28^th February. I was determined to do some decent birding for February having been frustrated the week before as with perfect weather and a full day planned to try for the London Dusky Warbler, family commitments stepped in and I ended up like a bear with a sore head. Anyway, the final day of the month had looked like a washout with a massive storm dragging its heals across the UK but it moved further East and I was surprised to see no rain when I got up just after 6. I jumped in the car and with a choice of locations ended up at Ogmore-on-Sea. I parked at the headland and went looking for some old friends in the gloomy conditions. A very pale gull was the first interesting bird seen and I thought it might have been an immature Med Gull although it was most likely to have been a leucistic immature Herring Gull. It wasn't a pure white winged gull anyway due to the black wing tips. After seeing only Oystercatcher in the way of shore birds, I ended up watching a pair of Rock Pipits and managed some decent if grainy shots while they went about displaying and song flighting. As I followed the Pipits I almost trod on the flock of a dozen Purple Sandpiper which I'd initially been looking for and after they had moved on the few yards away from my toes, took some shots of them, a cracking little species and so accomodating. Two Turnstone were roosting on the rocks waiting for the tide to drop, several Curlew flew past and I noted nothing on the sea other than a steady flow of Gulls past & Black-Headed, Herring, Lesser & Greater Black-Backed. I shifted my focus from the shore to the estuary looking for more Pipits and wandered upstream scanning for Little Brown Jobs. Other than a flock of 20 Pied Wagtails, it was barren on the passerine front so after a mile or so of muddy squelching and realising that I'd never get decent shots of 2 Snipe that flushed from 60 yards ahead of me, it was time to turn back. It was quite a relief then, that just as I turned, a pair of Goldeneye landed quite near and started to feed on the river. The drake was in perfect plumage and was intermittently displaying to the female, raising his head skywards. It was also the first time I'd heard a Goldeneye call, being a quiet Gadwall / duck decoy like call & quite a short duration and not that distinctive compared to other duck species. With my attention focused on the pair, I only just noticed 4 other Goldeneye nearby, comprising of two immature drakes and two probable females. The four were quite jumpy and moved downstream whose movement eventually impacted on the pair and as I was watching them, they took flight to join the others. With the grey light it was going to be a challenge to get flight shots but the results were pretty good considering. I followed the Goldeneye downstream and continued to watch them diving until I was finally distracted by a few "seep seep" calls. Finally I was on to some pipits and I began to scan for paler birds. My Pipit id skills are poor at the best of times and this was a real challenge to distinguish one species from the other in the grey light. The Meadow Pipits were easier to pick out with their more colourful demeanour and the mix of around 15 birds seem to hold an even mix of Meadow and what I later discovered to be Rock Pipits. After five minutes of edging closer to the flock I saw one bird which looked different again. After creeping closer to it and getting a few reasonable images, I was almost convinced I'd finally found my Water Pipit. On reviewing the images, the distinct paler wing bars, browner upperparts, whiter underparts and more defined streaks all looked good for my "spinoletta" and that was confirmed later after verifying it on Birdforum. After losing the bird in amongst the throng of Pipits and Wagtails and the skies becoming more leaden, it was time to head off and it was a yomp back to the car park with only attempts at flight shots of Mallard & Shelduck stopping me as the rain started to fall. I then drove to Forest Farm in Cardiff to hopefully see the star attraction from the past three weeks. Arriving at the hides to find them in a terrible state (what do yobs get out of vandalising things - lock the b*****s up!), I met resigned faces which told me all I needed to know. No Bittern seen in 3 hours so I guessed my success of the day would be restricted to the Water Pipit. Watching the small pool, three Mallard and a couple of Moorhen were the only water birds around and eventually a Water Rail appeared which showed well in patches but a little distantly, always keeping to the bank beneath the Sand Martin holes (which had been sanded up to encourage them to excavate the burrows when they arrive). I'd been chatting to the few birders in the hide and one lady there showed me some great shots of the Bittern from previous weeks, and then showed me a lovely male Bullfinch shot taken just a few minutes before. She'd kept that quiet! I moved over to where she'd been sat and looked over the grass where some seed had been thrown down. After 20 minutes or so a Reed Bunting came to investigate giving great views and good photo opportunities. A Blue and Great Tit also fed quickly although a Coal Tit fed elsewhere. A flock of 40 or so Chaffinch were feeding on the Water Rail bank and kept flushing to the trees when the Great Tit gave his alarm call. The Great Tit would then come and get food while all the other birds were heeding his call. Cheeky! A few Chaffinch came to the seed and with them a female Bullfinch dropped down and fed. Finally a nice close Bullfinch with my camera in hand! I fired off a load of images while it fed and waited for the bird to reappear. Even better, a male dropped in and had a good feed allowing me to eulogise over its cracking appearance. The one negative was that it was ringed but they are such stunning creatures that I didn't mind one bit. I'd forgotten about the Bittern at this point and stayed overlooking the seed bank grabbing any opportunities to get good passerine shots. A Grey Heron dropped into the pool and then moved across posing nicely. It then proceeded to start hunting amongst the reeds but in clear view and did a good job of reducing the local frog population, showing its ruthless nature as a hunter, giving the poor frogs no chance of escape once caught. It had good table manners though as it gave its prey a thorough wash before devouring them! I moved to the other hide where only a singing Reed Bunting and the briefest view of a Kingfisher were notable. I moved back to the initial hide with still no Bittern so headed back to the car. Next it was a flying visit down the bay next and to Cardiff Barrage. A bit of déjà vu really with a fruitless look for 2 reported Black Redstart. Still, I had a bracing 40 minute walk before getting yet more Rock Pipit pictures. A trip to Ikea followed before a quick scan of the Gwent levels for the Great White Egret came up blank. A Little Egret seen at speed did make me turn the car round though!