There's a small breeding population of lapwing on coal spoil above Garn-yr-erw, Blaenavon, and despite being harassed by sheep, dog-walkers, bikers, fell runners and corvids the number of breeding pairs has remained more or less constant at around 4-6 pairs, That is until this year! With just a single pair showing this weekend it now seems the colony is in terminal decline.
The primary objective of my visit however was to track down a medium size pond that is clearly evident on aerial photographs but one that seems to have avoided my gaze to date. It didn't take too long to locate said water-body, a deep, dark, oligotrophic pond with a vista of rural Monmouthshire and promising summer odonata prospects.
Birding was very much focused on calling birds. Cuckoo, Canada goose, snipe and pheasant were all detected calling from within the wider landscape. The most interesting record however was a couple of sand martin feeding low over molina grassland.
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