Last weekends good fortune shows no sign of abating as I had another corker of a days birding today. After a morning catching up on boring chores I headed over to Kenfig for a forced march out to Sker Point. I normally take things at a more leisurely pace but I was desperate to catch up with a bird that had given me the slip here less than a week ago. I knew I was in luck when I spotted a couple of photographers eyeing up an area about half a mile away. I approached carefully until one of them pointed to the ground just in front of me. There, feeding away quite happily, was the Lapland Bunting I had been hoping for. I crouched down and fired off a couple of record shots not really expecting to get anything better. What I hadn’t accounted for was just how tame this particular bird was. Over the next ten minutes or so it crept ever closer until it was basically at my feet. I’ll let the photos do the talking.
I would probably still be sitting there now if someone hadn’t walked right through our little group and scared the Bunting off. Fortunately it returned to the same spot a few minutes later but I had my excuse to move on.
Before heading back to the car I had another fruitless search for Yellow Wagtails around Sker farm. Although I drew a blank I did spot my first Merlin of the year. It very nearly took my head off as it swooped up and over the wall that I was stood against chasing a large flock of Goldfinches. The sound of the wind through it’s wings was most impressive.
Thinking that things couldn’t get much better I nipped over to Blackpill to follow up on another lead. At the back of the West Cross Inn it payed off as I get my second lifer of the day in the shape of a Turtle Dove!
Once again the bird was incredibly tame and seemed unconcerned by the cycle route traffic passing by a few meters away. It was another top tick and my thanks must go to Jeremy Inglis who originally located it and got the word out.
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