Both metaphorically and literally as it turns out.

23809 - Port Eynon in the fog

Today mainly consisted of very thick fog that knocked visibility down to little more than a few hundred meters, with precipitation ranging from annoying drizzle to driving rain. My plan of a lengthy walk across the backbone of Gower was put on hold and I found myself sat in the car at Port Eynon, eating a sandwich and contemplating just heading home. I heard a distinctive call from the back of the car park and quickly located the culprit as a Chough sat on one of the fence posts. A rather unusual place to spot one around here but fantastic to see that at least one had made it through the cold snap. Feeling slightly uplifted I did a quick scan of the rest of the area I could see and found two Song Thrush, a Mistle Thrush and two Linnets. Not a bad haul at all and enough of a lift to get me to drag myself down onto the beach. Boy was I glad that I did.

23814 - Brent Geese, Port Eynon

First spot was three Brent Geese (above) swimming a few meters offshore near the old salt house, closely followed by a single Grey Plover. Yet another example of waiting to see something for ages only to see it several days in a row and at different locations. Also feeding on the beach were six Turnstones (still no sign of any Purple Sandpipers this year) and a solitary Sanderling. In the worsening weather I wondered out onto Sedger’s Bank where a flock of fifty Oystercatcher were roosting. My interest though was drawn to the water where a female Eider was bobbing around at close quarters. It was too wet to get the camera out so I finished the walk to the end before returning. In that brief time the bird did a disappearing act and I couldn’t relocate it anywhere.

I spent the afternoon walking from Mumbles to Langland Bay looking for a warbler that shall remain nameless. I had no luck with that but did see two more Chough near Langland as well as several Redwing on the golf course. Bracelet Bay held twenty eight Mediterranean Gulls plus three juveniles in the car park that posed as obediently as always.

23815 - Mediterranean Gull, Bracelet Bay

1 Comment

theconstantwalker · December 29, 2010 at 10:48 pm

Lovely images of a lovely part of the UK.

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