Castlemartin Range

Today noted kestrels breeding in a usual sea-cliff crevice area at Pen-y-holt Bay. A pair of ringed plovers were around but not sure if they have young (the female was incubating 2 weeks ago). Grasshopper warblers breeding in a mixture of tall grassland and low gorse; good numbers of whitethroats, skylarks and meadow pipits also breeding. No cuckoos though (this used to be a regular cuckoo area but alas the Range no longer seems able to attract and hold them).

Today also did timed-counts of butterflies (mainly for resident marsh frits) but it was interesting to note that painted ladies in the morning were passing through at a fairly slow rate of between about 50-120 an hour between Linney and Mount Sion. By mid afternoon their numbers had increased dramatically! So much so that when driving off the Range we had to slow down to avoid hitting them as they crossed the Linney Road. At one point numbers were so dense, that we calculated numbers to be about 50-70 per minute! They were on quite a broad front and all seemed to be heading east or north-east.