Teifi Birding and Wildlife

Waxwings peaked at seven  birds on the 22nd and we still have seven on the 26th.. 19 days of trilling, feeding and now almost acrobatic feeding as they sally forth for flying insects... Colour ringed Waxwing = Jen Evans One of the 7 has colour rings. It was ringed by the Mid Wales Ringing Group near Treowen Leisure Centre in Newtown, Powys on 2nd January 2024. It was one of 25 ringed out of a flock of 67. Thanks to Tony Cross for the ringing details. Update from Tony about other movements of Waxwings ringed in Newtown. Onward Waxwing movements With the snowy weather more birds were coming to garden feeders. Several people locally are seeing Blackcaps in their gardens and a female was seen on the Teifi Marshes on the 26th by Colin Dalton. Blackcap - Dyfed James Our two egret " resident" species are becoming less predictable in their movements after the freeze. Both species are relatively early breeders, and though occasionally both several Little and the 2 Cattle Egrets ar...

The Waxwings are continuing to delight visitors to the Teifi Marshes. First seen on the 8th Jan, 3 until the 12th when a 4th appeared.  A 5th was seen on the 13th. Still 4 present today, the 16th. Waxwing - Tommy Evans From daily observations it has been noted that Egrets fly down the Teifi  from up the gorge early morning, presumably roosting in the woods somewhere not to far away, maybe the heronry ?? The 2 Cattle Egrets  are now much more   mobile now the floods have receded. Often still in fields near Parc Teifi Ind. Estate, may sometimes fly further down river. Cattle Egrets from Curlew hide on the 14th - Jen Evans Sunday was the monthly Wetland Bird Survey for the BTO. This month the data is also being fed into the  International Waterbird Census. Fog in the Teifi Valley slowly cleared for a good count. Mallard pond A Black-tailed Godwit was roosting with 13 Curlew  on the island in Mallard pond. Snipe were feeding around the edge. The Godwit has b...

On the 8th ...3 Waxwings in Hawthorns along main track near Mallard hide - Teifi Marshes at 1130  (Josh Brown). Waxwing on the 9th - Tommy Evans On the 9th we re-found the 3  Waxwings as they flew in from Cilgerran direction 0840, presumably from roosting elsewhere. Over the course of the 9th and 10th, well photographed by many, enjoyed by many more.... Waxwing on the 10th - Tommy Evans With the reserve ponds frozen from the 8th, the best viewing of water birds was from Curlew hide. On the 10th - 97 Teal and 57 Dunlin . This fine drake Pintail on the 8th was the first we have seen since 2022, and coincided with a very large count of 71 at Kilpaison in S Pembs. Record shot of the brief visit by a Pintail - WJ I think the drake Goldeneye below arrived on the 7th, a day before the Pintail. As mentioned in the previous post, a species we are seeing less, and in much lower numbers... Goldeneye on the 7th - Diane Williams Red-breasted Mergansers are only just annual on the Teif...

With rains and wind battering west Wales... Some birds are loving the mud, up to 40 Teal , and Gulls including Mediterranean feeding in the "Priory Bridge" Egret field opposite Parc Teifi. Cattle Egret - Dyfed James One of the two regular Cattle Egrets with up to 5 Little Egrets .  Muddy horse field on the north bank of the Teifi These birds are mobile and may have been around the Teifi since the 9th Dec when two were reported with sheep behind houses in Gwbert Road. Two days ago they were also seen from the reserve on the opposite river bank. Cattle Egrets - Diane Williams In fields along the River Teifi from Cardigan to the sawmills at Abercych, a count of 32  Little Egrets by Josh   Brown is the maximum so far.... Up to  3 Great White Egrets  have been reported here over the past few weeks. Horse field near Abercych Another view of the river flood plain.. Two Greylag Geese  here with 220 Canada Geese , we recognise this flock as regular feeders opposit...

Record of the week for the West Wales Biodiversity Information Centre in the middle of December came from Cardigan, a new Fungi  for Wales. Found by Yusef Samari who organises weekly nature walks around Cardigan and identified by County Recorder, Steve Chambers. They were out surveying a small woodland and found it on a fallen branch with a large leafy lichen ( Ramalina fraxinea ), which was covered in an orange/pink lichenicolous fungus. Lichenicolous fungi are a group of fungi that live exclusively on lichens.  This one turned out to be Tremella ramalinae , the first record of this species in Wales. WWBIC on Twitter WWBIC on Facebook Some birds recorded this December were species not regularly seen.  On the 12th, the previously reported  Red-throated Diver , Great Crested Grebe and female Red-breasted Merganser  were all present around the inner estuary and seen intermittently since.  On the 11th, two Firecrests  were near the river view point on t...

Great to be able to produce an update of sightings from the Teifi whilst we have been away. On the 10th Nov, Tommy Evans saw this splendid male Hen Harrier over the Marshes. Surprisingly, maybe only the 2nd or 3rd record for our Teifi area. A single Whooper Swan   flew over the Teifi Marshes on the 21st seen by Jon Green, becoming a scarce species this far west.  Dec 2nd...and the 1st Purple Sandpiper of the year, also 1 Turnstone, 30 Golden Plover and 15 Lapwing beyond the Cliff Hotel towards Cardigan Island. We have no idea on the movements of our Barnacle Geese . We have looked at colour- ringing them with Kane Brides (Waterbird Colour-marking Group). Interesting to see 61 resting opposite St Dogmael's Quay on Dec 2nd and on the 7th Dec. 47+ Barnacle Geese were feeding with 660 Canada Geese in fields above the Cliff Hotel. This Red-throated Diver was another surprise , not the species- 4 were present off Cemaes Head with a Great Northern Diver on the 4th, but on th...

Winds carried on as did the novel run of Light-bellied Brent Geese , by the14th of October there were 20 present and as of today, the 23rd, one feeding at The Webley. Two Great Egrets were seen briefly at Mallard Pond on the Reserve on the 16th- maybe our first multiple record of this rapidly increasing breeding species (mainly Somerset) Great Egret - Dianne Williams News from Gareth Williams on the 23rd of two Great Egrets that have been seen on the horse field between Llechryd and Cenarth everyday since then. This field always has feeding Little Egrets and Grey Herons in winter. We await sightings of other egrets in this field. The counts of small waders has reduced over the last couple of weeks. For the Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS) on the 14th, the count of Ringed Plover was down to 7 and just 1 Dunlin. Only 1 Turnstone after a large count at the beginning of the month. It is unusual to record double figures of Turnstone on the Teifi but 15 were feeding on Patch on the 1st October. ...