Because one record must in the end turn out to
be the last, I thought I should report that, like Mike Y-P, we had
superb views of that Kumlien's Gull, filling the scope not fifty yards
from the little Sands Cafe car park, around high water (just after 1230)
today, during a lull (of sorts) in the rain. And for us too it was the
only gull there. Since we'd driven all the way down from Worcestershire
for it, we went back for another look about 3.30, in heavy rain and
mist, but nevertheless got it again briefly, further down the beach.
We last saw it flying out to sea at about 3.45 after being disturbed by a
(clearly very committed) dog-walker.
I can't help adding, though it's irrelevant,
that this was our second attempt to see KG: we'd done the eight-hour
round trip last Saturday, only to find Newgale beach swarming with a
couple of hundred stalwarts valiantly collecting the rubbish and debris
blown in by the storm -- so there wasn't a gull in sight on the beach,
at Brandy Brook or anywhere else: a case, I suppose, of one kind of
storm flotsam, Kumlien's Gull, being driven away by the removal of other
kinds! Still, the 2nd-year Glaucous, and the Green-winged Teal, on the
marsh, were pretty reasonable consolation for a long drive (especially
as we couldn't find either today).
All best, Robert Smallwood (Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire -- avid follower, and admirer, of the Pembrokeshire Birds blog)