Another grey day, quite cool, more so than I expected. Birds very active in our garden, including a pair of robins, which is nice. They are supposed to pair on Valentine's Day, according to tradition, so these two have gone along with that very nicely.
It's been ages since I looked in at Llyn Coed y Dinas (Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust reserve), but I had the chance to go there briefly this morning, to find that a bittern had been seen there yesterday. I didn't see one today - but there were some twenty or more teal, maybe the same number of wigeon, always a favourite of mine, a pair of goosanders, three shelducks, two oystercatchers, and as many as thirteen snipe. The snipe were at the bottom of a grass bank, close to the water's edge, and every so often a bird would run up the bank, presumably to feed. You get a distinct impression of a large bill travelling up the bank, with the rest of the bird then following. The cryptic plumage of the snipe works well in a variety of settings, and I had swept up and down that shoreline with my glasses several times before I spotted them.
Back home, the blackcap continues to put an astonishing amount of effort into chasing off other birds, and one wonders whether it's really worth it. A collared dove is managing to use our sunflower seed feeder, keeping its somewhat precarious balance by fanning its tail and extending a wing as it does so.
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