Spring, the sea and migrants

A strong south-easterly wind on the north coast often favours duck movements. It was nice on Wednesday 11th to not only have the first Sandwich Tern feeding in the bay but also 4 Shoveler.

Whilst we await the arrival of more summer visitors, our winter visitors have almost gone, 6 Wigeon on the 10th may be the last, but pairs of Teal still can be found in various sites around the estuary, particularly on the Reserve.

We await the first Whimbrel - any day now, and most Curlew have gone. A few still around and interesting to see 2 Curlew in an adjacent damp sheep pasture with plenty of areas of sedge growth, more interesting in that it was low tide and the birds were choosing to be in the field.

The first House Martins  (3) of the year were feeding Sand Martins and Swallows on the 5th over the Reserve. On the 11th we saw the highest Sand Martin count with c100 feeding at dusk.

A Great White Egret was seen by John Ramm feeding on Patch on the 7th, although this egret is becoming more common, it isn't an easy bird to see on the Teifi, the few birds we have recorded don't stay long.

A 1st winter Turtle Dove was seen intermittently in a private garden in Cilgerran from March 2nd - 21st.

...Now to the sea...

The photo below is from a Bay to Remember wildlife trip, and shows the Pembs side of the estuary from Poppit to towards Cemaes Head. This photo was taken on Saturday and Bottlenose Dolphins are in the middle of the photo, hoping for more records of the Dolphins in our waters this summer.

 Razorbills and Guilemots are here already in good numbers - some cliff counts in May. Below a raft with both species...

 Over the course of the season we will post interesting sightings and records from the local sea, often our more interesting records are from local fishermen.

A view of Mwnt taken from the sea...

 Rich D and Wendy J - 

(the at sea photos by A Bay to Remember)