Fishguard Harbour

In the harbour this afternoon 1 adult and 1 1st winter Mediteranean Gull.
At Llanychaer this morning in my front garden a Mink not good news.

Now you dont see them than someone does!

Much windier today and bitter cold, Ken was already there when we arrived Anita Stijn and the walrus.

We only got the odd glimpse of a porp and no pic's. We did see a Bonxie (Great Skua) and Ken had one earlier a little flock of scoter three males and a female were following behind a guillemot. Usually its the other way around.

As we came back up to the car I noticed the great man of Strumble himself keeping an eye on things from his car! It was good to see him. He taught me a great deal but mainly patience, Thanks Graham.

As we left Adrian (Wdigbirder) was just arriving. He phoned later to say he had seen lots of Porpoises, so just goes to show timing is everything... sometimes!

Fishguard harbour 16.00 5th Jan.

In the roost with the hundreds of Black Headed & Herring Gulls, a 1st Winter Little Gull, 5 Adult Meds, a single Kittiwake & a Great Northern Diver swimming around between them very majestically.
On the way back a Woodcock flushed from by the Vets in the lane & another 3 over on my half hour watch from the back door where I also had a Tawny Owl calling.

Manx Shearwater

An hour and a half sea watch at Strumble Head produce a Manx Shearwater, 9 Red-throated Divers and 94 Common Scoter.

Strumble surprises and keeps on giving!

Although I was looking for cetaceans today it was slow going to start with and as usual it was the birds that kept the interest going. These Cormorants attracted our attention the nearest one was struggling to eat something which at first looked to be an octopus.   

But... having examined the pic's I took, the "octopus" looks rather like a bunch of squid eggs! Now to birdy people this may seem quite insignificant but to someone who is interested in trying to understand why Strumble has been attracting Risso's Dolphins for many years, it was a bit of a eureka moment! Risso's Dolphins eat squid and here we had positive proof of squid and Risso's both being around at Strumble at the same time, prey and predator.

Loads of Scoter were passing by, a couple of largish groups sorry for lack of quality but pretty distant its only an estimate but I would have said around fifty+ 

Seven  divers passed by heading west and two heading east and odd ones on the water but none close enough to positively ID

Next surprise was  a flock of six shellduck not a rare bird but not seen that often at Strumble.

An otter was the next surprise swimming by under our noses spotted by a Dutch volunteer Stijn.

Not exactly a surprise as we have been seeing Risso's reasonably frequently recently but it was the reason for us all being there ...

Good old Strumble, not always easy but always worth spending time there! happy New Year.. so far so good!

Fishguard Harbour

In the harbour an adult Mediteranean Gull, a single Great Northern Diver and Great Crested Grebe.
Off Pen Anglas 16 Common Scoter.

Tresinwen & Strumble (02 Jan 16)

3 Mistle Thrush in the garden and a few Redwing and Fieldfare around.

Off the lookout 26 Common Scoter, 3 Red Throated Diver and an Adult Med Gull this morning.