Tag Archives: Cardiff Bay birding

The smallest gull in the world

15 Tuesday Mar 2022

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Local birders have been treated to another striking gull visitor to Cardiff Bay in recent days, this time an adult Little gull (Hydrocoloeus minutus). They can often be seen locally at this time of year as they move from their over-wintering locations to their breeding grounds but they can be difficult to spot, especially if they are flying in the centre of the Bay.

220315 little gull (2)

These are the smallest gulls in the whole wide world – compare the size of the Little gull perched on the buoys with the Black-headed gull standing next to it. Their size is one distinguishing feature, but the best way to pick out the adults is from their wing colours, light grey with a white edging on top, very dark grey with that white edging underneath. The wing shape – often described as paddle-shaped – is also distinctive.

220315 little gull (1)

An obliging Water rail

14 Monday Feb 2022

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What a lovely surprise I got during a recent walk through Cardiff Bay’s wetland reserve when this Water rail pranced showily out from where it had been sitting preening in the sunshine and along the water’s edge, surprising not only me but also two of the resident Mallards.

220214 water rail

Lighting up the wetlands

26 Wednesday Jan 2022

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A male Stonechat is overwintering at Cardiff Bay Wetlands Reserve. With his orange breast, dark head and streaky brown wings, all crisply edged in white, he’s a dapper-looking little chap, and he’s rarely still. Eyes peeled for the next tasty titbit, he prefers a lofty perch from which to survey his surroundings, and flits quickly down for the catch, then back up to the nearest best vantage point. He’s like a bright spark on a cold winter’s day.

Three Black redstarts

05 Wednesday Jan 2022

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On 10 December the word went out to local birders that someone had spotted a Black redstart in the Porth Teigr area of Cardiff Bay, so the next morning I wasn’t the only person to head over to see if I could find it.

220105 black redstart male

Turns out, there are, in fact, three Black redstarts dotting around together, two males (one, above) and a female (below). I’ve been back to see them several times now and they are worth every strip of shoe leather I wear off my soles walking there and back. They are simply stunning little birds!

220105 black redstart female

p.s. I wrote this post yesterday and, amazingly, in the interim, one of my birding friends noticed that there are actually two females, meaning there are four Black redstarts. I walked across for another look this morning and, sure enough, there were two females. Amazing!

Let the birding begin

01 Saturday Jan 2022

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In what is becoming something of a tradition, I enjoyed a lovely long walk around Cardiff Bay today to kickstart my patch birding list for the year. I managed to spot 45 species, with the highlights being an overwintering Blackcap; a Common sandpiper (pictured below); the Yellow-legged gull I blogged about a couple of days ago; and one of three Black redstarts currently in the Bay – more on those in a forthcoming blog post. I also caught up with several friendly fellow birders, always a pleasure. Happy New Year, one and all!

220101 common sandpiper

Y is for Yellow-legged gull

30 Thursday Dec 2021

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The Yellow-legged gull is my bogey bird, one I see reported by much more experienced birders than me but which I always have trouble identifying. So, imagine my delight when this 2cy bird (its age – this is the second calendar year since its birth) was mentioned on our local birders WhatsApp group. I recognised where it was standing and knew another (or the same?) Yellow-legged gull had favoured the same place last year. So, on my next walk around Cardiff Bay, I looked for and found it, and was very pleased to add a late new bird to my patch birding list for 2021, bringing the total to 119, one more than last year (though the mix of birds was different).

211230 yellow-legged gull (1)

D is for Dunlin

09 Thursday Dec 2021

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Seeing this Dunlin was a delightful surprise back in May (a fellow birder had spotted it and put the word out), as these shorebirds rarely stop over in Cardiff Bay. Sadly, the chances of seeing Dunlins at all have declined dramatically in recent years, as their population has plummeted, and, according to British Birds recently published report of ‘The status of our bird populations’, these birds have recently been added to the IUCN Red List, meaning they are now at extreme risk of extinction in Britain.

211209 dunlin

Birding around the Bay

13 Saturday Nov 2021

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Some recent sightings from my circuits around Cardiff Bay …

211113 common sandpiper

Common sandpiper, an unexpected sighting, as I was under the impression that these birds migrated to Africa to over-winter

211113 coot

Coot: often overlooked, frequently fractious, undeniably handsome

211113 crow

Carrion crow, frequently seen poking about on the stone embankments around the Bay

211113 goosander

Goosander, likely an eclipse male, i.e. in the process of changing from summer to winter plumage

211113 grey heron

A Grey heron – presumably the same Grey heron – that I’ve seen a couple of times lately on the dolphins and pontoons near Mermaid Quay

211113 mute swan

A Mute swan reflecting

211113 pied wagtail

A Pied wagtail preening

211113 ring-necked and tufted ducks

The currently resident Ring-necked duck with one of its Tufted duck friends

211113 rock pipit

Rock pipit, one of a healthy population of these birds that inhabit the unhealthy, rubbish-filled peripheries of Cardiff Bay.

First autumn Redshank

02 Tuesday Nov 2021

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The weather has really turned autumnal over the past few days, with strong winds and heavy rain. As stormy weather means birds sometimes need to seek shelter and a place to rest, it can lead to interesting bird sightings, so I ventured out between squalls for a look. There was nothing particularly unusual but it was a treat to see my first Redshank of the autumn sitting on the embankment where the River Ely flows in to Cardiff Bay.

211102 redshank

Peachy

28 Thursday Oct 2021

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She may be called a Black redstart but the female of the species is a mostly non-descript little grey bird, though she does have the characteristic peach-coloured bottom indicated by the ‘redstart’ name (the Anglo-Saxon phrase for red tail, red steort, morphed into the word redstart).

211028 black redstart

This particularly bird was first noticed on Cardiff Bay Barrage a week ago but eluded all efforts to re-find her (by several birders, not just me) until, much to my surprise and delight, I found her again in the same location Tuesday morning. And, since then, she’s disappeared again – she’s small and can easily flit into the gaps around the huge boulders of the outer Barrage and has, perhaps, half a mile of rocks to forage amongst, so it’s really not surprising. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.