Whimbrel on the move1

This flock of 20 Whimbrel came into the breakwater today saw us and then moved off towards Dinas!

Strumble Kestrel

This kestrel has been buzzing me at strumble this past week or so passing several times over the day and today it landed on an outcrop some two hundred metres away.

Common Scoter 23rd July.

As expected Graham Rees has confirmed the 871 Scoter logged on Richard's ( below ) watch is a Strumble day record count.

Strumble Head (23 Jul 17)

Time: 0500 - 1200
Weather: Cloudy
Wind: SSW (F4)

Balearic Shearwater - 3
Storm Petrel - 1
Common Scoter - 871 (175F, 696M)
Sandwich Tern - 1
Curlew - 2
Whimbrel - 6
Redshank - 1

Risso's Dolphin - 3 pods of about 5 individuals in each.  Lots of leaping including one individual that performed over 15 consecutive sideways belly-flops.

Common Porpoise - Showing occasionally

Strumble Head (22 Jul 17)

Time: 0500 - 0900
Weather: Sunny
Wind: SE (F3)

Storm Petrel - 1
Common Scoter - 281 (56F, 225M)
Mediterranean Gull - 2 (Juv & 1st W)
Dunlin - 5
Puffin - 12

Common Porpoise - showing occasionally

A Strumble gem!

Waders on the move!

Single Dunlin, Common Sandpiper and Turnstone on the breakwater yesterday all flushed  heard and seen briefly  as I drove past them!

Strumble Head (16 July 2017)

Time: 0500 - 1200
Weather: Fog (lots of it) until 0930 then clear and cloudy.
Wind: WSW (F5) until 0930 then WNW (F3)

Storm Petrel - 1
Arctic Skua - 1 (Juv) (Very early for juv?)
Common Scoter - 209 (33F, 176M)
Dunlin - 9
Puffin - 14

Common Porpoise - showing occasionally
Common Dolphin - 2 pods of 5 and 10

The Pale Buzzard is Back

Back in late February early March there was a very pale coloured but magestic looking Buzzard on the Strumble peninsular. It moved off after a few weeks but now it seems it's back and I managed to catch a few shots of it on my way to and from Strumble today. In sunlight it looks superb but today was a dull day. I'll see if I can get some more shots of it over the next week.

Strumble Head (15 July 2017)

Time: 1400 - 1700
Weather: Dull, cloudy, brighter later.
Wind: SW (F5)

Storm Petrel - 3
Common Scoter - 6 (3F, 3M)
Puffin - 7

Common Porpoise - showing occasionally.

Fishguard Gulls 13th July.

At least one Juv Med. Gull at the Flagpoles this afternoon then a 1st Summer bird at Lower Town. Black Headed Gulls in reasonable numbers now with many Juveniles.

Back at Maesgwynne a Kestrel sitting on a Telegraph Pole across the road was unusual.

On the move

A common sandpiper on the breakwater yesterday flew before i could snap it!

Strumble to Goodwick walk

A lovely day Sunday so Mrs B and myself took a walk on the coast path. The ideal outing to test out the recently aquired 150-600mm G2 Tamron lens. Not much activity out over the water so I turned my attention to the coastal margins. First sighting was this little brown feller perched on an old bramble stalk waiting to dip down into the nest no doubt. Later in the walk we saw two Kestrels one which sped by and no chance of an image and the other hovering at a distance across one of the bays. The highlight was the encounter with twenty or so Fulmars on a nesting cliff near Carregwastad followed by a great capture of a Meadow/Rock pippit. All in all I'm very pleased with the results off this new lens.

Cuckoo

A juv Cuckoo flew over the garden at Llanychaer late morning today.

A Garden & Pembrokeshire First ( If i had actually seen it ! )

Caught on the camera trap.

Dun (lin) Roaming...

This little beauty was on the breakwater this afternoon! will it stay or will it go? did it arrive from Greenland or mid Wales, who knows but its nice to see one in summer plumage at this time of the year!

Green Sandpiper

A Green Sandpiper has just in the last ten minutes landed at the pond at Llanychaer.

Same bird?

Just as a coincidence perhaps this is the same bird Richard got four days before. Captured just along from Tresinwen on the way to Strumble.

Strumble Head - 2 July 2017

This is the Red Kite that has been hanging around for some time.  One of last year's young?  Pretty ragged plumage anyways.  Was following tractors silage cutting all afternoon on Sunday.  Seemed to be good tactic as it was seen feeding on a few "casualties" of the cutting.

Strumble Today 4/7/2017

The first trip to Strumble with the new 150-600mmG2 Tamron on the front of the camera. Alas only distant porpoise but on the bird front the Choughs were more active than I've seen of late with two or three individuald flying by and then a group of three. A calling curlew got my attention with two groups of three passing a few minutes appart. A few auks some kittywakes and the odd sheerwater completed the lineup with a few passing gannets for good measure. The images below are both montages of the various shots captured. Quite pleased with the clarity of the new lens though.