Highlight of this morning was a female/immature-type Merlin that chased a Meadow Pipit up and down the valley: fabulous aerobatics, but the pipit eventually dodged over the Deer Park wall, and the Merlin gave up.
The Trehill Farm fields have really good flocks of Golden Plover: typically in sub-flocks of 200-300 birds, sometimes with two or three of these in the air at once. They all grouped up early this afternoon - a cloud of fast-turning birds. Fewer Lapwing, though: only c.200 seen.
A nice surprise on Marloes Mere is a female Goldeneye, in the same deeper water area as the 5 Tufted Duck. I have not seen a Goldeneye on the Mere before: is this evidence of how the extensive work on the Mere is now making it attractive to different species?