Tag Archives: Ely embankment

14/366 Peter and friends

14 Tuesday Jan 2020

Posted by in birds, nature, winter

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During my early morning walk my little Redshank friend Peter (the bird ringed at Peterstone in 2016, hence my name for him) was on the foreshore where the River Ely flows into Cardiff Bay.

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And he wasn’t alone – his companions included 5 other Redshanks, 21 Turnstones (a large number for this site), 1 Pied and 5 Grey wagtails, 7 Great crested grebes, 2 Mute swans, 7 Mallards, 5 Goosanders, and the usual large numbers of Coots and gulls.

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Were there so many birds because they were all sheltering from Storm Brendan’s wild winds or is it simply that I need to walk early more often?

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326/365 Return of the Redshanks

22 Friday Nov 2019

Posted by in autumn, birds, nature

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This morning’s stomp along the Ely embankment produced my first Redshank sightings there of the autumn / winter.

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And they’re late – in 2017 I saw them first on 22 October and last year it was the 30th. Of course, other Redshanks may already have arrived in Cardiff Bay and I simply haven’t seen them.

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This morning I saw three and, even better news, one of the birds was ‘Peter’, a ringed bird I’ve also seen in previous years (and blogged about here, and his life story is here). Welcome back, my Redshank friends!

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283/365 Nom, nom, nom

10 Thursday Oct 2019

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191010 herring gull (1)

It’s difficult to share this juvenile Herring gull’s enthusiasm for the large dead fish it had discovered on the embankment of the Ely River where it flows in to Cardiff Bay, but food is food and the bird’s scavenging was removing a potentially very smelly object from the foreshore. Well done, that gull!

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106/365 Snoozing

16 Tuesday Apr 2019

Posted by in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature

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190416 female mallard

Some days, when it’s grey and misty and still a bit damp from the morning’s rain, the best thing to do is tuck your head under your wing and snooze the afternoon away – at least that seems to have been the opinion of this female Mallard on the Ely embankment today.

99/365 Yellow dishwashers

09 Tuesday Apr 2019

Posted by in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature

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I knew that one of the Pied wagtail’s vernacular names is Polly dishwasher but I’ve only just found out today that its cousin, the Grey wagtail (Motacilla cinerea), is sometimes known as Yellow dishwasher … and Barley bird, and Gypsy bird, and Winter wagtail, and Oatseed bird. Such fascinating names, and such pretty little birds. These two, a male (above) and female (below), were picking their way along the rocks of the Ely River embankment in Cardiff Bay this morning.

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88/365 A time-step of Turnstones?

29 Friday Mar 2019

Posted by in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature, seaside

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Who was it that invented the collective nouns we use for birds? Whoever it was, they came up with some crackers, though it’s hard to see the reasoning behind some of them. A cluster of Turnstones I can understand, as they do like to huddle together at times, but a bind, a contradiction and a time-step? I suppose they do look like they’re doing a little rhythmic dance at times.

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The two in my photos were part of a small cluster of seven picking and poking amongst the stones on the Ely embankment this morning when I started my walk around part of Cardiff Bay.

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59/365 The stone-turners

28 Thursday Feb 2019

Posted by in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, coastal fauna, nature

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190228 turnstone

As their name suggests, the Turnstones that frequent the stony embankments around Cardiff Bay spend their time turning over loose stones, looking for the tiny insects, molluscs and crustaceans they like to eat. And it’s that stone-turning that has led to some of their regional vernacular names: stanepecker, in Shetland, and stone raw, in Armagh. I also rather like ebb pecker, another from Shetland, and tangle picker, from Norfolk. I haven’t been able to find a Welsh name for this bird so if there is one and you know it, please do let me know.

p.s. Thanks to my friend Ceri, I can now tell you the Welsh name for Turnstone is Cwtiad y Traeth, which translates as Beach plover (Traeth means beach and Cwtiad is plover).

19/365 Hopalong Rock pipit

19 Saturday Jan 2019

Posted by in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature, winter

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It was lovely to catch up with my little friend, Hoppy the Rock pipit, as I walked along the Ely embankment today. It’s a month since I last saw him (and blogged about him – or her) and it’s always good to know s/he’s still doing okay. Today, little Hoppy was dotting around the apartment gardens and on to balcony railings quite fearlessly. I imagine the colder temperatures this week mean there’s not so much fodder at the water’s edge so Hoppy has to expand his/her grazing range.

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17/365 Goosey Goosanders

17 Thursday Jan 2019

Posted by in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature, walks, winter

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Today dawned bright and cold, the perfect day for a long walk, so I took myself out for a long stroll down to Penarth Marina, across the Cardiff Bay Barrage and around to the wetlands reserve, and then back again. These Goosanders – a male at the front and a snoozing female behind, with a second female just out of the frame – were the first birds I saw when I reached Cardiff Bay. Such handsome creatures.

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10/365 The return of the ringed Redshank

10 Thursday Jan 2019

Posted by in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature, seaside, winter

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I was delighted during today’s walk along the Ely embankment to be reacquainted with this ringed Redshank I first saw back in January 2017. You can read this Redshank’s personal history in one of my previous blogs here.

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