Needed to Escape

After everything on stop for the last couple of days and not being able to get the car out it was great to escape the valleys for a couple hours. So Phil, Martin and myself headed down to Cardiff Bay to look for the recently sighted Black Redstart at the Marina. I was amazed how much more snow there was down in Cardiff. At the Marina there was no sign of the Black Red but we had big numbers of Fieldfare flying over heading west and smaller numbers of  Redwing. On the bay there was very  small numbers of small gulls. On the shoreline there was three Redshank and a hand full of Grey Wagtail and a single Rock Pipit.

Next  stop was Cossie for Yellow legged Gull and Iceland Gull and after a lap of cossie we found the second winter Yellow Legged Gull and it was great to conpare it with a second winter Herring  Gull. The only downside was it was too far for a photo but our first year tick of the day. When we stood waiting for the gulls to come in I was checking the swans rings and all were CO with a number on a blue ring but I noticed one with a Green ring and WT9 so I thought is it worth putting  the record in. I took a shot of the swan and I thought I may as well and I was quietly surprised by the news. It was rung in the Wildlife Centre West Hatch near Taunton in Somerset and it was admitted on 18 September 2014. It had came from Penpole Creek, Fowey in Cornwall. It had swallowed a fishing hook and line and was a youngster from 2013 and after rehabilitation was released on 30 January 2015 on the river at Porchy in Somerset and from there flew the channel and turned up at Cosmeston in June. It was only recorded once more in November 2015 and once more in October 2016 and my record now. Just shows it's right under everyones nose and no one had reported it.

Back to birding, when we got back to the car Martin heard Crossbill and we looked up and had 4 birds moving east and seconds later flew back west. We had a quick chat with Steve Howcroft and he told us that the Glaucous Gull near Wentloog had been seen on the Wednesday and he also told us that there was a barn owl in the owl tree. We checked the tree and there sitting in the hole was a cracking Barn Owl and our second year tick. We checked the fields for Gulls but only finding very small numbers and still more winter thrushs and starlings. We then stopped at the sluice farm and had a walk along the salt marsh but all we saw was all the common stuff. We were hoping for Jack Snipe and Water Pipit but we got the tide wrong, the best we found was 2 Common Snipe, a couple of Meadow Pipits and a single Stonechat. On the walk back we found a single Fieldfare and we could see that it was a casualty from the cold snap, it could fly and may recover in time if not found by the local foxes.

On the way home we had a quick check of Lamby lake but we found it very quiet and had very low numbers of Gulls again. Out of desperation we called back at Cossie for take two but still no joy with the Iceland Gull. We did have another Yellow Legged Gull and this time an adult.

Back in Aberdare there was still some Redwing about and they seemed to be find food a lot easier now .

After trying for weeks to get a photo of this Blackbird at the top of my street it was nice it finally played ball. Last of all I found another casualty of the weather, this Meadow Pipit on the path and so close to surviving the cold snap, always sad to see.