Sightings

Main sighting: Weekly roundup

Quieter on the bird front today. Hide one – herring gulls, blackbirds, 2 male and 1 female pintail, nada geese, 61 greylags (my highest count here), 40 shoveler, 143 teal, 1 shelduck, 77 wigeon, 15 redshanks, crows, magpies, female marsh harrier, starlings, 3 cormorants and a pair of stonechats. Hide two – 124 lapwing, moorhen, 1 little egret and meadow pipits. Snipe platform – goldfinches, woodpigeons, coot, pair of tufted duck and another male and ls black-backed gulls. Marsh platform – cettis calling. Seawall – raven, 7 grey plovers, 9 dunlin, black headed gulls, 21 curlew and 37 oystercatchers. Hide three – long-tailed duck showing on lagoon to right of the hide, 20 more teal, 12 more shoveler, 54 more wigeon, 2 swans, 8 gadwall and pied wagtails. By the car park on way out, 2 fieldfare’s only, 2 wrens, robin and chaffinch.
Merry Christmas all and a happy new year…

Main sighting: Cross bills

Good numbers of cross bills feeding on the pine cones.

Main sighting: Great White Egret

A surprising location for this species. A single bird was feeding in a field on the Pontypool road out of Usk.

Main sighting: Sparrow Hawk

Sparrow Hawk
20+ bull finch
Green woodpecker
Yesterday 19th Dec 23, at Roath Park Lake, Cardiff feral pigeons – 2 chick’s in nest

Main sighting: Various

At Monmouth boys’s school playing fields, 200+ common gulls. Llanbadoc church, a great spotted woodpecker, 3 greenfinch, fieldfare, 2 redwing, mistle thrush, goldfinch. At Cefn Ila, stock dove, green woodpecker, buzzard. At Llandegfedd resr, 37 Canada geese, 90 mallards, 25 cormorants, a grey heron, 2 great blackbacked gulls

Main sighting: Weekly roundup / Common Gull

En-route to hides: pheasant, crows, starlings, herring gulls, Canada geese, kestrel, chaffinch, heron, woodpigeons, magpie, lt egret, robin and goldcrest. Hide one – 10 avocet, 51 curlew, 205 lapwing, 11 redshank, moorhen, 235 lapwing, 6 teal and 2 buzzards (including the light morph one). Hide two – blackbirds, wren, 6 gadwall and 2 shoveler. Snipe platform – long tailed duck showing well, redwings and fieldfares (lower numbers), meadow pipits, coot, 51 wigeon, raven, greylag, and in the field behind, 2 more lt egrets with another heron, 1 black headed and 1 common gull. Hide three – cettis, pair stonechats, 3 male and 2 female tufteds, mallards, 128 wigeon, another 241 teal, another 18 shoveler, 4 swans, lt grebe, peregrine harassing the lapwings and 2 song thrushes.

Main sighting: Crossbill

Four birds flew over Handpost area of town.

Main sighting: Juvenile Northern Diver

Juvenile Northern Diver

Main sighting: Black Swan

3pm, after a short walk around Caldicot Castle grounds, I saw a lone Black Swan on a large flooded meadow off the Nedern Brook, not far from the entrance car park.

Main sighting: Hen Harrier / Bittern

En-route to hides – blue tits, crows, magpies, sparrows, starlings, collard dove, blackbirds, chaffinch and woodpigeons. Today redwings far outnumbered fieldfares. Hide one – teal numbers well up currently at 245, 330 lapwing, Canada geese, 6 redshanks, 3 swans, 40 greylags, , 222 wigeon, 46 shoveler, pair of peregrines calling and chasing each other and a distant female marsh harrier. Hide two – bittern showed at 0900, flew off from in front of hide at 0924 towards Red Barn, cettis, ravens, 6 gadwall, 5 shelduck, and meadow pipits. Marsh platform – 1 male and 3 female tufteds and coot. Seawall – 1 oystercatcher only, 24 curlew, 5 grey plover wiht 2 dunlin mixed in. Hide three – long-tailed duck still showing, 21 more shoveler, 15 more wigeon, 2 cormorants, barnacle goose, male pintail, mallards, stonechats, wren, kestrel and the highlight of the morning – a male hen harrier that passed right in front of the hide and headed across towards the Point. Back at hide two – 1 black-tailed godwit

Main sighting: Greenfinch

At least nine Greenfinches and a Reed Bunting in the garden this morning.

Main sighting: Long-tailed Duck

Long-tailed Duck. In left water body, behind the Island