This was a Club trip to a favourite location, and an amazing 21 members attended. A total of 65 species were logged. Highlights at Whiteford after a muddy squelchy slog out there, were c.40 Eider, innumerable Brent Geese, plus Pintail and Wigeon and also 3 Common Scoter which came out of the water and settled on a sandy spit with the Eider to preen and rest. I for one had never seen Scoter out of the water before, One was a smart adult male and some folk who’d never seen one before were able to see the yellow ‘saddle’ on the bill through the scopes. Other wildfowl were huge numbers of Shelduck and a single drake Red-breasted Merganser. Out in the water we found 3 Great Northern Divers and 2 Red-throarted Divers and a very distant Slavonian Grebe. Waders comprised Redshank, Bar-tailed Godwit, Curlew, Knot, Grey Plover, Turnstone and around 100 Ringed Plover on the beach and large numbers of Dunlin.
Some folk had to leave when we retured to the car park and the rest went to the marsh road at Llanrhidian to look for Hen Harrier. We had to split up as parking is limited and we were a large group. A small handful of folk saw a female Hen Harrier and one lucky observer caught brief views of a Barn Owl. A Kingfisher hovered over the saltmarsh and many Little Egrets were coming in to roost, plus a single Great White Egret. All in all a great trip. And we were lucky with the weather!
Click here for the full trip list [not all species were seen by everyone – almost inevitable with such a large group].