Osprey - Afon Teifi at Teifi Marshes, Cardigan

An Osprey was spotted on 31st May on the Afon Teifi perched on a branch about 70m up river from the Curlew Hide at Teifi Marshes by one of the volunteer group carrying out works.

The bird showed well if a little infrequently up to 6th June when it disappeared and favoured the same perch where it proceeded to eat it's catches after fishing.

I was lucky enough to catch up with the bird three times always at the same location, on it's perch and in flight.

The bird was ringed with a Blue ring on it's left leg which meant that it was a bird of Scottish origin.

I managed to make out the ring details from some of my photos which read 7H6 and passed this information on to Wendy James of the Teifi Ringing Group who contacted the Osprey Foundation.

Within a day or two we received feed back that the bird was one of a clutch of three from a nest on the Moy Estate located 10km south of Inverness and was ringed on 1st July 2022 by John Brain.

This would probably mean that this was it's first return migration.

We were informed that the nest is quite prolific and the parent birds produce three young most years.

Also there have been several sightings of birds from the nest over the years including one in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa.

It was such a privilege to watch and photograph this fantastic bird at relatively close quarters and was made even better by receiving the feedback of it's origin.

Here are some images taken over the three visits I made except for the two at the start of the post which were provided by John Brain the ringer taken on the day the three young were ringed.........

General Wildlife - Teifi Marshes + Afon Teifi, Cardigan

A few images taken of general wildlife whilst concentrating on Kingfishes etc......

Sparrowhawk - Teifi Marshes, Cardigan : 2nd June 2024

Myself and Teresa recently spent almost 3 weeks at our caravan at Poppit Sands, Cardigan and I made a number of visits to my favourite reserve of Teifi Marshes. 

Whilst sitting in the Kingfisher Hide with Maggie Stgeorgesproule and Mark Southgate for company a Sparrowhawk that we had seen pass a couple of times dashed across the pool clipping the head of a Little Egret and landed on one of the furthest Kingfisher perches.

It looked very much like a juvenile but was perhaps a little early in the year to be a youngster.

It then flew off but returned to the same perch a minute later posing nicely before jumping down into the shallow water where it proceeded to bathe.

This was totally amazing and behaviour that I had never seen before, it certainly made up for 'dipping' on a Kingfisher.

The three of us 'filled our boots' and although the bird was a little distant we all came away with images that we were more than pleased with.........

White-spotted Bluethoat - WWT Slimbridge : 11th May 2024

I had only ever seen the species Bluethroat on a holiday to Sharm-El-Sheikh in 2012 and had never seen one in the UK previously.

So on Saturday 11th May myself, good friend Dave Gilbert and his grandson Jenson headed to WWT Slimbridge hoping to see and photograph the returning White-spotted Bluethroat which had been showing in a small reed bed near the Shepherds Hut on the seawall.

We arrived early and accessed the reserve by the side gate quickly making our way to the seawall where a number of birders/toggers were gathered, these included a little later Rich Webb from Neath.

The bird showed intermittently if a little distant for any quality photographs so it was a case of 'record shots' only unfortunately.

We then moved on to the Kingfisher Hide where we watched a parent bird fish and take food back to the nest hole in the earth bank at the side of the pool.

The windows in the hide had been screwed shut to guard against disturbance which meant that any attempts at photography were worthless having to shoot through dirty glass.

We did enjoy watching the Kingfisher though and after an early start we headed for home mid afternoon after calling in at Frampton where Jenson spotted a Hobby which passed overhead.

A lovely day out and a UK 'tick' for the three of us.