of Peter and Richard...

The boys are back from their 1 week birding trip in Goa - trip report to follow soon. A total of 241 species seen - highlights included great views of Indian Pitta (or Peter as Mike insisted on calling it), Indian Blue Robin, Dwarf Kingfisher and White-bellied Woodpecker. Low points were losing Rob before we left and Phil and Mike missing the last couple of days with the runs. Rather strangely, we saw more Ring-necked Parakeets on the journey round the M25 this morning than we saw all week in Goa.

Herring Gull HQ

I went for a walk up Abernant and on to Bryn Pica tip. There were hundreds of Herring Gulls in the fields by the tip, also a couple of dozen Lesser Black Backed Gulls and 20 Black Headed Gulls.  In Abernant I had a male Peregrine with a kill, which looked like a Blackbird and it flew up on a pylon to pluck it. Also by the tip was a male Goshawk being mobbed by a flock of Carrion Crows and on the way down I had a female Sparrowhawk being mobbed by Magpies and Jays. One Jay got a little bit to close and nearly ended up as lunch. I got home to find 3 Mistle Thrush in garden. God I hope it's a bit warmer in Goa.

Out of Hibernation

Decided to shake myself into some sort of activity and burn some calories off, so I went for a walk in the snow. I set out up the valley from Mountain Ash heading for " Pease Park " to the check the lake and river. I found the lake 80% frozen with the remaining water holding 7 Moorhen.
I then decided to carry on to the Phurnacite lake where I found 2 Drake Goosanders, 5 Cormorants, 1 Little Grebe, 1 Lesser Black Backed Gull, 2 Moorhen and 5 Coot.
On returning to Pease Park I came across a mixed feeding flock comprising of mostly Great Tits and Chaffinch, a few Coal Tits, 1 Nuthatch and the bird of the day for me, a Willow Tit.
The lake now held 18 Moorhen and on the river was a pair of Goosanders.
On arriving back in Mountain Ash I strolled down the river and came across 10 Canada Geese including Martins previously mentioned white capped one amongst the dozens of Mallard.

Dare Valley Country Park

Early morning walk up the Country Park to check out the lakes for birds and see if frozen. On getting there I found all lakes free of ice and two lakes full of birds. There were 5 Little Grebes / 5 Tufted Ducks /2  Female Goosanders /40 Mallard / 37 Canada Geese with the white head one in the group. Also moorhen and coot present.  Highlights being two new birds for my valley list. These were 1 Lapwing and 1 Black Headed Gull. Also at the Graig a male Peregrine, which flew up in to the mist and went into a stoop and chased a Fieldfare across the sky and over the hill. The Peregrine clipped the Fieldfare but just missed it and it got away. I got back home to find a new bird in the garden which was a Mistle Thrush feeding on apples. I also  had a Fieldfare low over the garden. The main highlight today was at 1.30 pm when I had a flock of about 60 lapwing flying east down the valley. This is the most lapwings I have seen in the valley.

Late news

I've had 2 phone calls from Llwyn-onn Rangers since Monday and dipped both times; Monday 4 Scoter at Pentwyn reservoir, had left by the time I got there. Today 'diver species' on Beacons reservoir, apparently it was distant and dived before they could confirm id (probable Gt Northern). Although they hung around for some time they never saw it resurface.  I checked all 3 reservoirs but no sign but did get my first (probably the last) Merlin for the year along slope east of A470.

ABERCWMBOI LAKE

I went to the lake after work, to check out a report of two bittern which were seen over the christmas holidays.I found no sign of the birds at the lake but they could still be in the area.Only birds at the lake were,2  drake goosanders ,4 coot ,2 little grebe , 2 greylag , 1 water rail heard.

Rush hour at Rhaslas

After failing to relocate Phil and Mike's Lesser Whitethroat I zipped up to Rhaslas to view the Short-eared Owls. On arrival, just after 1:30 there were three cars on site with several birders spread round the pond. Up to 4 SEO's showed between 2 and 2:30, 1 distantly but three different birds showed quite close. By the time I left around 3:15 (no more sightings) there were about a dozen cars armed with bin's and camera's. It wasn't that busy when the Black-necked Grebes were around last May!