Following a 7 day gap since hearing an early whitethroat singing at Amroth, one was singing loudly outside our house at Martletwy just after dawn today and there were a few others singing between Whitesands and St David's Head late this morning.
We spent a few hours looking out to sea. Apart from a red-throated diver heading towards Ramsey Sound there were few seabirds around other than small numbers of gannets (several typically feeding near resident porpoises off the tip of St David's Head) and a few auks offshore.
The wind was NE when we arrived and whilst we noted hirundines on the move numbers were quite low during the first hour or so with birds moving north, south and west. The wind then freshened a bit and swung to a more northerly direction. From about 13:30 onwards, for the next hour or so, numbers of swallow in particular picked up considerably. We were seeing small parties (mostly heading west towards Ireland) more or less every minute - there must have been several hundred per hour. We left at about 15:30.
On the way back to Whitesands car-park we noted the resident chough pair was still in the late stages of nest-building (wool being taken in). Hopefully incubation will start soon.
There seems to have been quite a noticeable hatching of Emperor moths recently. Several day-flying males were noted today along the path to St David's Head and a couple of days ago there was a steady movement of fast-flying males over the dune grassland above Frainslake Sands in south Pembs - some may have come in over the sea.
