Heritage Coast Visit

Back on 17th November I made a brief Saturday morning visit to our "Heritage Coast" to try and get a few decent photos starting with the obliging Snow Bunting which had been resident at Nash Point for a couple of weeks previous.

On arrival I immediately bumped into a couple of the "big lense" boys Alex Bevan from Cardiff and Steve Hinton from nearby Aberthaw who I'd got to know quite well on the Ultimate Pelagic back in August,the bunting was showing very well and I managed to "digiscope" a few half tidy snaps.

The bird was extremely confiding and was not even spooked by Lily my wee West Highland Terrier,a couple of the "Port Talbot " lads Dave Sharp and George Morgan turned up and we watched the bird before setting off on a short walk past the lighthouse to see what else may have been about.

The only other birds of note were a Peregrine,a Common Buzzard and a Kestrel which I almost got to photograph but annoyingly it "stooped"after some prey as I was about to click the shutter !!

A welcome cup of tea and a welsh cake at the cafe was enjoyed and as we were leaving Steve Moon turned up for a look at the bird.

A brief stop at Tyn-Y-Caeau farm failed to turn up any Tree Sparrows and I headed for my next port of call Ogmore-By-Sea to catch up with the Purple Sandpipers which had recently arrived from their northern breeding grounds.

Despite a high tide and the presence of several fishermen the birds were quite obliging and I managed a few tidy pics without getting too close as has been reported on our GBC website forum.

The light was excellent and there were about 9 birds present with the usual Turnstones one of which was being photographed at very close quarters by an enthusiast on the pebble beach.

There was also a nice group of Black Headed Gulls present and with them a single Common Gull which perched well on the rocks just asking to be photographed.

I had hoped that our resident group of Choughs would have been present but they weren't on this occasion and so after a brief stop at a rather waterless Watermill flood I headed for home and an afternoon out with Teresa to win a few more valuable "brownie points".