Often, my first indication of the presence of a Meadow pipit (Mipit is the contraction often used by birders) is its pip-pip-pip call as it flies away. They are notoriously flighty birds, despite their markings providing such good camouflage that we often hear them before we have any chance of seeing them. I hear/see these birds in the fields at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park and also along the edges of Cardiff Bay, which is where the two birds below were foraging for food.

This first bird was fossicking around the pebbles and amongst the vegetation of the embankment of the River Ely where it flows in to Cardiff Bay.

And the second bird was on the edge of the Barrage. I’m fairly sure this was a juvenile – rather than fly away immediately on seeing me, it huddled very close to the board edging the grassed area, as if that would make it invisible.