Helping Fran with our second BTO Bird survey Transects; Morfa Farm/and coast path from above Abermawr to Pen Morfa this morning. We did our first of the spring on the 7th May and with poor weather and other commitments we ended up doing the second leg later than we would have liked.

In May there was a big influx of hirundines with literally hundreds of them, mainly swallows and house martins coming in and feeding on the coast. The smaller birds were much more vocal and visible before the bracken grew up.

We were certainly down on stonechats, with none recorded at their usual coastal sites but one pair with young on the farmland transect. Less goldfinches but as both species probably had fledged young perhaps they had just dispersed.

Unsurprisingly only a couple of swallows and no house martins, but lots of sand martins, foraging away from their nearby (Abermawr) nesting site. Ravens, Crows and Rooks all with young but young don’t count apparently which seems odd for a breeding bird survey although an adult starling with four young probably did not breed locally.

The Kestrel is a regular tick on our list but a high flying Sparrowhawk drifting off towards Aberbach was a first, followed by a Cuckoo winnowing its way across the bay, The first I have actually seen in Pemb’s this year!

Invertebrates added interest, with meadow brown butterflies particularly plentiful with one every ten yards or so along the path. A small blue butterfly (common blue?) was particularly pleasing and sadly I can’t remember the beetle, (oil beetle?)

All in all, a pleasant wander, with purpose, in the most beautiful of surroundings!