After an unsuccessful (again) few hours at Castlemartin Corse looking for the Pallid Harrier, I went down to the Rhoscrowther (eastern) end of Angle Bay to see what was there on the incoming tide. A total of 22 Brent Geese (21 pale bellied, 1 dark) were immediately obvious, and then I looked through the 60 or so gulls present and was pleasantly surprised to quickly pick out a first-winter/2nd calendar year Ring-billed Gull. The bird was in the stream channel, and twice picked up what was presumably some sort of mollusc and flew up to around 20m before dropping it and returning to the ground. Within a couple of minutes it took of and flew north over Valero with a handful of Common Gulls. I lost it when switching between telescope and binoculars and it didn't return in the next 30 minutes. Also here 20 Bar-tailed Godwit and 15 Knot.
Earlier at the Corse the female Marsh Harrier was seen regularly over the reedbeds and a female Merlin worked it's way from west to east, stopping on fence posts and bushes to scan for prey. Red Kite, Buzzard and Kestrel completed the birds of prey. In the fields on the northern slopes at least 105 Stock Doves, often associating with a large flock of Jackdaws. Other birds recorded included Cetti's Warbler, Reed Bunting, Stonechat, Greylag Goose, Chough and Little Egret.
Yesterday evening at the Gann a relatively small gathering of gulls had a high percentage of Med Gulls with 24 birds: just 4 adults, with 1 2CY and 19 3CYs. Green R8RA was again present.
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| Not today's Ring-billed Gull, but one of the same age at Llanstadwell on New Year's Day 1995 |