A walk from Martin's Haven to Marloes Mere yesterday evening gave some lovely birds.
There had been a small fall of Greenland-type Wheatears, and the field by the NT car park had 5 females and 3 males. Very interesting to contrast them with the resident pair currently displaying at the top of Renny's Slip.
Along the Trehill Farm fields a Short-eared Owl was hunting, flying quite high. Most years we have watched Short-eared Owls commute over from Skomer to feed in the evenings, but at this time of year we have also had non-breeders that have roosted on the mainland for one or two weeks at a time.
At the western edge of Marloes Mere we watched a female/immature-type Merlin chasing a summer-plumage Dunlin. Fantastic aerobatics, and the Dunlin flew in ever-tighter circles, spiralling higher and higher, until the Merlin finally gave up.
At the Mere two snipe were flying and calling (but not, alas, displaying), and I saw (and heard) my first Sedge Warbler of the year in the willows between the Britton hide and the barbed wire gate.
