Beautiful Birds (7): Chuffed - or Choughed - to Bits!

We headed off to St Davids (no apostrophe in the name for some reason) in Pembrokeshire, West Wales, last Saturday in the hope that we might spot some young seals along the coast. You can see one of the fluffy pups we saw last year if you click the link here to my seal photo and accompanying poem. Please feel free to cast a vote or leave a comment for any of the poems in the competition. You will see a link to them all at the bottom of the linked page. I believe the poll closes at the end of this month.

Sadly there were no pups in evidence this year, though we heard that some had been spotted earlier in the week before the gale. Even worse: we saw a dead seal on the shore. Thankfully the one above was alive and kicking. I think (s)he may be quite a veteran.

We were just leaving the cliff path when we noticed a streak of red and realised that it was the curved bill of a Chough. I have only seen these birds twice before, but they are not as rare as they were a few years ago. As you can see, it turned out to be two for the price of one!

Be sure to look at Adam Tilt's stunning Chough photos here - and his footage of an Otter in Pembrokeshire. 
 

• More on the Chough
• Operation Chough
• BBC Nesting Choughs
• Cornish Choughs in Jersey
• Foster Chough chick