Flagpoles 15.00 11th Nov.

Again awful conditions but this time brightened up slightly with 17 Med. Gulls ( 1 1st W, 2 2nd W & 14 Adults ) a Great Crested Grebe & a Kingfisher flashed by & landed on the rocks. A few Turnstone & a single Redshank & Curlew. 

Flagpoles 15.00 9th Nov.

A single Adult med. Gull flew in, at the Stena end a roost building but conditions truly horrible & sitting back at home watching the feeders & reading the Xmas Catalogue from the Scottish Salmon Smokehouse definitely more appealing.

Strumble Head 7th Nov 15

Time: 07.00 - 12.00
Weather: Driving Rain to start cleared by 08.20
Wind: SSW 6/7 then W 4/5


Common Scoter - 5 ( 3 Males )
Red Throated Diver - 2
Fulmar - 5
Manx Shearwater - 1
Balearic Shearwater - 1
Pomarine Skua - 2 ( 1 Dark, 1 Pale )
Arctic Skua - 5 ( All Pale )
Bonxie - 2
Mediterranean Gull - 5 ( 1 Ad, 4 1st w )
Sabines Gull - 1 ( Juv )
'Commic Tern' - 1


Risso's Dolphin - 1 ( Leapt 4 times )


Thousands of the more commoner species in large feeding flocks.


Chris Grayell  

Woodpeckers

Viewed from the dining room window.

Strumblish...

Wdig birder seemed to have some premonition about Black Redstart's in fact as we wandered around Pencaer he seemed to be almost obsessed, So I found him a couple! Sadly not great quality shots but not really happy about taking pics around peoples houses. But at least we found some, a cracking male and a less colourful juvenile...

Great spotted woodpeckers are not exactly what you might expect around the sparsely treed peninsular but here's one!...

This moulty  Bonxie was seen mid St Georges Channel from the Stena Europe today but was more or less heading in the direction of Strumble!

If only...

In some ways a quiet day at Strumble inasmuch little out of the ordinary. On the other hand the winter gull flock of over 1,000 birds covering over two miles of the tide race may well have contained something out of the ordinary had it been close enough to really probe.
A small distant flock of Scoter contained five males two juveniles/females, one auk and a smaller duck probably a teal. Blurry but at least a record that can be interrogated. If only I had a camera like the Canon SX50 in the days when I was Strumbling with Graham Rees!

Fishguard Fort

From Fishguard Fort this morning a pale bellied Brent Goose,a female Common Scoter a Brambling flew over also a flock of 50+Lapwing.
Dinas Mountain 25 GoldenPlover and inexcess of 70 Skylarks.
In the garden at Llanychaer a Blackcap.