Sunday 25 January 2015

Firecrest! 25/01/2015

It had been a while since my last real outing in the new year down Exeter, but with a firecrest still hanging around near the water treatment works  in Ogmore, I decided to voyage out while Jess completed the Big Garden Birdwatch. It was my first outing to Merthyr Mawr, but found my way easily enough to the Candleston carpark. After a quick walk through the dunes, where I disturbed two green woodpeckers, and saw a big flock of fieldfare, I was soon found myself on the opposite side of the river to usual, and met up with a couple of birders who were already on site. There were several goldcrest flitting around which made the task of pinpointing the firecrest a bit more difficult, and also this overwintering chiffy -



I soon got on to the firecrest briefly, however, a passing party of riders disturbed him and he stayed down for some time. Just as I was about to leave another visiting birder from Pencoed caught a glimpse, and we had him in the bins for a few minutes, with this being the best shot I could muster -


He was very mobile, and the light was terrible with the rain coming in, but that was a World, a 2015, Glamorgan and British tick in the bag. Top bird!