Before heading out to the coast for a long walk between Elegug Stacks and Skrinkle, our first garden warbler of the year was singing in our garden hedge and trees, close to where one usually sets up a territory at this time of year. Long-tailed tits were collecting lichens and mosses from one our birch trees the other day, so they also appear to be breeding nearby.
Out on the Castlemartin coast small numbers of swallows were moving west this morning and a couple of whimbrels were also calling as they moved west. The auk colonies were vacant last Sunday but the birds were back today, with large numbers of noisy guillemots on the Elegug Stacks.
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| Several thousand guillemots were back on the main stack; most available spaces have been taken and all other colony locations were also occupied. The first eggs should appear very soon but a nearby raven family will consume quite a few! |
There were good numbers of singing whitethroats along the coast, probably 20+ noted in various coastal territories between Freshwater East and Manorbier and some earlier between St Govan's Head and Crickmail Point. A single yellowhammer was singing from a tree near some coastal scrub at Freshwater East, close to where there was a territory last spring.