Despite atrocious weather and rather poor visibility the high-tide at the Breakwater hide this morning produced a good variety of waders with a few more species at Lodge Farm later in the morning. There were over 200 oystercatcher and curlew together with 4 grey plover, 3 knot, 2 little stint, 44 dunlin, 7 bar-tailed godwit, a spotted redshank, 3 greenshank and 28 redshank. On the fields behind the hide were 180 lapwing and 17 snipe and at Lodge Farm 3 ruff, 220 golden plover and a green sandpiper. Other birds included all the barnacle geese (305) feeding on the fields behind the hide, a female hen harrier and a female merlin.
From November 1st the railway path leading to the Breakwater hide at the RSPB Ynys-hir reserve will close and will remain so until the end of March; to access the hide one will have to go via the Ynys Eidiol hide and retrace ones steps. Due to persistent flooding during the winter and increasing numbers of birds feeding on the fields we have taken the decision to close the path to ensure the birds to not get disturbed and to ensure there is no trespass onto the railway if the path floods as happened on a number of occasions last year.