird feeder – most unusual! And it was also unusual to have the sparse remnants of the previous day’s snow on the ground, so I had to get a few photos of birds (Chaffinch and Mallard) in snow as well. Let’s hope spring (re)appears soon.
03 Saturday Mar 2018
Tags
birding, birdwatching, British birds, Coot, Ely embankment, Grey wagtail, Redshank, Rock pipit, Turnstone
My first February wander alongside the River Ely was in the late afternoon of Saturday the 3rd. It was quiet – were the birds all watching Wales thump Scotland in the 6 Nations rugby, I asked myself? A faint peep alerted me to a Rock pipit tootling along the embankment path towards me. It had been minding its own business, looking for a lunchtime snack, when it suddenly realised there was a stonking great human standing on the path in front of it … at which point it flew off to the relative safety of the water’s edge.
Shortly afterwards, I could see a roundish form that might’ve been a rock but was, in fact, a Turnstone, the only one seen that day. And, as well as those two birds, one Pied wagtail and two Grey wagtails were in residence. One of the Greys had an interesting plumage aberration, as you can see below.
I was away for a week mid February so my next visit to the embankment was on Tuesday 20 February. A strong cold wind was blowing small waves on to the stony shore and, initially, there were no birds to be seen. But, about half way along the embankment path, I spotted a huddle of seven Turnstones, looking sleepy, enjoying a little bit of warmth from a shaft of sunlight that had reached their roosting spot from between the nearby houses. And, a minute or two later, I noticed one further Turnstone who was already meandering along, turning stones as it searched for breakfast bugs. Two Grey wagtails, hardy creatures, were also dotting about.
The twenty-seventh of February was a bitterly cold day, as Britain was in the grip of a severe blast of polar weather, blown across Europe from Siberia, and even Cardiff had a few snow showers that day (quite unusual in recent years). Hopefully, the birds had found somewhere more sheltered than the embankment, as the stiff easterly was so cold that icicles were forming on branches that littered the shoreline and there was a slab of ice at least a foot wide coating the rocks along the water’s edge.
In spite of those bitter conditions, I spied one Grey wagtail, one Turnstone, a pair of Coots, and a solitary Redshank. It made me feel cold just looking at that lovely bird standing in the icy water!
02 Friday Mar 2018
Tags
birding, birdwatching, British birds, Cors Caron, Dryslwyn Castle, Glamorgan Bird Club, Green sandpiper, Lapwing, Red kite, Tregaron Bog, Tywi Valley, Whooper swan
Up at 6, collected at 7 and off we headed, west along the M4 for a 9 o’clock meet up with our other Glamorgan Bird Club buddies at the foot of Dryslwyn Castle in mid Wales. This was unexplored territory for me and the scenery of the Tywi (or Towy) Valley was simply stunning, with castles and monuments seemingly on every hill top and the beautiful River Tywi meandering through the valley below them. It was clear but cold, with a bitter wind, and heavy frost and thick ice still blanketing those spots the sun could not reach. Later, we moved on to Tregaron Bog, also known as Cors Caron National Nature Reserve, a fabulous area of marsh and wetland. And what a superb day’s birding we had!
A large flock of Lapwing on the fields next to the River Tywi, and a Grey heron flying in.
Ducks, geese and Little grebes in the river.
A Red kite looks for lunch from its perch on this big old dead tree.
Looking towards Dinefwr Castle, with two swans flying off (possibly Mute but we also saw Whooper).
A thrush checks through a mole hill for potential food.
Too distant for clear shots, two Green sandpipers (and a Teal), from one of the hides at Tregaron Bog.
Intrepid birders, well rugged up against the chill.
Beautiful countryside around Tregaron Bog, where grazing ponies help to manage the wetland environment.
A Red kite; one of several seen this day and spectacular birds to watch.
My species list for the day was: Mute Swan, Whooper Swan, Pink-footed Goose, Greylag Goose, Canada Goose, Wigeon, Teal, Mallard, Goosander, Little Grebe, Grey Heron, Great White Egret, Little Egret, Cormorant, Red Kite, Hen Harrier, Buzzard, Lapwing, Snipe, Curlew, Green Sandpiper, Black-headed Gull, Herring Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Woodpigeon, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Magpie, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Raven, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Coal Tit, Wren, Treecreeper, Starling, Blackbird, Fieldfare, Song Thrush, Redwing, Mistle Thrush, Robin, Stonechat, Dunnock, House Sparrow, Tree Sparrow, Pied Wagtail, Chaffinch, Goldfinch and Bullfinch. A further 7 species were seen by other members of our group but not by me: Peregrine, Common Gull, Rook, Long-tailed Tit, Goldcrest, Nuthatch, and Greenfinch.
01 Thursday Mar 2018
Tags
daffodil, First day of spring, spring, Spring colour, spring flowers, St David's Day, Welsh national day
Dydd Gwŷl Dewi hapus! And Happy Spring!
28 Wednesday Feb 2018
Tags
#WildWords, Cardiff Bay, Ely embankment, ice, icicle, ickel, winter chill
Icicle: noun; a hanging, tapering piece of ice formed by the freezing of dripping water (Oxford Dictionary). The word comes from the Old English word gicel, which morphed into ikyl or ikel, and later ickle, a word which is still used in parts of Yorkshire.
My photos were taken on the Ely embankment in Cardiff Bay yesterday, as Britain shivers its way through a blast of chilly Siberian air. The combination of freezing temperatures and the constant lapping of the water on to the branches that litter the shoreline resulted in some beautiful icicles.
earthstar 
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