Bosherston Lakes yesterday; Abereiddy to Porthgain today - a cold NE wind, cold enough for a snow bunting!

Yesterday we had a stroll around Bosherson Lakes in the afternoon. Its was nice to see 25 goosanders but only 3 goldeneye (a male and 2 females). Although never very common at the lakes, double figure counts of goldeneye seem to be hard to come by (at least so far this winter). We noted a chiffchaff in the trees bordering the Central Lake (between the Grassy Bridge and Broadhaven) and later on a firecrest was preparing to roost in the ivy-clad sycamores along the upper path above the eastern arm,  a typical location for them here.

This afternoon, in glorious sunshine, we had a cold but enjoyable walk from Abereiddy to Porthgain. A pair of chough were feeding near the coast path in a stubble field. They were too busy looking for food to notice to us watching them over the hedge-bank only a few metres away. A flock of about 100-150 chaffinches were also feeding in the stubbles alongside them.

The highlights though were at least 2 black redstarts feeding on the sun-lit cliffs that surround the Blue Lagoon. One was a female type and the other probably an immature male.

Further along the coast path, not far from Porthgain, a rather nice snow bunting was feeding in a sheltered area between the coast path and a field boundary hedge-bank.

 
On the way home we noted starlings heading towards Slebech, from at least as far away as Mathry and Letterston and suspected that the large numbers of them feeding around farms in the Porthgain/Abereiddy area probably headed over to Slebech too!