My Saturday was wonderful, a day’s birding along the Vale of Glamorgan coastline with my friend Della, checking clifftops for Choughs (unsuccessfully), stumbling over Stonechats along shorelines, scanning blue skies for Kestrels and Fulmar (the latter also unsuccessfully), hoping for (but not finding) the gold nuggets of Yellowhammers in hedgerows, nabbing a snippet of a Little owl in a crumbing barn roof.

We wound down by watching waders settling in for the night at Newton Point. Arriving about two hours before high tide, we were able to find a couple of spots amongst the rocks where we could sit quietly, almost obscured from the birds, and watch their antics, listen to their chatter as the encroaching tide pushed the birds closer to us. It was the perfect end to a magical day (and I’ll share more about the birds tomorrow and Wednesday).