Sandy Water Park

On Tuesday afternoon, February 1st, I spent a few hours at Sandy Water Park, an area about a mile west of Llanelli town centre. It was formerly the site of the Llanelli Steelworks, but, since the early 1990s, it has been transformed into a country park, with a 16-acre lake being its main feature:

Situated above the lake are these Gorsedd Stones, the relics of a national Eisteddfod which was held here in 2000:

I had heard that a Bittern had been seen around the lake in the last few days, but I was unable to locate it. Instead, I threw a few breadcrumbs into the water, and was immediately surrounded by hordes of hungry water birds. Amongst the more usual species, were some Gadwalls, a species I hadn't really photographed before. Here is the female, which looks a little like a smaller version of a Mallard duck:

And the subtly beautiful male:

Sometimes one came too close to fit into the frame:

There were Coots by the score:

And plenty of Pochards, including this male:

A male Tufted Duck:

And a female of the same species:

These Mute Swans were ploughing through the lake's remaining ice like Russian icebreakers:

A female Mallard perched on the ice:

I walked westwards along the pond's southern shore, and fired off a few shots of passing birds. I got lucky when this Mallard flew close by, allowing a frame-filling shot:

This Tufted Duck also whizzed past at close range:

This Coot had some difficulty as it came in to land on the slippery ice:

Finally, a shot of a Mallard drake as the sun sank lower in the sky: