Astounding 'Strumble'

I would just like to mirror Cliff's comments on sea-watching at Strumble yesterday (13/9/11).

I paid a visit to this iconic location with a friend of mine, namely Dave Cunliffe, Dave is relatively new to the 'refined art' of 'sea-watching' for seabirds at least so I was hoping that our trip down to Strumble yesterday would produce the 'goods' so to speak. When I walked into the legendary observation building I had a quick scan of the persons present and I knew immediately that here present was a crew of some of the very best 'sea-watchers' in the whole of the UK so I was rather pleased and excited about what these keen and experienced eyes might pick up during the day. Dave and I set ourselves up at the lower end of the 'pecking order' which effectively is on the 'right' side of the observation building (it's to complicated to explain here!) we arrived at 8.30am which was far to late really I reckon as one would need to be here at the crack of dawn like a true 'strumbler' to make the best of it. Anyway the list of birds seen during the day (listed on a previous blog entry) speaks for itself so I wont go into detail here all I can say is that Dave appears to have caught the Strumble bug! (Oh dear what an awful affliction! It probably means that he will want to pay another visit!). We left at around 5pm but not before being joined by Ray Wilkinson one of 'Strumbles' legendary figures. Ray duly set up his scope and chair in the location I'm accustomed to seeing him in and after a while he decided to go to his car to put on some extra gear due to the wind chill and in the interim period he loaned his seat and his scope to a lovely couple of coastal path walkers who had become fascinated by all this fantastic bird migration we were all observing. All I can say to you Ray is good on you my friend for not only being a gentleman and exhibiting the very best qualities of mankind but for giving your time and experience to these good people and clearly they went away with a good impression of Pembrokeshire birders and at the same time becoming more aware that there was a lot more out there than just a large body of water!