This weekend it wasn’t only the Lake District that was taking a battering. Thursday night was absolutely horrendous, with horizontal rain and very high winds. Friday brightened up but Saturday was very grey and very windy.
We decided to head down to Mewslade Bay in the morning as it was an area of the coast we hadn’t yet been to. The car park is basically a farmers field with an honesty box to pay. Being the good citizens that we are we dropped a pound in. Things got off to a good start with an adult male Peregrine Falcon drifting over the car park close enough to see its face mask with the naked eye.
The valley leading down to Mewslade Bay is a lovely walk through part wooded and part open ground. Ring Ouzel have been spotted here in the past but if there were any around when we were there the wind was certainly keeping them close to the ground. Down at the cliffs however we did see two Choughs that were very obliging and sat nearby in clear view for a few moments. These birds are so rare in this area that it is always a privilege. On the walk back we also had excellent view of a Kestral hunting and a Buzzard being hounded by a couple of crows.
Sunday turned out to be a pretty decent day weather wise with plenty of sun and blue sky. We headed over to the WWT site at Llanelli, one of my regular haunts. All in we saw about 40 species. Particular interests were a Knot in front of the Heron Wing hide, as well as several flocks of Long Tailed Tits interspersed with Goldcrest’s. A notable absence was the usual flock of 300+ Black Tailed Godwits. I can only presume that they were off feeding elsewhere, possibly due to the large amounts of rainfall and as a result the higher water levels in the lagoons.
This weekend also saw the first ever sighting of a Little Blue Heron in the UK. The bird was first spotted on Friday evening in the Kidwelly area of Camarthenshire. Saturday saw upwards of 500 people from all over the UK turn up to try and spot it. Alas to no avail. I shall certainly be keeping my eye open next time I am in the area though that’s for sure.
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