Sunday morning me and my daughter, Kathryn, headed back to Porthcawl and we left the sociable time of 7:30 am and we got to Salt Lake car park at about 8:20 am and due to low cloud it was still dark and there were no gulls in the car park. We had to kill time so we took had a quick walk to the fair and back and has we walked back the gulls started to arrive and I said to my daughter you've got lots of bread today, having fetched two large loafs. She started throwing the bread and gulls were there real quick and there was about 150 Black Headed Gulls and only about a dozen Herring Gull but there was no rings on any of the gulls. She went though a loaf very quick and I said keep the other loaf for the next stop just in time, I think . Well, next stop was Victoria Avenue and I found the Med Gulls real quick and it's always nice to get one for the New Year. There were seven in total but there were no rung bird present today. Kathryn started throwing the bread on the grass in front of us and the gulls came real close and I started taking photos but the photos were real bad as the light was real bad and there seemed to be something wrong with the camera and I checked the setting and they were off so I switched it back and things were looking good. Only problem was Kathryn only had a hand full of bread left and the cheeky sod said you better bring four loafs next time. Also of note there were no Purple Sandpipers present and only a single Turnstone. Our next stop was Kenfig Pool where we walked down to the pool and I started my first search for the Slavonian Grebe and after finding it twice just before Christmas very quick and I could not find it anywhere .There was good numbers of duck on the pond with almost all being year ticks. There good numbers of Pochard and Tufted Ducks and smaller numbers of other ducks like Goldeneye, Wigeon, Gadwall, Shoveler,Teal, Mallard and a couple of Great Crested Grebe and sadly not the Grebe I was looking for. I did get my second Great White Egret for the year. As we walked down through the dunes toward the coast road it got wetter and wetter and we both ended up with wet feet and where were my wellies? In the house! Once we got to the beach, the tide was going out pretty fast and we walked down to the water edge and I found four Sanderling feeding on the beach and has we headed towards Sker Point I was scanning the sea and I picked up a Great Crested Grebe flying up channel and it landed on the sea and I quickly set the scope up to have a look at it and as I was looking for it a diver flew passed headed up channel. As I watched it I thought that not a Red-throated Diver as it lacked the up turned bill and the black on the head was clearly below the eye and it was medium size diver and I could not see any marbling on the back or any noticeable bumps on the head and the more I watched it I was more happy on it being Black-throated Diver and I followed it for some distant but it kepted going up channel and out towards Somerset .
We sat on the rocks at Sker and had a coffee. It was great to see the rocks covered in the casings of Honeycomb worms and it was a first for my daughter and a couple years since I looked at them last. As we sat there I could see the Mussel beds starting to show and flocks of Oystercatchers and Turnstones flew passed us towards the beds. I also had two Purple Sandpiper going passed but on the point there was loads of anglers and I think the birds could not feed much and were waiting for the Mussels bed to be uncovered.
When we started to walk along the rocks we met Mike Power and he told us that he saw the Slavonian Grebe and that the Cattle Egrets were back in Porthcawl. Just as we started our 5 minute beach clean, I spotted a Brent Goose feeding by a rock pool and it had was rung - an easy one to read DD and green and I have put the details in and I am waiting for the news. Going back to the beach clean, we think there must have been a beach clean in the last couple of days and it took us half hour to fill half sack and it's brilliant to see a clean beach for five minutes. After that we went back to the pool but still no sign of that dam grebe, arrrr! and there was some guy throwing a ball has far as he could out in the pool for his dog to fetch. It makes you think how the hell is this a nature reserve. We went back to the car and a quick stop on the way home for the Cattle Egrets and you can see why it's called Zig Zag lane and I was praying a car did not come the other way and half way along we were stuck behind two horses. As we got to White Wheat Caravan Park I could see the egrets in the field to the left and we had cracking views of all four - a Glamorgan tick for me and a great way to end the day with Great White Egret and Cattle Egret in the bag and I still have not seen a Little Egret yet this year.
Sorry saw long I got carried away.
ReplyDelete