I popped in to the nature reserve at Llyn Coed y Dinas one late afternoon in the latter part of May, just to see what was about. It was a lovely bright day, and I had just about an hour to spare. I didn’t expect to see anything unusual or rare, and indeed I didn’t! But I’m not a twitcher, so that’s all right. There was, as usual, plenty to interest me.
You’ll be reading this in July, when most of our birdsong fades away - but in May it’s at full swing, and a Blackcap was loud enough to almost deafen me. The Chiffchaffs were having a good go, as well. Most water birds are a bit quieter, though some waterside birds, like the Reed Warbler I’ve written about before, can be noisy enough. There was plenty of Reed Warbler “song” from within the reeds just in front of the hide. I have to put “song” in parentheses, because it’s really not very musical! Anyway, there was a sudden explosion from within the reeds: clearly a male trespassing on the territory of a rival. Two birds erupted from the reed bed with sounds even less like music than the normal song, one of which flew rapidly away, pursued for a short distance by the other.
Then things settled down. Coots had built a nest in shallow water just a little way from the small island in front of the hide. There were two young - baby coots are very odd looking things, balls of black fluff with bare heads that look as though someone with very little talent has applied red face-paint. When I first spotted them, they were unsupervised, sitting on the untidy nest (though they can swim and feed themselves pretty much from the word go). One parent wandered across with a large piece of vegetation, I assumed as a food item, but the other parent (I’m guessing this was mum) appeared from not far away, and decided that this bright green piece of reed should be built into the structure of the nest. A Magpie flew across, spotted the unsupervised chicks and decided to take a closer look. It may already have taken a chick or two - most clutches are more than just two; it was out of luck this time, as mum was quickly on the job to gather the chicks beneath her. The Magpie flew on.
Another bird that’s very protective of its chicks is the Great Crested Grebe. The pair on the lake this year seemed to have just the one, with its distinctive stripy head and neck, which I was delighted see perched on its parent’s (mum’s?) back. These birds spend a lot of time under water, and I wondered how the chick would manage if mum dived. But then I saw the other parent (dad, I presume) race across the lake from the far side, partly on the surface, partly under water. I really was quite surprised at the speed at which he travelled! Through my binoculars I could see that he had two shiny fish in his bill, to present to his partner, who I think ate one, and allowed him to keep the other. Having delivered his fish, he then went back to his starting point, so I presume the fishing must be better on that side of the lake. Meanwhile, the little stripy chick hopped off his mum’s back and immediately dived under water - like the coot chicks, they are able swimmers almost as soon as they’ve hatched, able divers too.
Llyn Coed y Dinas is a much quieter place without the noisy Black-Headed Gulls, that seem to have abandoned the island, I presume due to a combination of big losses for this species due to bird flu, and the washing away of many nests in last year’s very wet spring. The Oystercatchers I mentioned in a previous article were still there though, and doing their best to be stridently vocal.
Then just in front of me quite a splash! A Swift had crashed into the water, and just as soon lifted away, its long stiff narrow wings scything their way through the air above the lake. I’m not sure whether the bird was seizing an insect or getting a drink of water, though I suspect the latter - but it’s not something I’d ever seen before.
Anyway, with that my hour was up - but what an hour! There’d been so much to see.
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