This morning, three of us (Annie, Jane Hodges and I) did a walk in very blustery conditions in search of choughs etc along part of the St Davids
peninsula. Between us we covered the entire stretch of coastline between
Whitesands Bay and Newgale (each of us walking three separate sections). Not many choughs were seen, although Annie observed eight feeding together in a
sheltered stubble field above Nine Wells valley.
Jane noted a few choughs in her section and watched half a dozen turnstones, 2 ringed plovers and 2 curlews and several pied wagtails feeding on the strandline at Porthlysgi Bay. I only saw three choughs near the entrance to Solva Harbour, and where 21 noisy/squabbling oystercatchers were resting on a sheltered cliff-slope near St Elvis Rock.
A great northern diver was right up inside the harbour, which was relatively sheltered from the very strong NW wind and rough sea. It might have stayed there for longer perhaps but for an annoyingly yapping dog that rushed into the water near it to retrieve a ball.
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| The diver quickly reacted to the yapping dog by swimming down stream into deeper water. |
Annie noted a merlin at St Non's Bay, and I observed a male peregrine that was being mobbed by a herring gull high over Dinas Fach. As noted elsewhere recently, there were good numbers of song thrushes in the coastal scrub. However, conditions for watching anything for very long were not great.
A couple of days ago (17th) between two of us (Annie and myself) we covered the coast between Whitesands and Porthgain. Annie noted a merlin at Trelewyd and I saw another one at St Davids Head, plus a red kite hunting there, plus a sparrowhawk and a kestrel hunting in Porthmelgan valley.
That day, other highlights included c.10 choughs feeding in a field near Abereiddi, flocks of at least 200 chaffinches feeding in stubble area near Whitesands Bay and c.50 goldfinches on the edge of stubble field near Portgain. However, the overall diversity of species and numbers of birds seen were not particularly great.