To follow up Liz Snell's post on birds at Cors Caron and where you can see them from (thanks Liz), can I ask those posting sightings to make it as clear as possible whether what they saw was from a publicly accessible part of the reserve or whether they saw it whilst doing a bird count or similar.
The few people with permission to access the normally closed parts of the reserve have it because the records they provide are useful to the reserve staff. If a particular rarity turns up on Cors Caron (this doesn't happen very often sadly!) it is often possible to allow access on request if it is away from the public areas of the site.
I will be doing the monthly WeBS count next week and I will post my records soon after that - I'd be grateful for anyone else's sightings to augment that, I always check the blog postings for the week I do the counts. The count is largely a "flush" count - virtually all the birds I see are disturbed by me and I have become quite good at bird ID on backside features. This emphasises why much of the reserve is off limits to the public, as a largely open and flat sight it is very difficult to view many areas without disturbing the birds one wants to see. The area upstream of Pont Einon (where the A485 crosses the Teifi) is one of the main feeding and roost areas for ducks, geese and swans on the reserve and is particularly prone to this problem.
I realise that it may be disappointing to birders to read about a bird or birds on the blog and to not be able to go to its location to look for it, but there is of course the chance that the bird(s) will move around on the site and become viewable from a public part of the site.
I can recommend looking from Pont Goch (the Lampeter road bridge) as well as vantage points on minor roads, to overlook the areas of floodplain farmland downstream of Cors Caron, they often have quite a few waterfowl and waders on them - I include them on the WeBS count for this reason.
Thanks everybody.