Not sure whether this is a Raven, Cigfran or a Carrion Crow, Brân Dyddyn. Anybody able to help?
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It looks like it might be a ydfran (rook) to me, Doug.
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Thanks Siaron. The beak looks wrong so I am pretty sure it isn’t a rook, but you may well be correct. Good to hear from you anyway. It’s been a long time since ‘Show and Tell’!
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It might be a trick of the light, but the beak does look quite pale to me, and ravens and carrion crows both have black beaks. But you’re right, the beak doesn’t look completely rook-ish so maybe it’s a youngster. I’ll tag @Cetra because she’s good at bird IDs 
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You’re right Siaron, the beak does look too light but I think it may have something to do with the way the sun was shining (something I’m not used to) and reflecting off the wet (very familiar) beak.
I think that’s a crow, but its really difficult to tell them apart from ravens unless you hear them or see them fly! 
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I had 5 ydfran in my garden this morning! (and they were definitely rooks!). No pics because if I’d opened the back door they’d have flown away and unfortunately the camera on zoom from inside the house was only picking up crystal clearly how dirty the back door window was and just blurry birds behind it! 
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I heard a cigfran on my morning dog walk through the woods. There have been a pair with us over the winter and I’m hoping they will nest and breed. I think there is currently only one breeding pair in the count: Swydd Bedford/Rhydwely yn Lloegr
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The woods are full of sif-sif and telor penddu, and I think I saw my first gwennol of the year, though I was distracted by a gwalch glad.
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Hi Siaron, your post set me off wondering whether the collective nouns in English , a parliament of rooks, were used in Welsh. Are they direct translations or, if they exist at all, are they different? Sounds like a good way to increase vocabulary.
That’s a really good question Doug - to be honest, I don’t know the answer. There are definitely Welsh words for the more ordinary collective nouns (e.g. herd, flock, pack), but I’m not sure about ones like parliament (rooks), or murder (crows) for instance. I think I’ll have to pose that question to the Iaith group on facebook!
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With all these recent bird posts, I just have to share that I’m super excited to have got the last place on a 2-day “Identifying birds by their calls” course here in Vitoria-Gasteiz next month. I’ll have to swat up on a few of the more common bird names before I go, but it’s something I’ve wanted to do for such a long time! I can only identify two fairly easily now - the Robin Goch, which I knew from Cymru, and the stork! I was amazed the first time I heard one of those!
Not my video, but to give you an idea:
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@dougewart
… and the Iaith group came up trumps!
They provided a screenshot of a list Bethan Gwanas got from the work of Gwyn Thomas 
It’s not an exhaustive list, but it’s a start!
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@siaronjames
Diolch yn Fawr Siaron. I’ll have some fun working these out and then learning them. Good mutation exercise too I think.
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Do you know the Merlin app? Great for learning birdsong. I think it works globally
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“llanast o golomennod” - living where I do and having to regularly clean my balconies, I can totally understand this one.
What a brilliant list!
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Diolch, @ian-rowland! I knew there was an app, and I thought I had it on my phone, but couldn’t find it and couldn’t remember the name. Ti’n seren! I’m downloading it now!
It does, you just have to download the right pack. It alerted me to a passing Boda gwerni yesterday, when I was out listening for others birds. Such a delightful sight (and quite rare here) 
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Blodau annisgwyl.
Roedd bobl yn y pentref yn synnu i weld y blodau yma, yn y glaswellt ar ochr y ffordd. Mae Camassia yn dod o Ogledd America, ac yn tyfu yn dda mewn glaswellt hir.
Unexpected flowers.
People in the village were surprised to see these flowers, in the grass on the side of the road. Camassia is from North America, and grows well in long grass.
Camassia leichtlinii ‘Caerulea’.
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