OUT AND ABOUT.

On Sunday I visited two local water bodies, Cwmtillery Lake and Pen-y-fan Pond.

cwmtillery lake from bottom end

the lake from top end

pen-y-fan pond from car park

First stop was Cwmtillery Lakes I was brought up near here and the lake reservoir and surrounding mountains is where I cut my birdwatching teeth. I still love coming to the lakes but there's a lot of is a dog walking, pick-nicks, youths drinking cans and it's really close to the main road, but having said that they still do have some good birds and the local action group for the lakes have done some fantastic work there. It was a clear morning but bleeding freezing I sat still for about an hour and had some great views of grey wagtail and dipper.

grey wagtail

dipper

I sat for what seemed ages watching these birds but photographing them proved to be more difficult than I thought but I did manage a couple of decent efforts.

There were the resident mallards but there were no females think they will all  be sitting on eggs or tending to ducklings hidden away somewhere.

drake mallard

Also a few Moorhens scuttling about.

moorhen

To my surprise nesting Coot I just hope people walking their dogs and the fishermen in general give these birds a chance.

coot on nest

coot with chicks

I was also surprised to see these two Canada Geese swimming by.

canada geese

I left the place quite pleased with what I'd seen but couldn't resist one more pic of the Dipper what a cracking bird and well worth freezing my butt off for.

dipper

Time I arrived at Pen-y-fan pond there were quite a few dog walkers and people just up there enjoying the morning sunshine. Nothing on the pond but saw quite a few species of birds while walking around finches and buntings and other small passerines but couldn't get close enough for any decent pictures. While walking near the banking I disturbed this Heron what a beauty.

grey heron

lovely bird

Didn't think I was going to be lucky enough to photograph anything else but on the way back to the car a meadow pipit landed reasonably close enough for me to grab a couple of images.

meadow pipit

these are mostly overlooked but what a handsome bird

When I got back home I had a nice surprise my first swallow of the year was back at the farm. Expect it will soon be joined by its mates and they'll be repairing their nests ready to start breeding they had an excellent year last summer.

our first swallow

I really enjoyed my few hours out and it was nice to see and photograph a couple of different species but I do love it on the farm.

IT'S GETTING BUSY.

Things have really been hotting up in the bird world over the last few weeks.
Where my feeders were very quiet they're now being swamped by all the birds getting into condition ready for breeding. Although I still haven't had that much time to do a lot of photography I've had the odd half hour here and there and today because of the bad weather I've sat down and edited a few of my efforts for your enjoyment.

goldfinch

greenfinch

female reed bunting

male reed bunting

chaffinch

great spotted woodpecker

nuthatch

pied wagtail

siskin

male blackbird

dunnock

redpoll

yellowhammer

lets have another

Stephen Carter my BTO nest finding buddy was over yesterday to check all of our boxes we've got a few with nests starting to being built in them already. I've added a few more boxes to the colony this year so hoping to have a better number of birds using them.
Great news as well is that we've got a nesting Tawny owl I'm well chuffed and we will be hoping to keep an eye and not "lose an eye" on its progress over the next few weeks.

tawny owl

My daffs are looking nice

Lets hope we get some good breeding success this year.