A Morning at Pembrey Harbour and a Wader That Kept Us Guessing

On Saturday I visited Pembrey Harbour, Llanelli, with Paul Joy. We arrived a couple of hours before high tide, with no particular target in mind. Sometimes it is simply nice to visit somewhere different, see what is about and enjoy a morning’s birding.

When we reached the viewing point we were greeted by one of our birder friends, Welshy Paul. And yes, I do seem to know rather a lot of people called Paul, which is why most of them have acquired nicknames somewhere along the way!

Along the rocky harbour wall, Pied Wagtails and Rock Pipits were busy feeding amongst the stones, while a solitary Turnstone picked its way along the water’s edge.

Turnstone

What struck me almost immediately, though, was the temperature.

After the relentless heat of the recent heatwave, it was wonderful to be outside in cooler conditions. Clouds were gently covering the eastern horizon, taking the sting out of the morning sun and giving us some very welcome relief. For once, birding didn’t feel like an endurance event.

Rock Pippit

Out towards the mouth of the river, a sandy spit was covered with a large flock of Oystercatchers. Several birders already had their scopes trained on them because a rather more unusual visitor had been reported there the previous day, a Lesser Yellowlegs, a rare American vagrant to Britain.

The tide steadily pushed the flock of Oystercatchers to edge of a sandy spit.

Paul and I weren’t really twitching it. We have both seen Lesser Yellowlegs before, and our reason for coming to Pembrey Harbour was simply to enjoy somewhere new.

Even so, when you know something unusual might be hiding amongst a flock of birds, it is difficult not to keep looking.

As we chatted with Welshy Paul and scanned through the Oystercatchers, a flock of Sandwich Terns repeatedly passed in front of us, their calls carrying across the estuary. They gave us several lovely fly-pasts in the soft morning light and provided a welcome distraction from staring endlessly through the wader flock.

Around forty-five minutes later, the tide was well on its way in.

Then a smaller bird suddenly dropped out of the sky and landed near the end of the flock.

It immediately caught the eye.

The mysterious wader

Standing in beautiful morning sunshine, it looked distinctly out of place amongst the Oystercatchers. Then came the shout from one of the birders:

“That’s it ,the Lesser Yellowlegs!”

Through the camera the bird certainly looked convincing. It had long, rather lanky yellowish legs and a delicate appearance compared with the surrounding birds. It scuttled towards the flock and disappeared amongst them before later reappearing in the open.

For a while it seemed unable to make up its mind whether it wanted to remain with the waders or vanish into the longer vegetation nearby.

I managed to take several photographs before it disappeared again, and at the time everyone seemed reasonably happy with the identification.

Later, however, things became rather more interesting.

Cropped view

After I posted one of my photographs online, several people suggested that the bird might actually be a juvenile Redshank. Young Redshanks can create quite an identification headache, particularly when seen at distance or under certain lighting conditions, and can show surprisingly yellow-looking legs.

Since then I have looked at my photographs from different angles, compared them with images of both species and gone backwards and forwards more times than I care to admit.

And if I am being completely truthful, I still haven't decided.

One photograph makes me lean one way. Another makes me lean the other.

Perhaps that is part of the fascination of birding. Even with modern cameras, long lenses, telescopes and access to thousands of reference photographs online, occasionally a bird still refuses to fit neatly into a box.

Whether our visitor was the reported Lesser Yellowlegs or simply a particularly deceptive young Redshank, in the end I won't be disappointed either way.

The bird gave us something to talk about, something to photograph and, perhaps most importantly, something to think about afterwards.

And I discovered Pembrey Harbour.

Sandwich Tern

Oystercatchers

It is a wonderfully pleasant spot to spend a few hours watching birds, particularly as the incoming tide begins to gather everything together. With the harbour wall, estuary, sandbanks and passing terns, there always seems to be something happening.

I will certainly be returning.

And next time, perhaps the birds will make identifying themselves just a little easier.