A very high tide and a southwesterly gale produced absolutely nothing from the coast just north of Broad Haven. Fortunately the day got much better. At Goultrop there were at least four Red-throated Divers and two Great Northern along with the usual Shag and Cormorants. A small gull roost on the sea in this sheltered bay included at least six Mediterranean Gulls. A couple of Kittiwake and two Gannets were flying further out and the occasional unidentifiable auks were flying into the gale near the tankers. A bit of a feeding frenzy with gulls and Gannets was just visible off Druidstone and Nolton.
At St Brides 40 Oystercatchers were sheltering on the slabs along with a Curlew. Singles of Grey Wagtail, Rock Pipit, Meadow Pipit and Turnstone were on the beach. I had to return to the car to fetch the scope as a gull roost was forming at the mouth of the bay. This peaked at about 50 Black-headed Gulls with 11 Mediterranean Gulls and just two Herring Gulls. A Buzzard was doing a good impression of a Kestrel over the cottages and two Snipe flew over my head as I sheltered by the lime kilns. A single Chiffchaff was busy feeding on an ash tree by the orchard wall. There were plenty of the usual residents around the ponds, but no sign of Firecrests or stray Americans.
It was a relief to get to the relatively sheltered Gann and Pickleridge. There was nothing on the water in the bay when I arrived. A Kingfisher was fishing off a small rock in the little bay of the lagoon closest to the car park (camera was in the car of course). About 40 Oystercatchers arrived from the north soon after, possibly the same flock that departed St Brides just before I left there.
The lagoon had around 180 Wigeon, 10 Teal, single Greenshank, about 20 Redshank, but no sign of the Spotted Redshank that has been here for a while. Only a couple of Little Grebe and singles of Grey Heron and Little Egret were showing at the Crabhall end.
A big beach gull roost was obvious on the bank below Gann cottage. I took up position in the welcoming sheltered little enclave in the gorse at the end of the ridge and started counting. There were at least 180 Common Gull with a few hundred Black-headed Gulls with a few more up past the bridge and a few obvious Mediterranean Gulls. I had got up to about 25 Meds before a PCPNA truck and driver turned up and disturbed them, but their lift-off was a mini seabird spectacular with all the Gulls flying in parallel in the same direction along a wide front.
As the tide fell, a big gull roost formed on the emerging gravel nearer to the stream. Again I tried to count the total and got to 1100, which was about two thirds of the total before the roost was again disturbed, this time by a walker, so probably around 1500 just on the beach.
I managed to count an impressive 63 Mediterranean Gulls, nearly all adults, so probably some more hiding amongst the Black-headed and Common Gulls. There were very few Herring or Black-backs on the beach, no more than 30 in total. A single Black--tailed Godwit was amongst the Curlews and Redshanks further along the beach.
I had a quick look at a small gull roost on the gravel island at the north end of the lagoon. There were 10 Lesser Black-backed Gulls and a single Herring Gull, with colour ring on left leg 128 with a preceding digit apparently under the water, and surprisingly a smart Caspian Gull which snoozed and yawned a lot, but posed in the sun occasionally.
A quick check in on an increasingly wet Marloes wetland showed it is now a Lapwing happy place, with at least 300 in various groups, along with about 50 Golden Plover and 20+ Snipe lurking with them and at least one Dunlin too. Duck numbers seem to be down compared to recent visits with less variety, but they may be dispered over the greater wet areas. Six Tufted Duck, 3m 3f together being the most notable. A single ringtail Hen Harrier flew straight through from east to West over Trehill fields, putting up a flock of Woodpigeon, but made no serious attacks on anything.
The water level is impressively high. It might be even higher than Brian's recent photo.
