Glossies & Wooltack Gull Watching

Out with Paul G late afternoon, as we drove through Marloes the 3 Glossy Ibis were flying over the original field, and seemed to land to the west of Foxdale Guest House. Sure enough, a drive down Glebe Lane found them in the first field to the west of Foxdale. They fed contentedly for 5 minutes or so, then flew about heading nearly all the way down to Mullock, before circling back and landing in the same field! This was around 4.10-4.15pm. As Derek said, they looked fantastic in the bright sunlight.

Our main mission was an experimental (pioneering?) watch from Wooltack to see a) how many gulls headed from the mainland to Skomer, b) the main flightlines used, and c) were there any 'white-wingers' in amongst them. The respective answers were a) around 6,000 between 4.45pm and 6.30pm mostly adult Lesser Black-backs, b) the red line on the map above, streaming along the shoreline of St. Bride's Bay, and c) no.

I counted 4,831 birds taking the main northern red flightline. A proportion came along the bay then veered slightly south of my position (pink line) and the remainder came in from the south and east (Gateholm direction). An education, but really cold!