Everything is Permuted

Solva is just a few miles along the coast from St Davids. It's a small conservation area which comprises steep wooded cliffs around a dog-legged inlet. At low tide the boats are all marooned high and dry at the harbour end. The inlet opens out into a wide sandy bay, with low rocks leading up to the cliffs. A small rocky outcrop completes the view.
The harbour at low tide

Yes, that's me

You'd be forgiven for expecting sea birds to be the main attraction, and to be fair there was plenty to see, from gulls (black-backed, black-headed and herring gulls are all present) to oystercatchers, but it's the buzzards that provide the outstanding spectacle. They dominate the bay, more so than the local peregrines and sparrowhawks.







Having seen the buzzards from the beach, I decided that it might just be worth seeing if I could get a little closer by taking one of the paths to the top of the cliffs. Now although I'm not bad with heights, I'm not great with them either. Getting up to the top was easy enough. It was a solo trek (Mrs Words has no head for heights at all). The path winds its way through the trees, and although narrow I felt secure enough (the trees hid the view!). And sure enough, as I neared the summit a buzzard flew out from the trees, barely 10 feet ahead of me A truly close encounter that made it all worthwhile.

It was at the top that I wondered about the wisdom of the climb. One look convinced me that I really didn't fancy the path along the edge of the cliffs, and even perched on the reasonably large grassy area right at the top of the path I felt much more comfortable sitting down. Which is what I did. The only problem was the somewhat worrying sign a few feet ahead of me...


And the gulls which swept across in an endless stream...


And the rooks...


And the vertiginous view back down to earth...


I did, however, see some more buzzards across the valley...


I stayed and watched for about half an hour before bracing myself for the downward 'climb'. It was fine, but did teach me that I'm probably not as good with heights as I would like to be. I can 'do' them, but I don't like them.

And so back on terra firma, where Mrs Words was waiting patiently by the harbour for the intrepid explorer to return.


Camera note: all photos taken with the Canon 40D and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens + UV filter (except the one of me, which was taken by Mrs Words with the Canon S2 IS)