Whitford Burrows is a National Nature Reserve on the north Gower coast in South Wales. I headed for Whitford Point, a spit of land, on one side of which there is a long sandy beach and dunes, and on the other there is the salt marsh.

I was buffeted by high winds as I made the two mile walk to the bird hide which overlooks the saltmarsh and arrived there just as it started to rain heavily. I chose a bad day to come here. Apart from the weather, the tide was out and the birds few and far between (compared to the norm).

There were approx. 100 Shelduck dabbling in the small pools in front of the hide and 500 Pintail were resting on the mudflats a little further off. The obligatory Oystercatchers were widely scattered over the mud in the distance and here and there the odd Curlew, Dunlin or Redshank provided a little bit of variety. A group of 50 Wigeon gradually waddled nearer to the hide as they cropped the grass in front of it and 6 Brent Geese flew in to rest with a group of Shelduck to the right.

I spent 2 hours in the hide, mainly because I was waiting for the rain and wind to slacken off, but decided to make the trek back to the car when I could see that it wasn't going to happen. As I said, not a good day!