Saturday tetrad-bashing and Sunday Castlemartin Range

On Saturday out doing timed-tetrads on N coast in SN04, noted red kite hunting near Moylegrove (an untagged bird); on the coast a female kestrel escorted the observer along the coastal path for at least 6 km, always keeping about 100 metres ahead perching on fences. Other coastal birds included 30-40 fulmars on the cliffs in 3 small separate colonies and a few guillemots in breeding plumage coming and going from the cliffs. Winter thrushes were fairly numerous and small flocks of golden plover and lapwing on inland fields. Large numbers of gulls were feeding on a coastal field immersed in slurry - several hundred herring,couple of hundred black-headed, 20+ common noted.

There was a notable absence of both chough and peregrine between Ceibwr and Newport. Fresh otter-prints on the coast path above the cliffs however was a bonus as were not less than 4 harbour porpoises feeding off-shore from Careg Bica.

On the beach on Sunday at Frainslake, there were more than 300 dunlin, at least 54 grey plovers, about 30 curlews and oystercatchers, several sanderling, knot and ringed plovers; offshore a single red-throated diver. There were also several wigeon and at least 9 little grebes on the Frainslake millpond.