Chough v squirrel

I was up at St Justinian today, trying to look for seabirds between squalls and in some rather nasty winds - didn't see much.

However, on the corner just north of the lifeboat station there were six rather noisy chough, obviously angry about something. That something turned out to be a grey squirrel, about 20m from the edge of the field. The squirrel ran the gauntlet of the choughs, and eventually got to the hedgebank. The chough perched on the hedgebank and on the fence, complaining loudly. Squirrel scooted across the path, and down the rather steep slope, with the choughs still in pursuit, even dive bombing it.

Whether the chough just gave up, or if they were put off by my presence, I don't know. Or perhaps the squirrel had fallen off the cliff. Anyway, the chough left, I hung around for about five minutes, but didn't see anything more of the squirrel. Mind you, I wasn't about to get too close to the edge in that wind, so maybe the animal was hiding somewhere.

There aren't very many grey squirrel records from the St David's peninsula, though there are a couple of old ones from Whitesands and St Davids Head. This is a good time of year for seeing grey squirrels, any records (of these and other mammals, reptiles and amphibians) are welcomed. Check the distribution maps at www.pembsmammals.blogspot.com