16 Tuesday Apr 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature
Tags
#365DaysWild, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Cardiff Bay, Ely embankment, female duck, female mallard, Mallard, sleeping duck
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.
09 Tuesday Apr 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature
Tags
#365DaysWild, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Cardiff Bay, Ely embankment, Grey wagtail, Motacilla cinerea, Yellow dishwasher
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.
29 Friday Mar 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature, seaside
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.
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.
28 Thursday Feb 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, coastal fauna, nature
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 Saturday Jan 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature, winter
Tags
birding, birdwatching, British birds, Ely embankment, Hoppy the rock pipit, Rock pipit, Rock pipit with damaged claw
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.
17 Thursday Jan 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature, walks, winter
Tags
#365DaysWild, birding, British birds, Cardiff Bay, Ely embankment, Goosander, walk around Cardiff Bay
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.
10 Thursday Jan 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature, seaside, winter
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.
28 Friday Dec 2018
Tags
#7DaysofWildChristmas, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Cardiff Bay, Ely embankment, Redshank, River Ely, Turnstone
Today, on day 4 of the #7DaysofWildChristmas challenge, my search for the wild took me down to the river – the River Ely, that is – where the river flows in to Cardiff Bay and where the embankment is now edged with tall apartment blocks and where one half of the river is a marina, home to millions of pounds of water craft. It’s a path I walk often but today I was particularly delighted to see my favourite dumpy little waterbirds, the Turnstones, had returned – eleven of them – and they’d brought a friend along, a handsome Redshank that was trying uneasily to snooze while the Turnstones prospected for food to and fro.
15 Saturday Dec 2018
Tags
birding, birdwatching, British birds, Ely embankment, Rock pipit, Rock pipit with misshapen claw
Last Monday, during my stroll along the Ely embankment path, I enjoyed a close encounter with this Rock pipit. It had ventured across the pavement at the top of the stony embankment and was poking about in a pebble-filled ground-floor garden in front of one of the tall apartment blocks that border the path. I guess, to a Rock pipit, one group of stones is as good as another to explore for insects.
The Rock pipit saw me approaching and quickly hopped back across to the safety of the embankment, where it would be easier to fly away. So, I moved to stand next to a lamp post, kept completely still and waited.
As I’d hoped, the pipit decided I presented no immediate threat and, though it continued to keep a wary eye on me, it soon hopped back across to the garden again. So I was able to spend a delightful 10 minutes getting some photos and watching it foraging. It always amazes me how much food small birds like this seem able to find – tiny titbits to be sure but, presumably, enough to keep them alive.
It was only when I got home and checked my photos that I noticed the bird’s gammy right leg, with its twisted misshapen claw. This had not seemed to be causing the bird any difficulty while I was watching it. And then something stirred in my memory – I was certain I’d seen this bird before. And, sure enough, when I checked through my Rock pipit album, I had photos of this same bird in this general area taken on 27 January and 11 March 2017, and 11 and 31 January, and 14 March 2018. I’m not sure how long Rock pipits usually live but this little bird has obviously been coping remarkably well with its disability.
Same bird, 11 March 2017
11 Saturday Aug 2018
Tags
Arctic tern, autumn migration, bird migration, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Cardiff Bay, Ely embankment, Little gull, Spotted flycatcher, Turnstone, Willow warbler
It’s that time of year, tinged ever so slightly with sadness but enlivened with occasional moments of great excitement, when bird populations begin their autumn migration. My local Swifts have headed south for the winter and I shall miss their dawn and dusk screaming, the sound of summer for me, and there have been good numbers of Swallows and House martins swirling above Cardiff Bay, in a final feeding frenzy before they too head south.
I’ve spotted small flocks of Willow warblers and Chiffchaffs, moving through my local nature reserves and parks, stocking up on nutrients before they also begin their long flights. And, this week, a Spotted flycatcher became my 186th bird species for 2018, when I saw it passing through Cosmeston.
As well as those birds that are departing for sunnier wintering spots, there are also birds returning from their colder breeding locations to spend the winter in Britain’s relatively warm climes. I saw my first two returning Turnstones, still in their summer plumage, during a wander along the Ely embankment on Wednesday.
Also at Cardiff Bay this week have been a couple of those birds that provide birders, local and distant alike, with a quickening of the heart rate. First, a first summer Arctic tern arrived to join the Cardiff Bay bird population, and then a juvenile Little gull also joined the party, though neither bird has been welcomed by the local gulls.
I saw both birds being chased and mobbed on Wednesday, and a little later that same day my friend John caught some amazing shots of a Black-headed gull almost drowning the Little gull – luckily, it escaped. (Bird xenophobia? No one seems to know why the local gulls are being so aggressive.)
Above, Arctic tern being chased; below, Little gull also being pursued
Let’s hope further newcomers are given a warmer welcome to our local waters and, indeed, let’s just hope for further newcomers – there’s nothing quite like an exciting sighting to quicken a birder’s pulse!
