01 Thursday Jul 2021
This made me laugh out loud. I was watching a young Chiffchaff hunting for insects along a fence and around a signboard.
Being young and not wary yet of humans, the cute wee bird mostly ignored me so I was able to edge closer for some photos.
Then it spotted a spider’s web chock full of tiny creatures, a pix-and-mix for a hungry fledgling.
But it hadn’t twigged to the fact that a wire fence can be slippery and went for a backwards spin as it tried to pluck out the tasty morsels.
10 Tuesday Nov 2020
On Sunday, I blogged about the wildflowers I’ve recently found still blooming in local farm fields. When I’ve been wandering those field edges, I have, of course, also been keeping one eye on the skies, to see what birds might be enjoying this currently unmanaged farmland. Here’s a selection …
There were several species of winter thrushes feeding in berry trees – Song thrushes, Redwings and a small flock of Fieldfares, and a large number of Blackbirds, the only ones I managed to photograph.
Two Chiffchaffs were chasing each other through tree branches. They’re late migrating but some Chiffchaffs do remain in Britain so maybe these two will stay local this winter.
A juvenile Dunnock was calling constantly, presumably for its parents, but they may well have decided it was time to cut the parental ties.
Reed buntings aren’t always found in reeds. A family of three were flitting from hedge to field, foraging for seeds and insects.
09 Monday Mar 2020
Spring migration is underway! Our county bird recorder yesterday reported seeing his first Sand martin for 2020 and today I’ve seen my first Chiffchaffs, newly arrived from overwintering in the warm countries around the Mediterranean or perhaps somewhere in west Africa. Such long migratory flights by such little birds – incredible!
I saw or heard five Chiffchaffs during my walk along the coastal path this morning and then another three at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park. Above is number three and below is number seven. Hearing them singing their ‘chiff chaff’ song made my heart spring!
29 Friday Nov 2019
Tags
birding, birdwatching, Black-headed gull, British birds, Cardiff Bay, Cardiff Bay birds, Chiffchaff, Coot, Goosander, Great Crested Grebe, Kingfisher, Linnet, Pied wagtail, Turnstone
What a wonderful long walk I had around Cardiff Bay today! Here are some of the birds I spotted along the way.
There were nine Goosanders in total, four in the River Ely where it flows in to the Bay and another five further east, in the Bay proper.
My favourite little Turnstones, again four along the Ely embankment and more near Mermaid Quay.
Linnets, a small flock of six flitting about the grassy slopes of the Barrage.
Pied wagtails – I lost count of these cheery little characters who appeared wherever I wandered.
One of several Great crested grebes that live in the Bay, constantly diving for fish.
I was getting ‘the look’ from this Black-headed gull, in the pond at the wetlands reserve, for not supplying food!
This Coot was also hoping for food.
This Chiffchaff was a surprise – it’s either very late migrating or has decided to over-winter in Britain, as some now do. Interestingly, I saw a Chiffchaff yesterday too, in a different location.
The best possible end to my walk – a Kingfisher peep-peep-peeped in to the pool near Hamadryad Park and perched on a branch over the water.
01 Saturday Sep 2018
Tags
autumn migration, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Chiffchaff, Cosmeston, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, migrating birds, Pied plycatcher, Redstart, Wheatear, Whinchat, Whitethroat, Willow warbler
My local country park, Cosmeston Lakes, has been awash with migrating birds this past week. And it’s not just me getting better at finding them – according to birders who’ve been checking the area much longer than I’ve lived nearby, this has been a bumper year for sightings.
On 24 August I found two Redstarts, a male and another that may have been a female or an immature bird that hadn’t yet developed its full adult colouration.
Also on the 24th I had a very fleeting view of a Wheatear that popped up from grass to fencepost, then was off in the blink of an eye.
On the 27th my birding friend Della texted me to say she’d found a Whinchat. That was the fastest I’d ever walked to Cosmeston and, luckily, the bird waited for me – and, in fact, stayed around most of the week so I saw it several times.
During my frequent visits to Cossie this week, I’ve seen ones and twos of Whitethroat and Chiffchaff, and tens of Willow warblers. These are the ones I spotted on the 30th.
Also on 30 August, I spotted another Redstart and, from the dark head colours, I could tell this one was definitely a male.
The week ended with a bang! My birding friend, Graham, let me know that he’d seen a Pied flycatcher with a small group of Spotted flycatchers, a most unusual visitor. Luckily, I was on the coastal path heading homeward so was able to divert towards Cosmeston and, with Graham’s help, got distant views of this beautiful little bird catching flies along the tree line. What a stunning week it has been!
30 Monday Apr 2018
Tags
birding, birdwatching, Blackcap, British birds, Buzzards, Chiffchaff, Coot, Cosmeston, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, Hawthorn Shield Bug, Large Red damselfly, long-tailed tit, Swallow, Willow warbler
Easter Sunday – April the 1st this year – is not a particularly smart day to go to Cosmeston to spend a quiet, peaceful time with Nature, but I wanted to stretch my legs and public transport on Sundays is quite restricted. So, I passed through Cosmeston on one of my circular local circuits, avoiding the main paths, taking the fields less trodden. I still managed to spot a Long-tailed tit (below left) nest-building – it’ll be cosy with a few more feathers like that, and, with the help of my friend John, I heard and then spotted my first Willow warbler of 2018 (below right), a good start to the month.
5 April Another quick walk-through, to avoid the school holiday madness, but I did pause at the place I’d recently spotted a Hawfinch, to see if I could hear or see it. No luck with that but I did spot my first Blackcaps of 2018 (above), and there were Willow warblers and Chiffchaffs (below) aplenty!
8 April Once again, I passed through Cosmeston as part of a longer walk, though I did linger for a short time by the west lake where I got talking to a fellow birder. From there, I had distant views of two Buzzards on the far shore – were they investigating a nest site? – and I got a fleeting glimpse and photos of a mysterious mammal swimming rapidly through the reeds. Was it a Water vole, a Stoat or a Mink? Debate raged on Twitter and Facebook when I posted photos and requested opinions but the jury is still out on its identification.
11 April Though the heavy rain of the previous night and morning had cleared, cloud cover was thick and low, making for a very gloomy walk around Cosmeston, and it was almost as if the birds were experiencing a similar dullness. Although I spotted several Blackcaps and many of the regulars (Blackbirds, Dunnocks, Robins, Chaffinches, etc), bird song was generally subdued.
Highlights were my first Coot chicks of the season, with the attentive parents feeding three chicks near the former bird hide site on the west lake, and Swallows swooping and diving over both lakes. I tried for about 15 minutes to get photos of them but it was very difficult to keep up with their super speedy aerobatics, so a silhouette will have to do. There’s no mistaking that forked tail though.
I passed through Cosmeston again on 16 April, but saw nothing particularly noteworthy, and then had a break to see other sites and while a friend was visiting. My last visit for the month was today, 30 April. Though a cool wind was blowing it was fine, and warm in sheltered spots. And, though I could hear bird song all around, with the trees now rapidly greening, we’ve reached that time of year when the birds pretty much disappear behind the foliage.
The good news is that this is also the time of year when the other flying creatures take over: today I saw my first damselfly of the year, a Large Red; the butterflies were out in numbers: Brimstones, Peacocks, Commas, a Large white, a couple of Orange-tips and several Speckled woods (I’ll do a separate post for those in a few days); and I also saw my first shieldbug of 2018, a Hawthorn. It was a lovely walk!
29 Thursday Mar 2018
Tags
birding, birdwatching, British birds, Chiffchaff, Common frog, Cosmeston, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, Gadwall, Great Crested Grebe, Hawfinch, Meadow pipit, primrose, Reed buntin, Sand martin, Scaup, treecreeper
11 March This visit to Cosmeston started with me being yaffled at by a Green woodpecker – I always think they’re jeering at me, trying to lure me into stalking them for that ever-elusive close-up. I resisted and walked on, then paused to watch a Magpie trying to carry off a very large twig / small branch, proof that nest-building has begun.
Masses of pale Primroses were flowering prettily along the western boundary path, and the lake was overflowing the boardwalk at the west end due to recent heavy rain.
I paused near there, as I always do, to look at the gulls and finally, FINALLY, spotted the drake Scaup that’s been visiting the Cosmeston lakes on and off in recent weeks, this time in company with a female Tufted duck, which could be why some interesting hybrids are occasionally sighted locally.
I walked up Mile Road and then off the main track to where the bird hide used to be (it was burnt down by vandals last year and has not been rebuilt), and spotted a Treecreeper hopping up a nearby tree, then turned to see a group of five Gadwall on the east lake, much closer in than usual.
I watched them a while then was charmed to also watch a pair of Great crested grebes displaying – more on those here. I wandered on, up Mile Road to the top end where I head back in to suburbia, and was farewelled by a large flock of perhaps fifty Fieldfare and Redwing that flew up from the area of Old Cogan Farm and landed in the trees above me.
16 March I only walked through Cosmeston as part of a longer walk from Sully to Penarth, so I didn’t linger long but I did manage to get closer views and better photos of the Scaup, as it was sitting right off the boardwalk and ‘swan feeding area’ near the cafe. And I also detoured past the dipping pond to check out the Common frog eruption – see more on the frogs here.
19 March I stomped off to Cossie with snow still on the ground (but steadily melting) after the ‘Mini-beast from the east’, the second instalment of cold weather to blast us this month. The most notable wildlife effect was in the large numbers of Meadow pipits to be seen, sometimes in singles, at one point a flock of at least 20 grazing together.
It was also a day of confusing birds: there was a female Blackbird with a pale bib, making me think she might be a Ring ouzel, and two Chiffchaffs pretending to be Reed warblers, presumably because there were more insects to be had close to the water – behaviour also seen at another site in south Wales that day.
And, another sign of spring, I saw my first Sand martins of the year, three of them, hawking back and forth on the east lake.
23 March Once again, this was a walk through rather than around Cosmeston, as I was doing the same walk as a week ago, from Sully back home. As I had recently stocked up on bird seed, I was sprinkling small amounts here and there as I strolled, and was delighted to see three male Reed buntings come down for a snack in one spot – such handsome birds. The other highlight was the Chiffchaffs, at least six crisscrossing the lane between the two lakes, flycatching the multitude of little gnatty things flying about on this sunny day.
29 March Well, I wasn’t intending to make another visit to Cossie this month but then one of my birding friends spotted a Hawfinch there on the 27th and I couldn’t let that pass without at least having a look for it. (For non-birders, Hawfinches are usually difficult to find, though they have been having a good winter this year.) So, trying, somewhat unsuccessfully, to dodge heavy rain showers, I headed over to Cosmeston early this morning. I knew the approximate location to look but it certainly wasn’t easy spotting anything in the dense trees. Luckily, I had listened to the bird’s call on the RSPB website before I set off and that’s how I found it … by listening very very carefully and then following that sound. The bird was very high in a tree and almost obscured by intervening branches (my photo is a heavy crop) … but I was very chuffed to find it!
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!
20 Wednesday Sep 2017
Tags
autumn migration, bird migration, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Chiffchaff, Phylloscopus collybita
Although this little warbler can be seen all year round, most of its kind migrate in August and September, which is why, during the past couple of weeks, I’ve been seeing an awful lot of these pretty birds in my local parks and nature reserves. They’ve been fattening up on flies and other insects before they head south to the Mediterranean and west Africa.
This is the Chiffchaff, Phylloscopus collybita. As it has a tendency to nest low down amongst brambles and evergreen shrubs, it has earned itself such vernacular names as bank-bottle and bank jug, but I have no idea where most of its other common names originate from: feather bed, feather pokel, huck muck, lesser pettychaps, Peggy, sally picker, thummie, and wood oven.
One thing I have learnt about the Chiffchaff, however, is to try to get a good look at the colour of its legs because if it’s not singing its distinctive ‘chiff chaff’ song, then its dark-coloured legs are one way to tell it apart from its look-alike, the Willow warbler.
07 Monday Aug 2017
Tags
birding, birdwatching, British birds, Chiffchaff, Chiffchaff fledglings, Phylloscopus collybita, young Chiffchaff
Luckily, I was walking quietly, stalking butterflies, when I realised there was a family of young Chiffchaffs flitting through the shrubs and umbellifers near me, intent on discovering and devouring as many insects as they could find.
I wasn’t entirely sure they were Chiffchaffs (Phylloscopus collybita), as many young warblers look very similar and there wasn’t an adult around singing the distinctive Chiffchaff song. But they were in an area where I had heard that song many times before, and a couple of helpful folks on the Facebook birding page I belong to have confirmed my identification.
Apparently, one of the tell-tale signs is their dark legs, and they also have ‘relatively short primary projection compared with Willow warblers’. I had to google that one, and discovered: ‘Primary projection is the distance between the tip of the tertial feathers and the tip of the primary feathers, usually given as a ratio of the projection to the tertial length, vis. 1/2 tertials double the primary projection which is typical of Chiffchaff, whilst 3/4 (projection three quarters of tertial length) is more typical of Willow Warbler.’ If you’re still baffled, there’s an excellent visual comparison here, and I found a great BTO video, comparing the two species, on Youtube.
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