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)

Gulls are such a common sight locally that (other than the chicks) I rarely spend any time photographing them. I took this sequence at lunchtime, just before weather didn't so much break as utterly collapse. The afternoon and early evening were punctuated with torrential downpours and some localized flooding. So much for a long hot summer. The photos were taken at a local village pond.

First a couple of single birds in flight. These are black-headed gulls (so called because of the brown head plumage which they display in summer):

Black-headed gull

Black-headed gull

While I was watching the birds, someone started feeding them slices of bread. The inevitable chaos ensued as the gulls (black-headeds and heron gulls) swarmed to grab what they could.

Gulls in motion

Gulls after bread.

Camera note: all shots taken with the EF 400mm f/5.6L USM lens.

I refuse to be defeated by the weather. Grey, overcast and damp. But there's always light by the coast And I was keen to give the new lens a more rigorous workout. To begin, a long distance shot of fulmars at sea (to prove that they are indeed sea birds). They seem just as prone to squabbling on the water as they are in their cliff nests. The shot is a fairly hefty crop.

Fulmars out at sea

To make up for that being taken from an absurd distance (they were barely visible from the shore), here's a rather different view of one as it flew in overhead.

Fulmar with close up view of its 'tube nose'.

But for once it was the gulls that kept my attention.

They were posing.

The Three Muses

Herring gull (semi mature juvenile)

And they were flocking.

A flock of gulls

The 'spotting' highlight was a fly past by a group of oystercatchers as they skimmed the shoreline looking for a quiet spot to come in to feed (the tide was just going out). They seem to have designated one of their number as 'food carrier'

Oystercatchers skimming the coast

There are several more shots from today in the April Birds album.

Camera note: all shots taken with the EF 400mm f/5.6L USM lens.