Whilst at the caravan last week I received a text on Friday evening from good friend and birder/togger Dave Gilbert asking me if I fancied a visit to Martin's Haven, Pembs where the previous day 4 Wrynecks had been reported.
We were to be joined by John Freeman from Milford Haven, a Mach Loop (low flying aircraft in Mid Wales) friend of Dave's who I really like, and who is great company.
Leaving the caravan site at 06.45 I arrived at the NT car park at Martin's Haven at exactly 08.00 as planned.
Upon arrival the weather was more than a little disappointing with dense sea mist and occasional drizzle which took a couple of hours to eventually clear into a nice sunny day.
We spent the first couple of hours searching Deer Park and Wool Tack Point for a Wryneck and had almost given up until we bumped into Alan Merrett from Pembroke who had just had a brief glimpse of one as it disappeared over the gorse.
We chatted and said our goodbyes to Alan and headed for the area to the rear of the toilet block bumping into a chap who recognised us from our last pelagic.
He advised us that a Wryneck had been occupying the area near the 'steps' opposite the main gate but had flown over the tall stone boundary wall towards the large white holiday property.
We moved to a position where we could get a good vantage point and we picked up the bird climbing and feeding on the rocky incline at the rear of the house.
It then flew back over the wall towards the area near the toilet block, we made our way there where there were a couple of rocky outcrops which we thought the bird would favour.
After a short while we picked up the bird on one of the rocks and all of us took advantage rattling off several shots.
We were joined by Mike Davey from Pembroke who replaced John Freeman who had to leave early due to another commitment.
Myself and Dave have got to know Mike from our most recent pelagic.
The Wryneck came and went a couple of times and we enjoyed taking several more shots of the spectacular bird, Dave had to also leave as he had a long journey to undertake leaving myself and Mike to hopefully get a few more photos.
The bird duly obliged and returned one more time to the rocky outcrop after Dave had left and we rattled off several more shots before Mike and myself left together.
A fabulous long morning out in great company, two Wrynecks which were a 'lifer' for Mike, several photogenic, noisy Choughs and numerous Atlantic Grey Seals with pups in the small coves at Wool Tack point.......
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