22 Thursday Mar 2018
Tags
birding, birdwatching, British birds, Cardiff Bay, Cardiff Bay wetlands, Great Crested Grebe, sleeping bird, sleepy bird
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz …
What? What? What’s happening?
Bah! Just another crazy photographer!
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz …
18 Sunday Mar 2018
Tags
birding, birdwatching, British birds, Chiffchaff, migrating birds, Phylloscopus collybita, spring migration
You know it’s really springtime when the migrating birds start to appear and this week has seen those birds arriving, albeit in fairly small numbers yet here in south Wales. Friends have been reporting sightings of Sand martins and Wheatear – I’ve yet to see either, but I am one of the many who have now either heard and/or seen their first Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita) of 2018.
Though a few Chiffchaffs overwinter in Britain, the vast majority migrate south during autumn and overwinter in the sunshine and warmer temperatures of the Mediterranean and west Africa.
I heard my first of these lovely little birds last Monday, 12 March, at Forest Farm Nature Reserve, and I saw my first, shown here in my photographs, in trees alongside the River Taff in Cardiff on Thursday, the 15th. Welcome back, little Chiffchaffs!
15 Thursday Mar 2018
Tags
birding, birdwatching, British birds, European magpie, Magpie, nest building, nesting, nesting birds, Spring is in the air
Spring is definitely in the air here in south Wales. Wildflowers are wakening and blossom is bursting, migrating creatures are on the move and those that don’t migrate are thinking about procreation. For birds, that means nest building, and this Magpie obviously had some rather grandiose ideas about the size of nest it was going to construct. But had it bitten off more than it could chew?
Success!
14 Wednesday Mar 2018
Tags
#WildWords, birding, birdwatching, blackbird, leucism, leucistic, leucistic blackbird, wild words
Leucistic: Adjective; (of an animal) [or other creature] having whitish fur, plumage, or skin due to a lack of pigment (Oxford Dictionary).
It’s not easy being different as this leucistic black-and-white Blackbird seems to be discovering. I’ve spotted it several times in and around a neighbour’s backyard in recent days, usually sitting alone, looking a little bereft. Once it tried to approach first a male and then a female Blackbird, adopting the submissive posture a young bird would adopt to beg food from its parents, but the other birds totally rejected it and flew off.
I’ve posted about leucistic birds before: a Crow here, and a Jackdaw was the star here.
12 Monday Mar 2018
Tags
Barry, Barry Docks, Barry Old Harbour, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Curlew, Great Crested Grebe, Med gull, Mediterranean gull, Oystercatcher, Redhsank, Shelduck
The south Wales town of Barry is not exactly what you’d call a prime birding destination but, due to its coastal location, it does turn up regular wader sightings and the occasional rarity. On this visit, I dipped on my target species, the Great northern diver that’s been overwintering in Barry Docks – I saw the bird last year but want to add it to this year’s list – but I still had an enjoyable day’s birding, with a few nice surprises.
First up at Barry Docks was the local Mediterranean gull. For those unfamiliar with this bird, you can see some of the differences between it and Black-headed gulls in this photo – in breeding season, the hood on the head of the Med gull covers its entire head and is a true black (not a chocolate brown hood on just the front half of the head), its beak and legs are different, and it has white wing tips.
Four Great crested grebes were braving the choppy waves being whipped up by the strong sou’westerly wind.
In Barry Old Harbour, two Shelducks were hoovering the mud for small shellfish and aquatic snails.
At least eight Redshanks were prospecting amongst the salt marsh and along the silty rivulets.
Sitting down, five Oystercatchers were so well camouflaged as to be almost invisible, until they got up and one set them all off singing out their characteristic call.
The day’s pièce de résistance was the sight of two Curlews prospecting for a late lunch amongst reeds and under rocks. At first, I thought I had the two Black-tailed godwits reported earlier in the week but no, those bills were definitely curved. A nice sighting just the same!
10 Saturday Mar 2018
Tags
birding, birdwatching, Cannop Ponds, Forest of Dean, Glamorgan Bird Club, Great grey shrike, Hawfinch, Mandarin duck, snow
For my latest birding adventure, I joined 21 other members of the Glamorgan Bird Club and ventured across the border to England, to explore birding sites in the beautiful Forest of Dean, where the glorious tree-clad countryside was made even more lovely by the covering of snow that still lingered from the previous weekend’s weather bomb.
The snow also meant two of the car parks we tried were closed and necessitated a long stomp along the forest trails to the viewpoint where we could search the skies for Goshawk – unfortunately, the birds weren’t seen, but what a wonderful walk it was! There’s just something about that snow-white coating that makes a landscape look magical.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. We started off at Cannop Ponds, where I got my first sight of Mandarin ducks in the wild. These stunning birds are native to Asia – and I had first seen them in a bird park in Kuala Lumpur – but escapees from parklands and zoos have established breeding populations in Britain and, in 1971, the bird was added to the official British bird list, under category C1 (although introduced, the birds now derive from the resulting self-sustaining populations).
At the ponds we also enjoyed good views of a resident Marsh tit before heading off along the forest trails. In a large clearing, one of our eagle-eyed younger members spotted another of our target birds for this trip, the Great grey shrike. Using bins and ’scopes we were able to watch the bird catch a tiny lizard and, its trademark action, impale its prey on a sharp twig.
After our Goshawk-less stomp to New Fancy viewpoint, we returned to the cars and drove on to Parkend, where the local Hawfinches proved more cooperative, obliging with distant but dark views under the conifers by the cricket ground. They were the icing on the cake of another thoroughly enjoyable outing with my bird club buddies.
My list of species sighted is as follows: Mute Swan, Greylag Goose, Mandarin Duck, Gadwall, Teal, Mallard, Tufted Duck, Little Grebe, Cormorant, Buzzard, Moorhen, Coot, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Woodpigeon, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Great Grey Shrike, Magpie, Jay, Carrion Crow, Raven, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Coal Tit, Marsh Tit, Long-tailed Tit, Goldcrest, Nuthatch, Treecreeper, Blackbird, Robin, Dunnock, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Siskin, and Hawfinch. And I was obviously not paying attention when others in the group saw (or heard) the Grey Heron, Stock Dove, Jackdaw, Mistle Thrush, Grey Wagtail, Greenfinch, and Bullfinch.
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?’
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.
earthstar 
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