Walked with friends last weekend to Wallog, yes in the sun, disappointed not to see any Chough, the field north of the big house has been left to grow so the grasses were much too tall for food searching Chough however a pair of Kestrels were certainly 'making hay' so to speak, seemed to be feeding in the main on large caterpillars. Last year around this time there were Choughs in abundance.
South of Llanon, over the stream by the farm for sale, again tall grasses, the field has been left ungrazed so just one pair of Wheatear on the cliff edge, whereas last year when the sheep were on the meadow there were at least 5 pairs in the area. On the way back to the car park walking above the Sand Martin colony the intermittent rain relented, sadly only a couple of Sand Martins came out to feed in the sun, again this time last year I regularly saw at least a 100 or more. Perhaps the nest sites have suffered during the winter as the low cliffs are very fragile.
On literally a brighter note today the birds around the field were singing their hearts out, the meadow was alive with butterflies, Small Skippers, Meadow Browns,some Small Heaths, a large emergence of Ringlets and a few Speckled Woods under the trees. Around the lake, small numbers of Common Blue, Azure and Large Red Damselflies, A few Four-spotted Chasers, one Common Hawker and a very newly emerged Golden-ringed Dragonfly, wings still drying out, made me think Summer had arrived ... then over dinner I heard the tomorrow's weather forecast!
Alan Lyne