Castlemartin Range

It was generally fairly quiet along the coast within the Range this morning and into the afternoon before the rain started. Most of the expected chough pairs were accounted for though by Castlemartin Rangers Lynne Houlston, Graham Clarke and myself. At least 12 nest-sites are thought to be occupied so far - most pairs are still nest-building and none have settled yet to breed.

A female merlin was perching on various yellow ant hills at "regular spots" near Linney Head, when not off hunting pipits etc - she was probably an over-wintering bird. There were two pairs of territorial wheatears near Linney - none ringed. Numbers of wheatears along the Range coast are still rather low but we'll try and keep our eyes peeled in the coming weeks for colour-ringed birds from Skokholm.

A juvenile male goshawk, flushed from a blackthorn thicket near Frainslake Mill, was slightly unexpected. He had recently eaten a corvid (a jackdaw most probably - there were probably hundreds of non-breeders flying around in the Range today). Pleasingly it wasn't a chough that he'd caught; some feathers examined had greyish-white quill-tips and not orange ones more typical of chough.

The Frainslake goshawk - a slightly gruesome looking bird and probably not the most attractive of raptors 

Jon's comments about a lack of greenfinches in his area, accords with our observations at Martletwy. We've yet to see one anywhere near our place this year. They used to breed nearby but not any more. The display described is typical of a male advertising himself to others in his breeding territory. Hopefully he is paired up and that breeding will be successful!