Redpolls

Dear All - a few recent sightings from Newport / Dinas.  We've had two redpolls visiting our niger feeder for the last few days.  Quite excited by these wonderful little birds - in fact we'd never had goldfinches, siskins or redpolls in the garden until we stuck up the new feeder last autumn.  Down at the river at Newport yesterday there were three whimbrels hunkering down on the mud flats, and a group of six whearears sheltering in the lee of the dunes.  And a reeling flight of about thirty small waders - dunlin I thought.  There was a sandwich tern searching over the river early last week too, quite far up towards the bridge.  Cuckoo - we heard the cuckoo in Brynhellan on the same day that Steve mentioned, but that was the first and last we have heard here so far this year.