East and West

Having decided to have a weekend off from the caravan and won a stack of "brownie points" by taking Teresa to Cardiff shopping on Saturday I took the opportunity of meeting up with Rob Mitchell on Sunday who agreed to show me around the Cardiff foreshore area.

Rob and myself share the same interest in bird photography and having both bought digital SLRs in 2009 are "feeling our way" in this wonderful hobby.

Rob's a Nikon man and I'm a Canon man but we both use the same "Bigma" (Sigma 150-500mm zoom) lens(we have one each,we don't share !!)

I met Rob up at the Cefn Cadlan Dotterel twitch back in May and we agreed to get togethor when we could both make it.

We couldn't have picked a nicer day with clear blue skies and warm sunshine,we met up at Lamby Lake and then headed down Cors Crychan Reen towards the foreshore.

As we approached the foreshore Rob recognised Clive Ellis walking the sea wall and Clive joined us to walk west of the "Black Pipe" towards the small "beach" area where Rob had recently managed some great shots of LRP and White Wagtail.

There were a few wagtails flitting about but our attention was drawn to a cracking pair of Bar-Tailed Godwits wading in the shallow surf.

They were quite confiding and with care we managed to approach quite close and were both able to get some nice "images".

On our way to the beach area a pair of GS Woodpeckers had crossed our path and the small patch of trees behind the beach held several Robins,tits and a couple of Chiffchaffs.

A Stonechat perched up on neaby brambles in the sunshine enabling me to get a quick shot.

Clive decided to leave us to it and we walked a little further west towards the Rhymney Estuary but the high tide had pushed all the waders on to the shore on the other side of the estuary so everything was really distant with few good photo opportunities.

We headed back and as we walked along the path at the side of the reen we bumped into John Wilson who had been carrying out his WeBS count and chatted for a few minutes,a little further along and we heard the call of a pair of local Common Buzzards overhead as they circled the fields and nearby tip.

We got back to the car and after a quick circuit of Lamby Lake Rob headed for home,I'd really enjoyed visiting an area that I'd never birded previously and both Rob and myself had managed to get a couple of decent "snaps".

I decided to stay out for the day and headed west to Eglwys Nunnydd reservoir to try to photograph the Black Terns and Common Tern that had been reported from there in the morning.

After a fruitless call in to KNNR on the way I arrived at Eglwys and bumped into Gary Welsbey who confirmed that the birds were still around,I also met Peter and Simon Murray as I walked to the east end of the water before chatting with George Morgan who was just leaving.

The birds were favouring the middle of the reservoir and so I walked around to the far side to get the sun behind me only for the birds to move further away and closer to the side I had just walked from !! Sods law !!

I managed to get a few shots of the Common Tern as it ducked and dived over the water.

The Black Terns seemed to be favouring the opposite side of the reservoir (aaargh...!!) so I walked back around and although I'd be shooting almost into the sun I hoped I'd get some half decent record shots.

The light was soon starting to fade and I was getting hungry (as you do !),time to head for the hills.I'd had a great day out,Rob was great company and I'd seen and managed to photograph some really good birds.