We had a look around Goodwick
Harbour and Lower Town Harbour this morning. Two Med gulls were at the
Flagpoles with other expected gull species. It was nice to see a good
proportion of 1CY Black-headed Gulls. Numbers of 1CY BHGs have been higher at
Pembroke Millpond this winter, suggesting that they have probably had a
reasonable breeding season this year.
A Long-tailed Duck was still present at Goodwick, but never very close to the shore, as were 4 Great Northern Divers, mostly 1CY birds but at least one adult. The drake Goosander was still present at Lower Town harbour feeding in the channel on a falling tide along-side the local Mallards.
We had a quick look at the sea at Newgale on the way back south. Low afternoon sunlight and a low tide made it difficult to see very much but a few small flocks of Common Scoter were feeding offshore between Rickets Head and just north of Maidenhall Point - probably in excess of 200 in total.
Over at Landshipping, at sunset last Sunday, it was nice to see a large build-up in Lapwing numbers. Probably 2,000 or more were coming into to roost on the rising evening tide. We estimated that at least 5,000 Golden Plovers were flying high in the air over the Daugleddau - quite a spectacle! A more modest 12 Greenshanks flew into roost at Landshipping Quay. Although we could not see it in the post-sunset gloom, we could hear a Spotted Redshank calling as it too came into roost.
A few days earlier, over at Angle Bay, we counted 95 Pale-bellied Brent Geese swimming into the harbour at high tide (possibly our largest count of them over there) and at least 8 Great Crested Grebes were out in the bay.