A visit to Glynaeron this morning produced some excellent views of Crossbills - a flock of 5-6 feeding and then coming down to a small forest-track pool to drink and to bathe - one male plus female-types. We also had nice but brief views of a calling Willow Tit in the conifers before it flew off towards the forest boundary.
Not far away from the forest large numbers of Redwings and Fieldfares were busily gorging on abundant hawthorn berries. We had seen a thousand or more in the general area a week earlier and numbers today were probably similar. The thrushes were also visiting a small pool to drink and to bathe, this one being on a roadside verge.
We didn't manage to bump into Brian and others during a brief visit made to Llys-y-fran Reservoir and we weren't there long enough to see all the gulls come in, but we noted a few Yellow-legged and a similar number and variety of waterfowl mentioned by Brian, including the Pintail which flew in while we were there and later on 4 Gadwall opposite the hide.