Starting the year at Cardiff Bay......

After yesterday's dismal weather I thought I'd start off the New Year with a visit to Cardiff Bay today hoping to catch up again with the changing plumage Long-tailed Duck and the seven Greater Scaup that have been around for a couple of weeks which I had still to photograph.
Whilst parking up I bumped into Gareth Pryce who informed me that my target birds were still present in the area of the 'sails', with my dog Pearl for company we set of across the barrage and quickly found the Scaup who were quite close in to the shore......

After nailing the Scaup I set off for the Long-tailed Duck firstly bumping into Graham Powell and chatting for a few minutes, saying my goodbyes I soon found the LTD just past the 'sails' and reasonably close in which allowed me to get some more shots of this obliging bird........

Whilst walking back to the car I came across an equally obliging Great Crested Grebe which although diving intermittently allowed me a couple of shots, they really are smart, underrated birds.......

Next stop was Penarth Marina for Black Redstart and whilst strolling around I bumped into Phil Blanning (I'm sure I was being stalked this morning !!) who was also looking for the birds, Phil asked me about the Scaup and LTD and decided to walk over to the barrage, meanwhile I had a further ten minutes searching until a text from Tim alerted me to five Waxwings near the hospital in Brecon which is the closest that they've come so far to South Wales, a mad dash followed which is the subject of another post !!