Scouting for Elvis

 Last night I decided I could do with a good walk on Sunday morning and I thought I would give Kenfig River mouth a bash as it's been a couple of years since I was there last. Well, I sort of forgot to tell my daughter Kathryn how far it was and she was up for going. We got up nice and early and headed to the coast to Porthcawl. On arriving we went  first to look for Gulls in Salt Lake car park and there seemed to be lots of cars and vans everywhere and people sleeping in them. We found out it was the big Elvis tribute weekend and we were lucky it was still early has some of the roads had been closed and reopened  for a short time, to clean up I think. Back to the birding, and in the car park there was big numbers of Black Headed Gulls, I counted 165 but yet again very few juveniles in the flock, and small numbers of Herring Gull with only one or two Lesser Black Backed Gulls. It was only when I went for my bread that realized that I had left it back at home. I remember the same may have happened once or twice in the past. I felt gutted that I could not feed them. On looking close, there where no sign of any rings in this flock or any on the Gulls on the beach. Nor was there any sign of the local rung Herring Gull with the ring number  S032 about.

Next up we stopped by Victoria Ave and I think because the tide was still coming in, it was a Gull free zone. From there we went straight to Kenfig Pool and the start of our walk. We checked the pool and shore line and we found 3 Wigeon , 14 Tufted Duck, 6 Gadwall, 5 Teal . and big numbers of Mallard and Coot and only waders seen were 3 Common Snipe and a single Lapwing. The only birds over head were Meadow Pipit, Skylark and Reed Bunting. On the way though the dunes I found this scat with some Rock Rose berries in it and I have no idea what made it and, no I did not smell it. Down at the river mouth there was good numbers of Linnet and Goldfinch in a flock and in the pools there was 15 Teal, 2 Gadwall, 1 Shoveler and 1 Little Grebe. I also had a pair of Kestrels and it's been a long time since I saw a pair last. Once on the beach we had a coffee and waited for the tide. It was like old times sitting on a log and watching the birds moving with the tide . In front of us was a pebble bank and a single wader flew in and dropped below the bank. On looking closer there was a big flock of Sanderling, all bunched on the  pebbles and I counted 209 and 4 Dunlin and we also had a flock of 103 Oystercatcher and small numbers of Curlew. I had just finished counting them when a guy with 5 Spaniels put the lot up and most went over the river towards the steelworks. At this point I thought the count was over and I started my bit to save the planet and did some litter picking along the beach. It was mostly plastic and I filled two sacks fairly quick. As luck would have it there had been a beach clean up the beach recently and they left their bags along the coast path so I put my bags with them. Boy was I glad as it would have been hard work carrying them back to the car.
So back to the birding and we found another flock of waders which were mostly Ringed Plover, 35 in total. As we walked down the beach it felt like Sker was miles away. About half way it was time for a coffee break. Two large flocks Oystercatcher flew passed and there was easy 200 birds in total, all headed toward Sker Point.

When we got near Sker I spotted this corpse on the tideline and thought what the hell is this. I was looked at the skull and I could see it was a Harbour Porpoise and the blood looked fresh so I got in touch with the warden Dave Carrington, and he said  it's been there a couple of weeks. There is no way I am I sending this skull though the post. At this point we were both cream crackered and, like Phil, I don't think Kathryn will be in a rush to go to the river mouth again. As we walked passed the Life Guard station I spotted a falcon coming towards us fast, a first year Peregrine Falcon, and it landed on the dunes  near the beach and give brilliant views. Last up at Sker Farm I got a single Little Owl sitting in a hole on the barn and a single Common Darter on the Golf Course and so ends another weekend birding