Last Friday evening word came through on my local WhatsApp birding group chat that a Shag (Gulosus aristotelis) had been sighted on the River Taff. Shags are rare locally – we see on average one a year somewhere around Cardiff Bay (see A Shag even closer, September 2025, and The Birding begins, January 2024) – but this particular Shag was even more rare than usual; it had joined the regular flock of Mute swans, Mallards, Canada geese, Feral pigeons and assorted gulls coming to bread on a local slipway.

This I had to see, plus I knew the site would allow very close views of the Shag, and the location was one I often pass during one of my regular walking circuits, so I headed that way the following morning. As you can see from my photos, the Shag was still present.

There had been a suggestion put forward that the bird couldn’t fly but I don’t know how it could have got to this site if that was the case. It certainly looked healthy enough, its eyes clear, its feathers glossy, and it was preening a lot. The major concern was its behaviour – no Shag should ever come to bread, and its confused behaviour could perhaps indicate illness of some kind.

Fortunately, access to the slipway had been restricted by chain and padlock, so the Shag wasn’t being threatened by boats being launched, but dogs and people remained a threat. While I was watching the bird, two women with two very young girls walked part of the way down the slipway, the children chasing the pigeons. I politely, but firmly, asked the women to stop their children from doing that because of the danger to the ‘sick’ bird. I half expected to be abused, but they withdrew. Why people let their children chase birds at all is beyond my comprehension.

But I digress. When I passed the slipway yesterday, the Shag was no longer there, and today I’ve seen a report of a Shag in the sea off Cardiff Bay. There’s no way to tell if it’s the same bird but I certainly hope it is, and that this indicates it’s okay. Fingers crossed it never tries to eat bread again!