A drizzly morning along the coast path in Castlemartin Range East

We had a walk through Range East this morning with Guillem (a placement student from Catalonia based at Stackpole). The main purpose of the visit was to check up on chough breeding activity.  All seemed well at most sites although a lone territorial male at one location has still to find a mate this spring. 

Breeding adult males were busy as usual feeding their partners at or near the nest. Possibly due to the cooler, drizzly conditions one particular male was clearly finding a good source of invertebrates, including mining bees on a patch of bare ground. He and others were also probably feeding on what appears to be quite a good tipulid (Crane-fly) larval population this year in the coastal grassland. 

Choughs often feed on Hymenoptera - this one seemed to be tucking into mining bees

Migrants were rather few, although there were some passing whimbrels and a dunlin and a small number of swallows all heading west along the coast. Wheatears seemed quite scarce with just a couple of likely breeding pairs at expected locations. 

A couple of grasshopper warblers were reeling briefly near Stack Rocks. One of them spent quite a while perched up in a patch of scrub. 

There were plenty of guillemots on the stacks but only a single pair of kittiwakes at a half-built nest.  Such a contrast to the time not so long ago when there were 500+ pairs nesting in this general area.