A Turnstone walks towards the photographer, the photo is taken at the Turnstone's eye level
Turnstones are superb, so bold, this one was quite happy to walk right up to me on Swansea breakwater yesterday #BirdingWales #birds
Close to home for this week's #SuperSeabirdSunday with this fantastic Cormorant resting on a post along the edge of Bute East Dock, Cardiff #BirdingWales
A Little Gull has been present in Cardiff Bay since 27 Feb but, as is often the case, it has either been out in the middle or the weather has been rubbish. Yesterday weather was okay and the bird was close enough to shore to manage a distant photo #BirdingWales #BirdsSeenIn2026
A female Goosander, all the female sawbills (Goosander, Red-breasted Merganser and Smew) are commonly referred to as redheads as they all have reddish heads, grey backs and whitish below.
There have been a good number of Goosander around in the Bay this winter, still a dozen or more yesterday. Rather pleased with the dark background to this female in one of the Mount Stewart Graving Docks the other day #BirdsSeenIn2026 #BirdingWales #Birds
A species of tern black above and white below with a huge black and orange bill. The lower mandible is longer than the upper
A species of tern black above and white below with a huge black and orange bill. The lower mandible is longer than the upper and this photo shows it in action. The bird flies close to the surface with the lower mandible in the water and the upper clear of the surface, if the lower mandible touches a fish the bird snaps the bill shut
For #SuperSeabirdSunday this week it's back to the Rio del Plata last January for this Black Skimmer, a slightly ungainly looking seabird, until it's doing what the name suggests #birds
A lovely male Siksin with grey fringing to its black cap, lovely brilliant yellow sides to the face and throat and fringing to the primary, secondary and tail feathers along with a bright yellow wing bar on the greater coverts
A lovely male Siksin with grey fringing to its black cap, lovely brilliant yellow sides to the face, throat, rump and fringing to the primary, secondary and tail feathers along with a bright yellow wing bar on the greater coverts
There are some alders north of the road bridge over the River Taff in Cardiff Bay and I've always thought would be great if some Siskins were feeding in them - that day finally happened yesterday! Male Siskins can be amazingly bright #BirdsSeenIn2026 #birdingWales #birds
A Cormorant having a poo. The bird is standing but just about hoizantal with its tail coked up at 45 degrees and there is an almost metre long stream of off-white poo being ejected
You don't want to get too close to the rear end of a Cormorant when it decides to have a poo..... (Cardiff Bay this morning) #BirdingWales #birds
What looks like a dark morph Lapwing seen at #RSPBGreylake #Somerset this morning. It was very aggressive to any other Lapwing that came to close.
Treecreeper near the feeders at the Kingfisher Hide this afternoon at WWT Slimbridge #GlosBirds #birds #BirdsSeenIn2026
Massive building work behind my house has drastically reduced the cover available, so I was pleasantly surprised to see this lovely male Blackcap in the garden feeding on the fat block. Certainly brightened up a wet and dull Cardiff morning #BirdsSeenIn2026 #birdingWales #birds
Super excited that I finally got to #photograph the Eurasian woodcock (Morkulla) I was walking across a meadow and all of a sudden it came flying straight towards me! Such a lucky encounter! ✌️🤩
#birds #EastCoastKin
#photography #nature
#PhotographersUnited
#PhotographersOfBluesky
#BirdsSeenIn2026
Thanks David, yes they are, this was the only one which came close!
A Black Noddy against the brilliant blue of the Pacific. Actually not black but almost totally a very dark brown apart from its white cap and grey brown tail. It has a longer, thinner black bill than the very similar Brown Noddy.
Another bird from my Pacific trip last year for #SuperSeabirdSunday - Black Noddy while we were off Pitcairn Island #birds
You might have to stand around for a while, they can go awol for spells
Firecrests have a very distinctive face, a distinctive black eye stripe and white supercilium flanked above by the black border of the crown stripe. Their backs are also brighter green than Goldcrests
Firecrests have a very distinctive face, a distinctive black eye stripe and white supercilium flanked above by the black border of the crown stripe. Their backs are also brighter green than Goldcrests. The bird in this photo has its head down so the bright crown stripe is very obvious
Firecrests have a very distinctive face, a distinctive black eye stripe and white supercilium flanked above by the black border of the crown stripe. Their backs are also brighter green than Goldcrests
Goldcrest, in contrast to Firecrest, has a very plain face just having the crown stripe flanked by a black stripe. They are however, still very cute
A return to Thompson's Park, Cardiff for another go at the Firecrests - success! A couple of shots of them, they were a little distant for the high iso needed in the shaded bushes they were frequenting. Also a Goldcrest for comparison. #BirdsSeenIn2026 #BirdingWales
Yes, in the stretch of woods along the Taff just between Blackweir and the nursery
A Ring-necked Parakeet perched on a pole, likely a female or young males as it's uniformly green and the ring is not prominent.
A Treecreeper searching for food amongst the moss on a tree trunk
A visit to Thompson's Park and Bute Park on the trail of Firecrests resulted in no Firecrests seen but did see a handful of Ring-necked Parakeet at Thompson's Park and a Treecreeper in Bute Park both new for #BirdsSeenIn2026 #BirdingWales
A Common Sandpiper fills the frame as it walks towards the photographer. It has a brown head with a whitish stripe through the eye. Its upper breast is streaked greyish-brown. The bill is short and straight, about 40-50mm
A Common Sandpiper with a large worm in its beak
Common Sandpiper swallowing a large worm
There are 3 Common Sandpipers wintering along the shores of the River Ely in Cardiff Bay. This one was foraging at the top of the embankment the other day and finding some very juicy earthworms to eat. #BirdsSeenin2026 #BirdingWales
A Cormorant has become entangled in an anglers bait bomb - a canister anglers use to disperse food to attract fish to where they're fishing. It looks as though the angler lost this one and the bird has managed to swim through the lines that would attach to the casting line.
This rather unfortunate young Cormorant has managed to get itself tangled in an anglers bait bomb. It can fly okay and looks in good condition but must be impacting its ability to hunt a little. #birdingWales #UKbirding
Congratulations x
A Rock Pipit that has lost both its feet and stands on calloused stumps. It has been like this for several months so is able to lead an almost normal life
Photographed this Rock Pipit on Cardiff barrage yesterday. Not sure when it lost its feet but I've seen it regularly in past couple of months. I'm pretty sure it's a first year bird so likely picked up fibres around its legs not long after fledging #birdingWales #birdsseenin2026
For #SuperSeabirdSunday this week I'm going back to February 2024 and a couple of memorable days out with the Petrel Station off North Island, New Zealand and this New Zealand Storm Petrel #birds
Left panel: A small black, grey, white and yellow songbird wearing a tracking backpack. Right panel: A map of North America showing a migration track beginning in Alaska, crossing east across the boreal forest of Canada, and then turning south to the coast of Texas before retracing the path north.
Out now in Movement Ecology: We used multi-sensor geolocators to track myrtle warblers breeding in Alaska and found that they migrated much farther than expected to the Gulf Coast—rather than to the closer Pacific Coast non-breeding area 🪶🧵 link.springer.com/article/10.1...
The Scaup which appeared in the Bay yesterday had moved to close in by the Norwegian Church, allowing for some nice clean photos, although, annoyingly it spent most of its time resting #BirdsSeenin2026 #BirdingWales #birds
Of course
I remember trapping both races when I was on Fair Isle, when seen side by side the differences are quite noticeable. However, just looked at a few photos online and although yours is well marked it may not be dark enough for a coburni (Icelandic) bird
Certainly very heavily streaked like you'd expect for an Icelandic Redwing
One of my favourite birds to photograph in Cardiff Bay - the Cormorant. Quite a few in the bay at the moment just starting to come into breeding plumage. They really are striking birds #BirdingWales #BirdsSeenin2026 #birds
An adult Peregrine flies over the photographer showing the finely barred underwings and underparts. The yellow eye-ring, feet and cere (the area around the nostrils) also stand out
An adult Peregrine flies over the photographer showing the finely barred underwings and underparts. The yellow eye-ring, feet and cere (the area around the nostrils) also stand out
Whilst photographing the Black Redstart this morning an obliging Peregrine flew overhead - a new species for the @patchbirding.bsky.social year list #BirdsSeenIn2026 #BirdingWales #birds
Adult male Black Redstarts are really distinctive with grey head and back, jet black face and breast, bright white panel on the wing formed by the edges to the secondaries and orange red tail and rump.
Adult male Black Redstarts are really distinctive with grey head and back, jet black face and breast, bright white panel on the wing formed by the edges to the secondaries and orange red tail and rump.
Adult male Black Redstarts are really distinctive with grey head and back, jet black face and breast, bright white panel on the wing formed by the edges to the secondaries and orange red tail and rump.
Adult female Black Redstarts aren't quite as distinctive as the males being brown-grey above and grey-buff below, the orange on the tail and rump is duller too
Caught up with the very smart adult male Black Redstart near Cardiff barrage this morning, always a little distant but lovely to see. One of the adult females around Penarth Marina also popped up #BirdsSeenIn2026 #BirdingWales #birds
