Gulls are tricksy

11 Saturday Nov 2017

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birding, birdwatching, British birds, gulls, Larus michahellis, Yellow-legged gull

Gulls were doing my head in earlier this week. A Yellow-legged gull (Larus michahellis) had been reported by local birdwatchers and, as I’d never seen one and the location was on a lovely walking route along the River Taff, I thought I’d go for a look-see. “It was the only large gull on the river so that might help”, said one who had spotted it the previous day. Well, wouldn’t you know it – when I arrived at the site, there were two large gulls there and, to my gull-uneducated eye, they looked very alike.

171111 Yellow-legged gull (2)

The grey back of the Yellow-legged gull is supposed to be somewhere between that of a Herring gull and a Lesser black-backed gull but, when you have neither of those gulls sitting right next to yours to do a comparison and when one of my possibilities was standing in deep shade and the other in full sun, it was almost impossible to see any difference. So, I followed the other advice I’d been given: “Take lots of photos and hope the experts can help you out.” Thanks to those experts, in the South Wales Birding group on Facebook, I can here present to you my first-ever Yellow-legged gull … and I wish you the very best of luck if you’re ever trying to ID one of these for yourself.

171111 Yellow-legged gull (1)

On a grey Bay day

04 Saturday Nov 2017

Posted by sconzani in birds, nature, walks

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birding, birds, birdwatching, black-headed gulls, British birds, Canada geese, Cardiff Bay, Coot, Cormorant, fog, Great Crested Grebe, little grebe, long-tailed tit, Moorhen, Mute swan, Pied wagtail, starling, walk around Cardiff Bay

171104 1 Cardiff Bay fog

Thick fog hung over Cardiff Bay as I set out on a round-the-bay circuit yesterday morning and, though the fog thinned as the day went on, the day remained grey. Still, never let it be said that grey is boring. Birds there were aplenty (and wildflowers, too … but that’s for tomorrow’s post).

This cormorant was enjoying a successful spot of fishing in the old Penarth dock area, though it was slim pickings for the three Little grebes around the corner in the River Ely.

All around the Bay, on almost every man-made structure and clump of rocks near the water, Pied wagtails bobbed, wagged and ‘chisicked’.

Coots were even more numerous, and an occasional Moorhen prospected along the shoreline.

171104 5 Cormorant 171104 5 Flock of Canada geese

As I was watching this Cormorant drying its wings, our peace and tranquillity was interrupted by the loud honking of a large skein of Canada Geese flying in from the west.

Where concrete and buildings dominate the shoreline and there’s a notable absence of trees, the birds have adapted and perch on tree-like things.

I saw perhaps half a dozen Great crested grebes around the Bay: I always admire how long they can stay underwater when fishing. Mute swans were more numerous. They are birds of such contrasts, looking anything but decorous when flaunting their glorious white bottoms as they feed, yet the picture of elegance when preening.

171104 8 Black-headed gull (3)

The most abundant came at the end of my walk. It was standing room only for the Black-headed gulls on the Barrage.

October on the Ely embankment

31 Tuesday Oct 2017

Posted by sconzani in birds, coastal fauna, nature, walks

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birding, birdwatching, British birds, Cardiff Bay, Ely embankment, Great Crested Grebe, Linnet, little grebe, Pied wagtail, Redshank, River Ely, Rock pipit, Turnstone, Wheatear

At least once a week I take a turn along the embankment where the River Ely flows out into Cardiff Bay as it makes a nice circular walk from my home on the cliff-top above in Penarth. (It’s good exercise too, as what goes down there must walk back up!) I always record what I see – usually birds – so thought I would share my sightings in an end-of-monthly post.

A variety of birds make their home in this stretch of water, which they share with a yachting marina and associated water traffic coming and going. There are almost always Turnstones in varying quantities (from one to nine), Mallards, Mute swans, one or two Great Crested Grebes (including their progeny this year), a proliferation of Coots, the occasional Cormorant fishing, usually a couple of Grey wagtails and a couple of Pieds. Gulls fly overhead and there are plenty of hirundines, in the season.

2 October: A Wheatear, an unusual visitor, almost certainly on a migration stopover, was dotting about on the embankment stones; a Pied wagtail was doing its morning stretches, and a Rock pipit was browsing for titbits.

171031f Little grebe

16 October: This was the day before ex-hurricane Ophelia made her presence felt, the day of the jaundiced yellow sky and the rusty red sun, which you can see reflected in my photo of the four Little grebes that were sheltering from the incoming weather. A juvenile Grey wagtail was dotting along the embankment, calling incessantly for its parent; and a Great crested grebe was enjoying a very successful fishing session, coming up with fish in two successive dives.

171031h Linnet

22 October: The day after Storm Brian I walked the embankment to see if any unusual birds had been blown in. The usual suspects were present, except that, most unusually, there wasn’t a single Turnstone. A solitary Linnet flitted back and forth from pavement to stones, and three rather exhausted-looking Redshanks dozed warily along the water line. One of these was colour-ringed and might possibly be the bird I saw back in March but I couldn’t see its rings well enough to be sure.

171031i Redshank

The return of the tufties

29 Sunday Oct 2017

Posted by sconzani in birds, nature

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Aythya fuligula, birding, birdwatching, British birds, British ducks, ducks, Tufted duck

171029 Tufted ducks (a)

They always make me smile so it’s a joy to see Tufted ducks (Aythya fuligula) back on my local lakes here in south Wales. These ducks tend not to live in Wales year-round: instead, they spend most of the year in England and Scotland, only heading south-west when the days get shorter and the temperatures cooler. Numbers throughout Britain also increase during the winter months as birds from Iceland and northern Europe head to our slightly milder isles.

171029 Tufted ducks (h)

Birding at Chesil Beach

21 Saturday Oct 2017

Posted by sconzani in birds, coastal fauna, nature

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birding, birdwatching, Brent geese, British birds, Chesil Beach, Dorset Wildlife Trust Centre, Little egret, Mediterranean gulls, Oystercatchers, Sandwich terns, The Fleet

171021 Chesil Beach (2)

After exploring RSPB Lodmoor, our birding road trip moved on to Chesil Beach, and what an amazing place it is!

171021 Chesil Beach (1)

To quote a brochure I picked up: ‘Chesil Beach is a natural wonder – a bank of 180 billion pebbles stretching for 18 miles along Dorset’s coast, linking Portland to the mainland. Trapped behind the beach is the Fleet, one of the largest saline lagoons in the country and a haven for bird and marine life’.

171021 Med gulls Sandwich terns 171021 Brent geese Med gulls

Here we staked ourselves out behind the Dorset Wildlife Trust Centre, trying, somewhat ineffectually, to shelter from the bracing winds. The wind chill was worth it though, as we had good views of a gaggle of Brent geese and a large flock of Mediterranean gulls.

171021 Sandwich terns

Amongst the gulls were two Sandwich terns, and the beach was also hosting the ubiquitous Oystercatchers and more common gulls, a Bar-tailed godwit and a solitary Dunlin.

171021 Oystercatchers Gull

A Wheatear dotted about on the grass below the pebble bank and, when we briefly stopped here again on our way home on Sunday, a Little egret entertained with its fishing antics, paddling about very successfully in the waterways. Next time I need to climb that bank!

171021 Little egret

Birding at RSPB Lodmoor

19 Thursday Oct 2017

Posted by sconzani in birds, nature

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birding, birdwatching, British birds, Canada goose, Great white egret, Kingfisher, Lesser yellowlegs, Mediterranean gull, RSPB Lodmoor, Teal, Tringa flavipes

171019 RSPB Lodmoor

On the way to Portland Bird Observatory last Friday we called in at the RSPB’s Lodmoor Reserve, just outside of Weymouth, to see if we could catch a glimpse of one of their rare visitors, a Lesser yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes), a bird that’s usually more at home in the Americas. Our views weren’t super clear – my photos were taken through tall grasses and bramble – but it was great to see one of these occasional visitors to Europe.

As well as the Lesser yellowlegs (and the Gadwall I blogged about earlier in the week), there was an abundance of other birdlife.

171019 Various birds

Large numbers of Canada geese flew in while we walked the trails, and there were numerous Teal and Tufted ducks.

171019 Canada geese

171019 Teal

A few Mediterranean as well as the more common gull species …

Ruff, Snipe, Little and Great white egrets puddled about in the lagoons; a very confiding Kingfisher posed for photos; two Marsh harriers glided over the distant reed beds; and a Spoonbill was a nice, though distant sighting. I recorded over 30 species of birds at Lodmoor and that was without walking right around the reserve.

Gadding about

17 Tuesday Oct 2017

Posted by sconzani in birds, nature

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Anas strepera, birding, birdwatching, British birds, dabbling duck, duck, Gadwall, Glamorgan Bird Club, Lodmoor, RSPB Lodmoor

Here’s another beauty from last weekend’s wonderful birding trip with the Glamorgan Bird Club. Though this bird is not the rarity of yesterday’s Rustic bunting, it’s not terribly common either, and is ‘Amber listed’, meaning its population has declined in recent years and its situation is being monitored.

171017 Gadwall (1)

This is a male Gadwall (Anas strepera), a very handsome dabbling duck, a little smaller than a Mallard. Sitting on one of the ponds at the RSPB’s Lodmoor Reserve near Weymouth in Dorset, he was looking a little sleepy. Perhaps that’s why he wasn’t bothered about us looking at him, as he actually approached quite near – a bonus for me trying to get reasonable photos. We didn’t hear a peep out of him but, apparently, it’s their chattering call that originally gave the Gadwalls their imitative name.

A bird in the hand

16 Monday Oct 2017

Posted by sconzani in birds, nature

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birding, birdwatching, British birds, Emberiza rustica, Glamorgan Bird Club, Portland Bird Observatory, Portland Obs, rare bird, Rustic bunting

I’ve just had a fantastic long weekend’s birding with the Glamorgan Bird Club at the Portland Bird Observatory in Dorset. Not only did we stay in an old lighthouse but we saw an incredible number of amazing birds. I haven’t typed up my list yet but I do know I had fifteen (yes, 15!!!) lifers (for non-birders, I saw fifteen species I had never seen before).

171016 Rustic bunting (3)

This little beauty was one of them: it’s a Rustic bunting (Emberiza rustica), a bird that breeds in northern Europe and in Asia and normally migrates to Japan and parts of China and south-east Asia to over-winter. This little one may have been blown the wrong way by strong winds or perhaps, by mistake, it joined up with a group of other small birds heading for Britain.

171016 Rustic bunting (1)

It was both an amazing experience and a real privilege to see such a rarity up close. (You can read more about this bird and see more pictures on the Portland Obs blog here.)

171016 Rustic bunting (2)

Birding on Gower

10 Tuesday Oct 2017

Posted by sconzani in birds, coastal fauna, nature, seaside, walks

≈ 4 Comments

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birding, birdwatching, British birds, coastal cliffs, dramatic coastline, Glamorgan Bird Club, Gower, Mewslade, Rhossili Beach, Worm's Head

It was a wild and windy but not wet day last week when I ventured for the first time to the incredible Gower peninsula, on a birding trip with my Glamorgan Bird Club friends.

171010 Glamorgan bird clubbers

We parked near Mewslade Beach, then walked a circuit from there along the cliff-top coastal path, across the medieval field system of The Vile, through the little village of Rhossili and then back to the car park. Most of the birds were best viewed through binoculars or ’scopes so I don’t have many images of them to share but the scenery was just stunning! High stone cliffs honed in places to a razor edge by millennia of wind and rain, secret little coves nestled between tall protective hills, the long stretch of golden-sand beach at Rhossili that was recently named the best beach in Britain and one of the world’s top ten – Gower really does deserve the adjective ‘awesome’!

Oh, and getting back to the birds – I saw a total of 34 species: Cormorant, Sparrowhawk, Common Buzzard, Kestrel, Peregrine, Oystercatcher, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Herring Gull, Woodpigeon, Collared Dove, Pheasant, Magpie, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Raven, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Coal Tit, Long-tailed Tit, Chiffchaff, Goldcrest, Wren, Blackbird, Robin, Stonechat, Dunnock, House Sparrow, Pied Wagtail, Meadow Pipit, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Linnet, and the two highlights for me, Common Scoter (a group of perhaps 20 floating together on the sea – seen through a ’scope) and several Gannets, flying low to the waves not far offshore, plus a bonus sighting of at least one Grey seal lolling about in the waves in one of the bays.

The group total was 46 species as I was too busy admiring the scenery to notice these: Shag, Kittiwake, Guillemot, Razorbill, Green Woodpecker, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Chough, Rook, Bullfinch, Song Thrush, Common Gull, and Great Black-backed Gull. Thanks to John and Glamorgan Bird Club members for yet another fantastic day out!

171010 Rhossili beach

Bully for you

08 Sunday Oct 2017

Posted by sconzani in birds, nature

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birding, birdwatching, British birds, British finches, bullfinch, Pyrrhula pyrrhula

What a dapper fellow this male Bullfinch is, with his apricot-coloured waistcoat, grey jacket, black bowler and tails! The female, shown below, is elegant in a more understated way (I’ve yet to get good close photos of her).

171007 Bullfinch (3)

Sadly, despite its good looks, the Bullfinch (Pyrrhula pyrrhula) has been much persecuted by humans due to its preference for devouring the buds of trees, particularly tasty fruit trees, in the springtime. According to Buczacki’s Fauna Britannica, ‘As long ago as 1566, an Act of Parliament allowed for one penny to be offered for “everie Bulfynche or other Byrde that devoureth that blowth of Fruite”.’ And according to the BTO website, the number of wild birds was further depleted in Victorian times because people preferred to admire the Bulfinch’s gorgeous plumage in cages rather than in woodlands.

However, these factors are not the reason for the bird’s declining numbers – there was a sharp decline in the late 1970s, which has upturned slightly since 2000, but is still 36% lower than in 1967. That decline is thought to be a result of decreasing biodiversity in woodlands and of the negative effects of agricultural intensification. I haven’t been able to find any more recent population figures but let’s hope the Bullfinch recovers. What a loss that apricot waistcoat would be!

171007 Bullfinch (2)