Sea Trust Porpoise Watch moved to Monday..

Hi Everyone Weather forecast for  Sea Trust Sunday Porpoise watch awful so will try to do it on Monday same time 2.30 - 4pm same place Strumble Head Lookout

Pied Flycatcher

A singing Pied Flycatcher in a different area of woodland from last years two pairs ,at Llanychaer this morning.

Swift

My first Swift of the year flew through my garden  on Pen Caer this morning. They seemed to make a bit of a recovery last year locally and it might be fun to do a bit of a census and see if and where they are breeding.

Another new Garden Tick !

The long awaited Redpoll hanging around the feeders.

Strumble Head 29th April.

Time: 16.00 - 17.30
Weather: Bright
Wind: NNW 2


Storm Petrel - 1
'Commic' Tern - 1


Manx coming through in large numbers now.

Cuckoo

A Cuckoo at Cwm yr Eglwys this afternoon.

Sea Trust Bank Holiday Sunday Porpoise Watch!

Bring your Bins and join us on our Bank Holiday Porpoise watch 2:30 - 4:00 pm bank Holiday Sunday@Strumble Head lookout!

Kite invasion of Fishguard Harbour (sort of)

It is interesting that in the latter part of the 1990's  our friend, the late Stewart Devonald whose Pembrokeshire Bird List was the biggest, had not as yet seen a Red Kite in the county. Not quite a couple of decades later, they are almost commonplace. None the less, I was pretty excited to see three of them floating and flapping about over the harbour. It was not easy to get them in one shot,apologies for the quality but as record shots they do the job

They were around for at least half an hour causing me to run out of a meeting and distracting me with the view through the Ocean Lab windows with their aerobatics when I returned to the the meeting. Two seemed to be together the third was keeping its distance and seemed to be slightly wary of the others. All very intriguing was this some sort of movement or a  young pair prospecting with an interloper. Maybe three youngsters banished from their parents territory

,

Well maybe by invasion standards a pretty small invasion but I bet it would have seemed quite a big one to Stewart!

Bank Vole.

Obviously can't be sure if it's the same animal that lives in the front garden, but he/she enjoys rooting around under the feeders out the back. Seems to be tolerated by the birds using the feeders which sometimes isn't the case in my experience.

 

Fishguard.

A Lesser Whitethroat singing by the bypass still so probably the same bird as last week & Common Whitethroat further down the hill towards Ysgol Bro Gwaun, my first of the year. On the way back a strange sight of two Jackdaws pursuing a Swallow, the Swallow giving them the run (?) around with ease so the Jackdaws efforts & appetite for the game diminished pretty quickly.

Fledgling.

This recently fledged Hedge Sparrow being fed by the parent in the garden earlier.

Drim Woods ( Wdig )

Chiffchaffs, Willow Warblers & Blackcaps numerous but the highlights were a Grey Wagtail by the Bridge & a very showy Treecreeper ( Pictured ). Possibly my first for at least two years.

Fishguard Harbour cont..

To add to Steve's sightings, 2 Sandwich Terns & a Great Crested Grebe offshore at the Flagpoles.
Goodwick Moor, 2 singing Cetti's Warblers, Sedge Warbler, Chiffs, Willows & Blackcaps seemingly every 20 metres. 

Fishguard Harbour

In the harbour this morning 8 Dunlin all in summer plumage,also 6 Ringed Plover a single Turnstone and Common Sandpiper.
At Pen Anglas 3 Wheatear,4 Common Whitethroat,5 Pied Wagtails a male Blackcap,a few Willow Warblers and Chiffchaff and a small passage of Swallows.
At Llanychaer 40+ House Martins none present until today.

Pied Flycatcher

A singing Pied Flycatcher in the woods at Llanychaer this afternoon also a few Redstarts, near the pond a singing Sedge Warbler ,my first Adder for my local patch was bonus.
Butterflies included Speckled Wood and Comma

Garden.

Two new ticks for the new garden list. A Common Lizard & a Kestrel the latter getting grief from a Corvid.

Archive Pic of Common Lizard from Goodwick Moor a few years ago

( Richard Burns).

Barcud Coch.

Presumably the regular bird over the valley, seen most days. Earlier on a displaying Sparrowhawk.

Lesser Whitethroat.

A very smart bird singing just above the valley on the path that runs parallel with the Fishguard bypass.

Strumble Head 15th April.

Time: 13.30 - 15.30
Weather: Overcast with some bright spells
Wind : N 4


Red Throated Diver - 1
Curlew - 1
Sandwich Tern - 3


Porpoises numerous & showing well in groups.
Good numbers of Manxies now.

A fall of stuff today with about a dozen alba/white  wagtails and wheatears on the outer breakwater with a couple of wheatears. Also plenty of swallows and martins coming in off the sea.

Redstart

A very smart male Redstart singing at Llanychaer this morning.

Great Northern Divers

There were two Great Northern Divers in Fishguard Harbour this morning apart from that very little.

Strumble this morning...

Image Ken Barnett.




This pair of Kites were also a bit of a surprise!

A couple of hours at Strumble this morning with a few porpoises, this GND was a bit of a surprise as we have been mainly seeing several RTD's all winter. 

Siskins.

After the relative luxury of having dozens on some occasions at the old house they are thin on the ground here. This male & his misses the first i've had on the feeders here.

Strumble Head 7th April.

Time: 12.15 0- 14.15
Weather: Cloudy
Wind; NW 4


Common Scoter - 5 ( 4 Males, 1 Female )
Fulmar - 30+
Manx Shearwater - 14
Puffin - 1


Guillemots, Razorbills & Kittiwakes going through so it's starting to liven up a bit.

White (alba) Wagtails Outer Breakwater

Strumble Head 4th April.

Very little out to sea but a walk around the headland produced my first Willow Warblers and White Wagtails of the year, a few Chiffs in the gorse with the Willows, easily three figures of Hirundines mostly Sand Martin & Swallows with the highlight being a Male Dartford Warbler in suitable habitat, after an absence of two years. 

Strumble evening.

Longer days and the manxies are moving back out of the bay after a days feeding there as the sun gets lower.

Not great pic' but a record shot. about thirty + passed west back towards the islands in the hour I was there. Later on in a month or two  ,it will be 3,000 maybe 30,000!

Strumble Head & Tresinwen (03 Apr 16)

Plenty of hirundines about today.

In the garden a noisy flock of Goldfinch and a flock of about 10 Siskin.  The Siskin being the first of the winter so I assume just moving through.

Strumble stuff...

This mornings session produced a surprise in the form of a storm petrel being chased by a juv gull which it ducked and dodged and escaped pattering on the water a grand welcome back to Pembrokeshire and a nice find by Steve from Essex!  The pic' is sadly not of the one we saw today but one of several seen on a boat trip last June.
Several  Red Throated Divers in various plumage stages were seen on both the sea and flying by which were also a bit of a treat for Steve! added to the Merlin and Peregrine he saw before I arrived I think we have another convert to Strumbling!

Wdig Birder joined me for another session in the afternoon but with a bit less  reward although we did manage to add House Martin to complete my  Hirundine year list and with Sand Martin as well Adrian also had all three. A little gathering of both Yarelli and Alba wagtails in a field corner sheltering from the gales was a nice ending to the session...