Chough

A pair of chough made my lunchtime walk in Aberystwyth even more enjoyable today – flying low over the town centre and calling to each other

John Woodruff

Tuesday 28th

3 purple sandpipers at Aberystwyth.One male Black Redstart on collage
roof this morning.4 greenland White-fronted Geese among Canadas near
road bridge over the leri.2 Short-eared Owls and one ringtail Hen
Harrier over Borth bog and about a hundred Common Scoter on the sea
this afternoon.No sign of Glossy Ibis at usual place but the local
people said it had not been seen there sunday or monday except they
saw it flying over low once yesterday afternoon.

Gerard Fordham

Starlings

Love John's photos. Amazing that in the middle one on the right they have all got into a formation of another bird in flight! Can anybody else see this or do my eyes deceive me?

ABERYSTWYTH'S STARLINGS

After a successful afternoon (see below) I found myself in town in time to watch the Starlings, something I never tire of doing. This evening's performance left me speechless. I have never seen the entire roost flock in the air for so long and probably never seen so many. The first ones appeared at 5.15 and very soon the numbers reached the maximum and it was not until 5.50 did they all begin to dive under the pier, but not before both a Sparrowhawk and a Peregrine managed to catch supper.

Cross Inn GG Shrike

John and I visited Cross Inn this afternoon and had prolonged views of the Great Grey Shrike, he entertained us for half an hour or more. From there we headed to
Llansantffraid, just along the coast from you Liz, where we also saw Mediterranean Gulls, three of them in full summer plumage. There were 6 or 7 Red-throated Divers quite a way off shore. Our final port of call was the old College where we eventually got a good eyeful of male Black Redstart.

curlew and med gull

Llanrhysted today: 73 curlew plus 2 adult full hooded Med Gulls amid a couple hundred Black Headed which weren't, on the field by the campsite. A small group of mixed waders, a few grey plover, dunlin and 1 sanderling were hiding in the cobbles.
Yesterday I picked up a dead sanderling at Ynys Las; its feathers were very worn and its breastbone stuck out sharply so somewhat under-nourished.
On way home 150 lapwing over the south end of Cors Caron.

Tuning Up

Was pleasantly surprised at 4.50 yesterday to hear a Blackbird repeating a few phrases, it seems a long time...................

David,
Felinfach

Great Grey Shrike

Andy James and myself had the Cross Inn Shrike at about 9.00 am today - fairly active.

Ian Harrison

RHOS LLAWRCWRT

A pleasant weekend at Llawrcwrt NNR. On Saturday a Short eared Owl, the second both in 3 months and 29 years. On Sunday a couple of “pipits” flying in over extensive grassland, turned into Treecreepers on landing in the edge of an oak wood. I don’t think I’ve ever seen two together before, I’ve certainly not recognised them as such flying out in the open.

The Kestrel seems to have been pretty much a fixture since Christmas and has twice been seen stooping, in a fairly half hearted manner at the resident Buzzards.

David Woolley

WHOOPER SWANS

A report from Chris Bird of 5 Whooper Swans on Llyn Eiddwen this afternoon. 2 were ringed and he thinks he got the numbers on them so we wait to get the details back from the ringers.

Also, 150 Fieldfares at Tyn Celyn.

SUMMER VISITORS BACK AT TRISANT

No, not what you are thinking, but up here at Trisant, Great Crested Grebes are summer visitors, residing here for a few months every year.

Today a pair were on one of the lakes and this lone bird on another, constantly looking about and calling, waiting for his mate to arrive.

Skylarks and barn owl

Yesterday morning at dawn there was a barn owl hunting over the fields by the bridge over the Leri at Ynyslas. Today in the sunshine skylarks were very active singing and skirmishing on the moorland between Nant y Moch and Llyn Craigypistyll.

Blu tits

After reading the article on blue tits and robins it reminded me of ringing 98 blue tits in about 3 hours on a cold winters day in Chris Birds garden, Llangwyryfon. Not suprisingly hardly any retraps that morning. These birds live such secret lives we cannot comprehend!

Cross Inn woods, Great Grey Shrike

So soon after I had said that I hadn't seen one this winter, lo and behold, a shrike was posing well at its usual location in the main clearing at 9:20am today.

Robins & Blue Tits

I thought I had a pair of Robins and recently a third appeared resulting in much posturing and the occasional fight however a friend, Brenda Cook who holds a licence for bird ringing, visited this last week and in a couple of days had ringed 6 Robins in my garden. This morning, over breakfast I observed another two Robins both were without rings so it seems that at least 8 Robins visit the garden. Have to say I find it rather confusing as I had always understood that by now territories would have been firmly established, perhaps the garden is on the corner of four territories!

Last November Brenda ringed 73 Blue Tits and during this last week a further 70 were ringed plus several birds ringed last year were re-trapped which is good news that they have survived the winter. I am astounded at the numbers of Blue Tits for again, over breakfast watching the feeder through binoculars I reckon that only 1 in 8 Blue Tits had a ring. Knowing nothing about statistics and probabilities but still able to do multiplication that would indicate a population of over 1,000 Blue Tits pass through the garden in Blaenpennal during the day. If this is the case then it would explain why my store of sunflower seeds is diminishing so rapidly!

These two examples suggest that the data I put in for the recent Garden Bird Watch may be somewhat understated so I leave it to the statisticians to work their magic!

Alan Lyne

Glaucous & Iceland on the Teifi

From Jon G. news of 1st yr Glaucous Gull and a 1st yr Iceland Gull on the sands at the Teifi pre-roost at 17:07 this evening.
15 minutes later we were watching the Iceland Gull, but the Glaucous had moved off. Med. Gulls were now up to 5 with 4 adults and a 1st yr.

Plascrug Kingfisher

The Plascrug Kingfisher exists! We had begun to think he / she was a myth. We had glorious views outside the tax office at about 4.20 this afternoon.

Pete and Jenni Hyatt

Observations from David Lucas

We have a small 'vulture' at our feeders.

A Nuthatch has found a convenient niche on the top rail of the trellis on which the feeders are situated in which in it wedges black sunflower seeds, to hammer them open. As soon as the 'vulture' - a female House Sparrow, sees this it places itself opposite the Nuthatch, to take advantage of its technique by darting in and out, trying to steal the seed. As soon as the Nuthatch goes for seconds, the House Sparrow dashes in to clear up whatever is left.

Once again this year I have been observing our Robins. Early in the season one of them had a territory including the feeding area, the other bird's territory was close enough to the feeders for it do dash in for food when the owner was not about. There was, of course plenty of aggression, but as the season went on the 'feeder territory' bird became more tolerant and we have a pair. ' Feeder territory' is much bolder and the other is quite timid with a richer coloured breast and slightly more red to the rear of the eye. They have been taking meal worms for some time and come to call and at last - confirmation as I saw one begging and the other feeding it. The recipient, the female I guess, is the bird with the brighter breast.

The last time we had a 'cheeky' robin it used come quite close to me and 'tseep', very quietly for food. I heard the current female making the same sound when begging from the male. The male will come close and sings to me, but again, very, very quietly. He also sits on a japonica branch alongside me as I sit having breakfast in the conservatory and as soon as I get up it flies to the conservatory door for breakfast.

It's a tough job, but someone has to do it!

David, Felinfach

Stuff for sale

I have a scope and an MP4 for sale. The scope is an Optolyth and the MP4 has British and European bird calls and songs on it. Go to the News & Events link if you're interested.

A message from Moira

The BTO Nest Recording Scheme is organising four nest-finding training courses this summer. Details are on the web:
www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/nrs/taking-part/training-courses

The courses are aimed at both new and established ringers/recorders wanting to improve their nest finding skills. New nest recordersare particularly welcome. If you know anyone who might like to attend a course, please pass the message on.

MASQUERADING EGRET

When Chris Bird receives a call from a local farm at Trefenter to say that a large white bird has been feeding amongst cattle for over a fortnight, one can imagine the thoughts going through his head. So, also imagine his disappointment when he views the bird and sees that it is a Little Egret!

Nevertheless it is an interesting record both in terms of the bird's behaviour and its inland presence with no open water nearby.

 

Impolite Ibis

Sorry, but I couldn't resist it!

Goosander

Pair of goosander by Trefechan Bridge this lunchtime

John Woodruff

Pont Gogoyan

Just had a reliable report from a neighbour that there is a Little Egret near the bridge.

Teifi Marshes, a thank you & sightings

Firstly a massive Thank You to John Thomas, Tommy Evans and the rest of the Tuesday work party on the Reserve. Whilst some of the Ringing Group have been away in Uganda, see Teifi Ringing Group for more new photos, they have been re-cutting and maintaining our CES ringing rides. I estimate they have contributed c15 man-days work, a enormous help to us and the CES ringing scheme.

On the river 3 Goldeneye and 1 pair Goosander. 2 Grey Plover at The Webley. c40 Dunlin and 10 Ringed Plover on Patch. Several Little Grebes are still on the main river, and at least 2 Little Egrets.

Displaying BoPs

This morning's walk from Llanerchaeron to Aberaeron and back had a real spring feel to it with lots of resident birds in song. As the weather steadily improved a good number of raptors started to appear above the woods on either side of the valley including displaying pairs of Sparrowhawk and Goshawk.

Med gull, Aberystwyth

Med gull feeding with the gulls by Aber pier yesterday afternoon at high tide.

Glossy Ibis

The Ibis was still present at Borth at 10:00 today and looking particularly glossy in the bright sunshine.

Cors Fochno

4 Greenland whitefronts on Glandwr fields again today, looking rather small alongside a small group of Canada's. The whitefront have been been present most of the week, usually grazing at a distance from Canada's and one day seen flying in from the south-east. Also, around 100 Teal, a Little Egret and a pair of Gadwall on the pool.

Mike Bailey

The great display

Went looking for Willow Tits above Llanfair Clydogau in areas where I've found them before, but no luck. About 30 Ravens were displaying together as a tight group over Bryn Cysegrfa, tumbling and swooping. A closer look showed some of them were 'paired' up, doing that parallel flying thing they do and then suddenly exploding out of the mass before rejoining again.
Male Goldeneye still present at Pant pool and over 100 Wigeon at Pont Gogoyan.

Bird Group Field Trip today

Hi All,

Well it was definitely the right thing to do to cancel the field trip this morning - it was absolutely dreadful up here with sheeting rain and wind, but maybe we should have just moved it to this afternoon because we are now basking in clear blue sky!! That's Wales for you I suppose.

Lets hope for better luck next time.

Happy birding!
Rachel

Fieldfares

Beulah ~ 50 Fieldfares feeding in the field at the bottom of my garden.

Penny Leonard

Ynyslas this afternoon

The 150 or so wigeon at Ynyslas this afternoon looked nearly as damp and cheesed off with the weather as me. There were also 11 ringed plover, a great-crested grebe and a female eider there. I didn't count the shellduck, oystercatcher and curlew and although I only saw 1 brent goose I think there may have been a few more hidden from view. I hear a hose-pipe ban may be imposed in South Wales and other parts of the UK soon.........

Bird Group Field Trip Cancelled

Please spread the word - the field trip due to take place this Saturday, 18th Feb has been cancelled due to the weather forecast.

choughs,grey plovers and a med gull

Wed Llanon: a dozen chough on the low cliff where the stream empties into Cardigan bay and further north along the beach around 30 grey plovers (21 counted earlier but more had arrived when they flew off later), 12 dunlins, 3 sanderling and 10 redshank. At the mouth of the river through the campsite at Llanrhysted a single adult Med gull with the mixed group of gulls. Otter prints in the sand north of the river also.

Aberystwyth at high tide

Today at high tide there were 21 Turnstone on the College Rocks very close in and two were on South Beach at Castle Rocks. And a Great Crested Grebe was fishing off shore seen from the southern end of South Beach.

Steffi Meier

Short Eared owl, Ynyslas

Shortie hunting over the Ynyslas dunes this afternoon.



Guess the kite didn't like the competition Kev!

Glossy-not so glossy!

He's still there and blimey there must thousands of worms per sq. foot in that paddock (now unfrozen , it resembles the Somme) judging by the amount he swallowed.

Popped a pic in to show the gull causing some hassle , tho' it soon gave up. Interestingly a Kite swooped down and fluhed him and then chased him quite a long way, but eventually he returned:now why would the Kite do that???

Firecrest 1 - Water Pipit 0

Andy James and I looked for the Water Pipit on Aberaeron north and south beaches bewteen 12.00 and 13.20 but to no avail. (Didn't visit the blog until shortly before midday unfortunately.) A lot of half-term visitors with dogs as well as children didn't really help. We walked as far as the cliffs before Aberarth - 32 Oystercatchers and 14 Curlew, but no pipits at all.

But I did have a new garden bird this morning - a Firecrest in the hedgerow.

Ian Harrison

Water pipit at Aberaeron

I'm pretty sure that there is a water pipit between the groynes on the north beach. It didn't hang around for me to go back toTregaron for the memory card accidentally left out of my camera so have only one blurry shot. Bri saw it later at around 4 so perhaps, Ian H, you might see it?

Aber Peregrine

Decided me and flatmates needed a kick about of the football so we
trundled down to the car park adjacent to the bus depot (opposite co-op),
just over the bridge. This was about 4:20 pm so the flocks of starlings
were beginning to filter down low over the houses towards pier. As we
looked up at a small flock, a peregrine raced in from behind a snatched a
starling right above our heads. You could actually hear the unlucky bird
scream! As non-birders, my mates are now a lot more enthused.

Mike Waller.

More Lapwings

A flock of 80 Lapwings with 50 Golden Plover on fields with recently spread dung just south of Tyn-y-Graig.

Philip Ellis

More late postings

This morning (Wednesday 8th Feb)at high tide on South Beach were 1 Grey Plover and 7 Ringed Plover. The Grey Plover was very flighty so I only managed a poor record shot. But I did see its white rump and black armpits as it flew off south. It landed further on on the beach but then was scared off by the road cleaners and flew further south out of sight.
On the small beach by the marina were the male Stonechat, a female Bullfinch and a Redshank.

This afternoon on the rocks just north of the pier were about 20 Turnstones, 2 Ringed Plover and a Med Gull. A Goosander was feeding on the mouth of the Ystwyth and a Ringed Plover was feeding on the steps of the stone jetty.



Steffi Meier

Yes it is Spring!

Spring has sprung! As well as the birds going through their spring prebreeding routines of squabbling over nest boxes etc, frog spawn appeared in our garden pond overnight and today the frog's were really having a Valentine's Day Ball! Interestingly 12 days earlier than last year.

Paintings of Glossy Ibis at Borth

Paintings of Glossy Ibis at Borth from day of the 7th and 8th.
Chris Wallbank

Some pictures sent in during my absence

Rhys Thatcher sent these pictures, taken at Ynys-hir on Saturday 11th Feb.
Thanks Rhys, I think they're lovely.

Sightings from Ian Harrison

A female Blackcap in my Aberaeron garden today. Feeding on stored fallen apples which are then cut and thrown out from late December onwards. Normally Blackbirds, Starlings, an occasional Bullfinch, corvids so a Blackcap was a bonus.

Ian Harrison

Is it nearly spring yet?

A walk this morning between Stags Head and Comins Capel Betws located 3 Willow Tits at 2 locations but no Marsh Tits on this occasion. Also 6 Goosanders were on Penlon pool near Stags Head.

lapwings

Yes Ian, I under-counted the flock on the eastern edge of Cors caron today: my photo revealed 290 birds not, as per my guesstimate, 150! I wonder if we are seeing a recent influx from frosty Europe? Andy has been seeing around 200 split into smaller groups during his webscounts on the bog earlier this year.

Lapwings

There seem to be quite a lot of Lapwings about it seems to me. This evening there were about 500 at Post Bach.

KINGFISHER AT LAST!

A kingfisher flew off the FFlur near the new bird hide on Cors Caron this morning, first I've seen on the bog for a long time.
Around 150 lapwing and 26 golden plover were on fields to the east. 19 stock doves at Maes Llyn and as usual 2 willow tits calling in the hedge. The heronry at Maes Llyn has started up as evidenced by the squawking from on high and multiple birds around the edge of the lake. 20 teal, 4 pairs of tufted ducks and around 40 wigeon also there.

Goosanders and Scoters

There were a fine pair (male and female) of goosanders at lunchtime today (Sunday 12th)
in Aberystwyth fishing just under the bridge by Rummers and then down into
the marina. Amazingly close views - completely not what I'm used to! Also
a flock of Common Scoter just off shore visible from the Glengower pub.

Mike Waller.

Llanrhystud - Saturday:

17 teal, 10 dunlin, 3 redshank on flooded field
Stonechat by reeds
50+ lapwing in field near main road, a few curlew dotted among them
Kestrel near lime kilns
Merlin in field next to large shed
30 turnstones on beach

and lots of gulls!

Aline

A few pics from last week

Having had a few minor glitches in downloading photos last week here are a few of one of our more common garden birds taken last Wednesday.

Bittern

The Bittern was showing really well in the pool below the car park at Ynys Hir today. I was able to stroll over to the car to collect my lunch and carried on watching it in between bites of sandwich and swigs of tea at the picnic tables.

Borth/Ynyslas/Clettwr

Ibis still in Borth, but very little off Ynyslas Turn this morning - just half a dozen GC grebes. At the beach car park there were 3 Dunlin with the Ringed Plover, and the female Eider hauled herself out of the water with the wigeon for a preen. Then along to Clettwr, where there were plenty more birds: one blackwit with the redshank, lapwing, curlew and teal; two water pipit; 100+ golden plover; and a ringtail Hen Harrier hotly pursued by a crow, until she sat down in a dead tree in the centre of the channel.

Daniel Burgarth and Simon Cox

Back home

Apologies to all those who have sent info and pictures that haven't been published over these last two weeks, I've been away meeting my new grandson in Delhi.
(Also seeing some fantastic birds in Kerala!)
Please don't stop sending stuff to go on the blog, now I'm back I'll be happy to resume posting your observations and photographs.

Bob.

ABERYSTWYTH

At high tide this morning there were 7 Purple Sandpipers by the castle and 5, including these 3 by the wooden jetty by the harbour. Also 19 Turnstones and 11 Ringed Plovers on South Beach.

Later, the Glossy Ibis was still at Borth and 2 Short-eared Owls were hunting over the Ynyslas dunes.

At low tide on College Rocks, Aberystwyth there was an adult Mediterranean Gull with quite well developed breeding plumage.

ibis ring history

8J9 was ringed as a chick on 07/05/2007 on the Coto Donana, southern Spain according to the mid-wales ringers blog. 1720kms south of Borth!
I saw about 600 on the Barbate marshes just south of Coto Donana in Oct last year and have about a dozen ring numbers in my notebook. Was wondering who to e-mail so now Tony Cross can tell me!

More from Weds

First , Many thanks to John for info and then Mike for kind remarks !

A great day on Weds. round Borth etc.cept no Bittern , but got this Kestrel hunting beetles from the horse shed and the Curlew by the caravans,. needless to add the B. Reds was on the College.

Plas Crug ditch

For Kev and others who don't know Aber so well: Plas Crug avenue is a tree lined walk that runs between Alexandra Road (gates at the roundabout before the bus station) south-east to Plas Crug primary school (i.e. past Argos/Iceland carpark). The small ditch borders it in the NE side, and looks rather uninspiring - but can be a favourite kingfisher haunt in winter, and occasionally turns up the odd water rail. Apparently it was once a mill leat that fed the Aberystwyth town mill, first mentioned in 1280!

Pale Buzzard etc

Yes there is a very pale Buzzard around Bont Rhydtir south of Bow Street. I noticed one also today in one of our fields close by. There have been a number around for the last few years but today's was undoubtedly one of the palest I have seen.

Well done Kev on achieving 'photo of the week' on Bird Guides this week for a cracking pic of a 'Skating Mandarin' on the Llandod Lake.

Yesterday after spending some time photographing the Ibis -- or Borth Pterodactyl when seen in flight -- a quick visit to Ynyslas/ Leri produced a large number of Teal, Wigeon, Curlew together with a couple of Shelduck and Pintail and a hunting Kestrel but no Bittern or Short Eared Owl. Has anyone seen the Shorties recently? My last sighting was on 28th Jan.

Travels of a young Sandwich Tern

You may recall that last August on 3rd, I saw this colour-ringed juv Sandwich Tern at Ynyslas. (Yellow ECL)

It had been ringed as a chick on 24th June at the Ythan Estaury in north east Scotland.

Ewan Weston of the Grampian Ringing Group tells me that a few days ago, on 7th, it was seen in Namibia at the Walvis Bay Oyster Beds.

Question???

Jon-where is this Plas Crug Ditch? Is it behind Morris???
Cheers Kev.

Not the ibis or the redstart

...but fantastic photos, Janet and Kev !

There was a very smart Kingfisher fishing along the Plas Crug ditch in Aberystwyth yesterday lunchtime - the stretch next to the old tax office. It's obviously very used to passing pedestrians and dogs - completely oblivious to them, and allows nice close views (Didn't have a camera with me, unfortunately!)

This morning a very pale buzzard was near the railway embankment S of Bow Street - so pale on the upper wings in flight that I almost took it for an immature gull at first glance. One of the Rheidol birds? (have you seen it Mike?)

Not that Ibis again!

I'm not apologising. When we get this sort of visitor you have to capitalise!! Thanx to Jan for the nod and company. Interestingly , not even the local helicopter landing 150 yards away deterred the Ibis from his worms!!!

Re:Glossy Ibis and Bittern at Borth

Sorry this is a bit late but no time until today to post. On Tuesday I went to look for the Glossy, as I wasn't sure exactly where the bird had been seen I tried the fields around the Leri without succes and moved on towards Borth stopping off by the newish wooden horse shed on the Borth golf course. There is similar fencing to that showing on Janet's photos. Just to the Borth side of the shed and behind it are some pools of water and backed by reeds, as I scanned this area a bittern walked out of the reeds and along the edge before going back into the reeds. Just luck on my part. At the Glossy site, in the field to the north of the Community Hall the bird was showing well and it showed the breeding plummage blue edging around both upper and lower mandibles.

Dancing on Ice

At the risk of being repetitive the Glossy ibis and Black redstart were showing well again today in the sun. Nowhere near as cold as Geneva but enough ice for the ibis to go skating in Borth. About 12 Reed buntings visited my garden feeder at Ynyslas, and a couple of Common gulls on the golf course. No sign of a bittern though.

There's Cold Weather and Really Cold Weather

 This is what really cold weather looks like, beside Lake Geneva near where my daughter and new baby live.

  With wind chill it literally hurt to go outside and little birdwatching was achieved.

  -9C during the day, at best, it is little wonder that birds from the Continent will be moving west, towards us.

Skomer seabird talk, Aber

In case anyone is interested:
Chris Taylor, the Warden of Skomer Island, and an ex-Aber Student, will be talking to the Stapledon Society in Aberystwyth University about current trends in seabird populations on Skomer. The talk will be at 7.45pm on the 9th of February in C4 of the Hugh Owen Building (please note that this location has changed from the note put into the university weekly email this week –gone for a bigger room). Skomer has an active and exciting research programme which will also be covered. Chris asks: please bring your questions about seabirds.

Ibis and redstart

Glossy ibis still at Borth and Black redstart showing well round Old College, Aber, this afternoon

Another bittern!

Well, what a coincidence. Five minutes after writing the blog re bittern at Ynys-hir Mervyn Lloyd phones to say he is watching a bittern on a small pool near Ynyslas turn (near where the horses are on the road to Borth). Not often we get two in the county on the same day!

Bittern at Ynys-hir

Happening to glance out of the Visitor Centre window I noticed something slowly walking across the ice on the pool below the car-park. Quickly getting the centre scope on it I realised it was a bittern walking in full view to a small patch of reeds, where the water was unfrozen. As I write it is still there catching a few morsels on the edge of the ice.
Otherwise fairly quiet on the reserve today though a spotted redshank and a sanderling on the edge of the Dyfi near the Domen las hide were suprises as were 21 bar-tailed godwits from the Breakwater hide.

Pencarreg Lake

In border country this afternoon there were over 45 goosanders on the lake; I would say half & half M&F. It was difficult to see & count the ones at the far end, so the number might be quite a bit higher!

Glossy ibis

Much better conditions for viewing the ibis today, it was visible all day, only taking flight when the jackdaws took off to mob a cat on a neighbouring roof.

Gulls and other bits and pieces

Large numbers of gulls at New Quay today with a noticeable increase in Common Gulls - several hundred present. Of interest was a single ad Med Gull, an ad Yellow-legged Gull and a very chunky 1st w Herring Gull that had all the attributes of argentatus (northern race).

Later, at Tregaron there were 12 Whoopers, including 3 immatures, at Ystrad Caron, 24 Stock Doves on stubbles by Maesllyn and a Ring-tailed Hen Harrier at the northern end of the bog.

Nice pickies of the Glossy by the way.

Glossy Ibis

Thanks to Janet (again) for your help with the Ibis this afternoon, and for your company. Bird still showing well in some nice light this lunchtime.

Garden Birds

A Sparrowhawk carried out a mad feeding sortie on the multitude of Tits and Chaffinches on the seed feed this morning. This evening flushed a Wodcock from our woodland garden. Another sign of cold weather movements when they occur here.

Note for Ibis spotters

Just for info: the road between Llandre and Borth is closed this weekend, so to get to Borth you either need to go via Tre'r-ddol and Ynyslas, or via the Clarach-Borth back road.

The Ibis was still there at lunchtime, looking rather miserable in the icy rain. I felt very sorry for it - bet it was wondering why on earth it left Spain and came to Wales!

Glossy ibis, Borth

Same place as yesterday. Record shots in the rain, finding plenty to eat in semi-frozen, muddy field.