11 Saturday Jun 2022
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Without a long lens, I haven’t been able to get close to any of the juvenile birds that are currently cheeping at and following around their frazzled parents in leafy trees and hedgerows. Luckily, though, this juvenile Carrion crow was a little more obliging … or perhaps simply more curious.
28 Saturday May 2022
You’d have grey hairs and a muddy beak too if you were busy rooting out worms ten to the dozen all day long to feed the demanding hungry mouths back home in the nest.
03 Tuesday May 2022
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I can’t be sure what happened to this Magpie – it was soaked and shaking – but I suspect it had a narrow escape from a bird of prey, as Peregrines nest not too far from where it was sitting. It may have been struck, stunned but not caught, and plummeted in to the sea. Somehow the Magpie had made it from the water to the front yard of a nearby apartment building, and I can only hope it was able to recover fully from its drenching.
25 Monday Apr 2022
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Though Mallard ducklings were seen by other birders as early as the end of February, these little beauties were my first of the year. Eight little bundles of fluff and their mother were tucking in to a soggy slice of bread thrown to them by some boat owners in a local marina. Awwwwwww!
20 Wednesday Apr 2022
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Blackcap males are singing from every available tree or patch of promising scrub at the moment, trying to impress females with their melodies.
And, during a recent walk, I spotted this nest, which, sadly, won’t get used as it had been exposed by people cutting back scrub, something that is, in fact, illegal during bird-nesting season. A BTO-nest-recording birder friend has advised that this is a Blackcap nest. He says: ‘The male builds a few “cock” nests before [the] final site is chosen. Hoping that was one!’ I hope so too.
04 Monday Apr 2022
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An alternate view of a Great tit, to show that the subtle shades and distinctive markings of its feathers from this angle are just as attractive as a front view.
02 Saturday Apr 2022
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Spot the latest in Crow nest accessories …
So when you get home from a hard day’s crowing, you can hang up your feathers before snuggling in for the night.
31 Thursday Mar 2022
I had a mystery bird during yesterday’s walk. It flew high over the west paddock at Cosmeston Country Park, heading north, in slow circles, mobbed by corvids and gulls. It was carrying something that seemed to have a snake-like shape, long and thin and dangling from its claws. Looking through binoculars, my impression of the bird was that it had dark grey/brown wings, a very pale, possibly white body, and a small pale head.
I had an idea what it might be but had never seen that species before so took as many photos as I could with my point-and-shoot camera (the telephoto lens on my DSLR camera has died and I can’t afford to replace it at the moment – what a time not to have a good lens!). Fortunately, local expert birders and our county bird recorder were able to confirm, from my description and the photos, that I had seen my first Osprey, migrating north to its breeding site after over-wintering in Africa. Welcome home, you beauty!
29 Tuesday Mar 2022
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I know everyone thinks the Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita) calls its own name ‘chiff chaff, chiff chaff’ or, sometimes, ‘chaff chiff, chaff chiff’. I beg to differ. A lot of the birds I listen to are actually saying ‘did you? did you? you, you, did you?’ and some of them are even in to martial arts, calling ‘ju-jitsu, ju-jitsu, you, ju-jitsu’. Listen closely next time you hear one and let me know what you think they’re saying.
24 Thursday Mar 2022
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This was yesterday’s ten minutes of heart-racing (SO exciting!), anxiety causing and expletive-inducing (my camera lens is on the blink and I can’t afford to replace it at the moment, and, initially, it wouldn’t focus on the birds) high drama. One Red kite came soaring up over the edge of the cliffs at the edge of the nature reserve where I was walking, followed almost immediately by a second kite, and then, incredibly, a third. I could hardly believe my eyes – or my luck.
Though Red kites are increasingly common in many parts of southern Britain, they are seldom seen in my part of south Wales, and to see three at once is almost unheard of. It was quite simply amazing!
earthstar 
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