Birdin' without "Baldrick"

With Wayne "Baldrick" Morris having conceived yet another "cunning plan" for a family visit to Ikea (only a stone throw from the Bonaparte's Gull) for Sat afternoon I met up with Dan and Sat a.m saw us parking up near Cardiff Yacht Club hoping to "double up" with the newly arrived Bonapartes Gull and long staying Lesser Scaup.

A brisk walk across under the flyover soon had us scanning the River Taff from the East bank for this gem of a transatlantic small gull.

Some birders on the other side of the river were on the bird and it didn't take Dan long to pick it up and get us both on it.

It was settled on the water with a large number of Black Headed Gulls and was totally unfazed by the amount of boats back and forth the river.

Also overhead were a party of six newly arrived Sand Martins,but having failed to pick up the Little Gull also on the river we headed back to Cardiff Wetland Reserve to try for the long staying Lesser Scaup.

I'd seen the LS between Xmas and New Year when it first arrived at Cosmeston CP but hadn't seen it in 2009 so it would be a welcome "year tick".

I soon picked it up in the company of several Tufties at the far end of the reserve-"piece of p***" this birdin' !!

With plenty of time on our hands we decided to pop over to Hendre Lake,St Mellons east of Cardiff for the overwintering Bittern which had been showing really well in the small reed beds in recent weeks.

First we decided to pop into Maerdy Lane to see if the Little Owl/s were roosting in their regular tree,they weren't !!

After arriving at Hendre Lake we didn't have to wait too long as the Bittern flew from one side of the lake to the other and gave great although approx 80m distant views as it foraged along the edge of the reed bed opposite the viewing platform.

There can't be too many mornings when you get Bonaparte's Gull,Lesser Scaup and great views of a Bittern all in a couple of hours, and so feeling well pleased with ourselves we headed for home for an afternoon of Six Nations rugby on the tele (ultimately pretty disappointing as Wales were bloody crap against a game but very average Italian side) !!!

Never mind,there's always next week "bring on the Irish" !!!!