Sightings

Main sighting: Firecrest

Single firecrest in hedge in lane

Main sighting: Long tailed duck

A late morning very muddy walk after the heavy showers was well worth it with a female long tailed duck showing well from the Marsh hide kindly mentioned by another birder.
A peregrine having brunch, possibly lapwing and a juvenile marsh harrier hunting over the reserve.
Also female sparrowhawk hunting over the hedgerows near Red Barn.

Main sighting: Great Northern Diver

Great Northern Diver 2 female Ring-necked Duck 1 Common Sandpiper 1

Main sighting: Great White Egret

Great White Egret on the meadows by Chepstow Road/Four Ash Street. Assume same as that sighted on 20th.

Main sighting: Weekly roundup

Quieter on the bird front today. Hide one – herring gulls, blackbirds, 2 male and 1 female pintail, nada geese, 61 greylags (my highest count here), 40 shoveler, 143 teal, 1 shelduck, 77 wigeon, 15 redshanks, crows, magpies, female marsh harrier, starlings, 3 cormorants and a pair of stonechats. Hide two – 124 lapwing, moorhen, 1 little egret and meadow pipits. Snipe platform – goldfinches, woodpigeons, coot, pair of tufted duck and another male and ls black-backed gulls. Marsh platform – cettis calling. Seawall – raven, 7 grey plovers, 9 dunlin, black headed gulls, 21 curlew and 37 oystercatchers. Hide three – long-tailed duck showing on lagoon to right of the hide, 20 more teal, 12 more shoveler, 54 more wigeon, 2 swans, 8 gadwall and pied wagtails. By the car park on way out, 2 fieldfare’s only, 2 wrens, robin and chaffinch.
Merry Christmas all and a happy new year…

Main sighting: Cross bills

Good numbers of cross bills feeding on the pine cones.

Main sighting: Great White Egret

A surprising location for this species. A single bird was feeding in a field on the Pontypool road out of Usk.

Main sighting: Sparrow Hawk

Sparrow Hawk
20+ bull finch
Green woodpecker
Yesterday 19th Dec 23, at Roath Park Lake, Cardiff feral pigeons – 2 chick’s in nest

Main sighting: Various

At Monmouth boys’s school playing fields, 200+ common gulls. Llanbadoc church, a great spotted woodpecker, 3 greenfinch, fieldfare, 2 redwing, mistle thrush, goldfinch. At Cefn Ila, stock dove, green woodpecker, buzzard. At Llandegfedd resr, 37 Canada geese, 90 mallards, 25 cormorants, a grey heron, 2 great blackbacked gulls

Main sighting: Weekly roundup / Common Gull

En-route to hides: pheasant, crows, starlings, herring gulls, Canada geese, kestrel, chaffinch, heron, woodpigeons, magpie, lt egret, robin and goldcrest. Hide one – 10 avocet, 51 curlew, 205 lapwing, 11 redshank, moorhen, 235 lapwing, 6 teal and 2 buzzards (including the light morph one). Hide two – blackbirds, wren, 6 gadwall and 2 shoveler. Snipe platform – long tailed duck showing well, redwings and fieldfares (lower numbers), meadow pipits, coot, 51 wigeon, raven, greylag, and in the field behind, 2 more lt egrets with another heron, 1 black headed and 1 common gull. Hide three – cettis, pair stonechats, 3 male and 2 female tufteds, mallards, 128 wigeon, another 241 teal, another 18 shoveler, 4 swans, lt grebe, peregrine harassing the lapwings and 2 song thrushes.

Main sighting: Crossbill

Four birds flew over Handpost area of town.

Main sighting: Juvenile Northern Diver

Juvenile Northern Diver