Season's Greetings

Season's Greetings and wishing all our readers a great birding 2011 from Jeff,Dan,Wayne,Tim,Kevin and "The Twitchmeister".

Snowman by "The Twitchmeister":Image by Dan.

The Big Freeze

Had a few hours out on my own today with the camera calling into Parc Slip,Kenfig Pool and Eglwys Nunydd Reservoir before heading for home.

Robin on reeds:Parc Slip NR

Water Rail through the reeds:Parc Slip NR

Greater Scaup:Eglwys Nunydd

Goldeneye:Eglwys Nunydd

Birds in the Garden

It's a little difficult to get nice crisp shots through the kitchen window when its chucking it down with snow, but here's proof that I get birds in my garden. Goldfinch on Purple Loosestrife

Llanishen "Berryfest"

After taking Teresa to M&S at Culverhouse Cross I couldn't resist the temptation of calling over to Llanishen and caught up with 50-60 Waxwings and literally hundreds of Redwings in Fishguard Road this afternoon,almost got my head knocked off as well by a marauding Sparrowhawk !!

Ogmore Estuary

After a bit of a lay-in this morning and with the main road down the valley just about passable in places after the heavy snow I headed out at mid-day down to Ogmore-By-Sea,I phoned Peter Morgan on the way down and met him at Broadlands in Bridgend where he was having a stroll around looking for Waxwings.

We soon arrived at a snowy Ogmore and the river was teeming with birds all trying to find some food in the harsh conditions.

Common Teal were plentiful and the usual group of Goldeneye were also around,plenty of gulls and a few waders including Ringed Plover,Dunlin,Lapwing (there were several hundred down river),Snipe and Redshank.There was also a female Goosander further down river,one of several that have been wintering for the past couple of months.

We moved on towards Southerndown parking at West Farm and walked across towards the car park in the hope of finding the topically named Snow Bunting that had recently been reported from there.

Plenty of Meadow Pipits,Skylarks,winter thrushes and in the distance over the fields a good size flock of Lapwings and another of Curlew with a lone Grey Heron passing through.

A fly through Peregrine was a fine sight but try as we did we couldn't locate the Snow Bunting.

With the light starting to fade I dropped Peter in Bridgend and got home in time to see the Ospreys put one over on Munster in their Heineken Cup pool match with an awesome scrummaging display !!