Monday 15 November 2010

Great Day by the Sea

A cold morning but bright so I decided to get up and go down to Ginst Point by the Hurst Hotel to look for the Cattle Egret reported yesterday.  No luck but enjoyed up to 3,000 Golden Plovers coming in to roost and bathe on a wet marsh.  They kept coming in small groups and their haunting calls added to the atmosphere.  There were a couple of Kestrels, c40 Curlews, a Snipe and c50 Fieldfares feeding on hawthorn berries.



After my picnic lunch I carried on through Pendine and set off for Telpyn Point.  The walk is getting tougher each year as I get older.  First down a wooded vally and then further down across two stiles and then a climb up to the top of the cliffs.  The problem with a sunny day here is the light is really in your face but as the afternoon prgresses it gets easier.  Common Scoter numbers were low at around 200 but scoping for an hour I also added 7 Great Crested Grebes, 10 Red-throated Divers, 6 Red-breasted Mergansers, 12 Kittiwakes, 20 Guillemots, 4 Shags and an adult Gannet.



The coastline of Carmarthenshire is dominated by shallow sandy areas of the Burry Inlet but the further west you travel then deeper water and high cliffs dominate.  Seabird records are quite scarce unless you do go west. 

After a great and sunny day I headed home in torrential rain and after supper entered all my sightings in Roving Records for the BTO Atlas.  Make sure that if you are out birding to do the same.  This is the last year and we need to make every effort to get the best coverage possible for the county.

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