Scaup

A male Scaup was on the lake at Sandy Water Park this morning. It was diving constantly suggesting it was new in, perhaps overnight. Also present on the lakes; 20+ Tufted Duck, 10+ Pochard, 10+ Gadwall, 6+ Shoveler and a couple of Teal.

Scaup

Scandinavian Rock Pipits

On a post work visit to North Dock Lake last Friday, I found two littoralis Rock Pipits feeding with a couple of Pied Wagtails around the shore of the lake.

On these photos you can see the subtle tinges of blue coming through in the head, shoulders and scapulars. The underparts are relatively clean with no smudging. At times the bird appeared to show some pinky areas in the breast and around the neck, the latter of which you can see in the first photo. The legs were pinky orange and the outer tail feathers were a dull white.

The other bird, photographed bellow showed the same coloured tones in the plumage but had a slightly dirtier look to the underparts with bolder streaks. It also had a pale based to the bill and a few flecks of white above the eye - perhaps a stronger supercilium moulting through?

On Monday I heard my first singing Chiffchaff of the year, and this morning I was lucky enough to enjoy close views of some displaying Great Crested Grebes at Sandy Water Park, with four present in total.

Med Gull at breeding grounds

An adult Mediterranean Gull was at the Black-headed Gull breeding site on the Lagoon this morning, the first I've seen at the reserve all winter. Last year was the first time that Meds successfully bred anywhere in Wales so I'm hoping for a repeat this year.

Mediterranean Gull

Also present were two ringed Black-headed Gulls (White 2K61 and 2N27), both from Slimbridge, and ringed in 2007 and 2010 respectively as chicks. It'll be interesting to see if they stick around to breed.

On the Saline Lagoon there was a ringed Lesser Black-backed Gull, initially ringed at a landfill site in Gloucestershire in the winter of 2008, it has also been seen regularly during the summer along the west coast of Portugal.

Lesser Black-backed Gull - Blue CVX

Also present here were four Spotted Redshank, ten Greenshank, 18 Redshank, 379 Black-tailed Godwit, a Grey Plover, a Snipe and 85 Wigeon.

In the Millennium Wetlands I saw my first butterflies of the year; five Brimstone, two Small Tortoiseshell and a Peacock.

Peacock

The last few weeks

The last few weeks have been quite quiet bird wise, but a few notable species have included a Jack Snipe flushed from the saltmarsh along with c.30 Snipe, a Kittiwake over the estuary on a stormy day, and my only Fieldfare of the winter on Friday last week.

Lapwing numbers have dropped right off now with only single figures on the saline lagoon and a couple on the breeding site on Deep Lake.

A couple of weeks ago the four Spotted Redshank were still around but just over the last week they seem to have disappeared.

This male Goldeneye showed well a few days ago after being brought in on the spring super tide.

Goldeneye