Wales land of My Fathers, Dragons, Rugby, Hunny Buns and a bafflingly complex language, (why use 1 D when 7 will do and what is going on with the double Ls! I'm actually convinced the Welsh language was invented to annoy the English in 1922 and I'm half Welsh!! Although this does afford me the opportunity to do my Allan Out/All Out joke every time we go past a layby, which Margie finds hilarious😏 and say Araf continuously on every drive!) . I have been visiting the area around Dolgellau (pronounce that if you dare😁don't worry there are several acceptable ways!) on holidays since I was a nipper, so at least 20 years😀😲ok 30 years, oh alright 54 years😢!! Always brings back memories of my Nain & Taid, Chelsea Buns from George's bakery, Nain's Homemade Welsh Cakes on the griddle, Bread Pudding, Roast Lamb and Mushy peas, "supper", Taid letting me loose with a chain saw, buying me my first beer at 12!! pubs were different then!, climbing the Green Bridge even though the flood waters were up to the bottom with the river raging beneath (Looking back think Taid may have been trying to kill me!!) Gathering Wood, Chopping wood, eating broad beans from the pod, getting told off for eating broad beans from the pod, mad welsh drivers (my Dad), going to Fairbourne for a swim, freezing my nuts off in the Irish sea!! Climbing Cader it wasn't called Cadair back then! Sneaking out for a fag!!Going fishing down the river, nearly crippling/drowning my brother on several occasions, his body still bears the scars and he' probably got PTSD 😆 Good Times!! Christ I'm old sorry about the nostalgia fest!!😁 Least I didn't say jumpers for goal posts, although we did play cricket in the back garden😱
Having not been since before the pandemic Margie and I decided a four day flying visit was in order,, this was mainly to see my Dad, but obviously was going to to do a bit of birding on the side😁! Having not been for so long there are a couple of birds I haven't connected with in a few years, notably Dipper and Chough, don't worry I'm not going to do the "Chuffed to see Choughs" joke! Although I realise I have just done it before I've actually seen them!! 😲😂 We travelled up on Monday, the traffic and weather were crap so we didn't arrive til late in the afternoon, time we had said hello, it was almost dark, I tried a couple of my "go to" places for Dipper but no sign, dipped the Dipper, not a good start!😢 Still the view from the back door is not bad!
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| Cadair Idris |
The weather forecast for Tuesday wasn't great, with showers predicted although was supposed to improve as the day went on! Although it has to be said that the Welsh weather forecast, seems to have little to do with what is actually going on with the weather! Today we were heading to Anglesey in the hope of Choughs, however with a Buff-breasted Sandpiper reported at Caernarfon Airport it would have been rude not to call in on the way up! The weather was moody but dry when we arrived on site, a scan of the field revealed the Golden Plover flock the bird was reportedly with, we walked up the road next to the field, with no scope (broke again😢😢) needed to get reasonably close, although there was zero cover, so slowly, slowly does it, Scanning with the bins we soon spotted a small wader, but right at the back of the flock. Being the only non Golden Plover (apart from 2 Curlews) in the flock we assumed that this was the bird!! But closer views were needed, the bird was quite active, but fate took a hand, a small group of large Gulls flew over the Wader flock spooking them up in the air!! When they landed the BB Sandpiper was the closest bird!!! Result!!
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| Margie captured this Rainbow as we passed Porthmadog a good omen we hoped! |
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| Margie highlighting the moodyness of the weather, but at least it's not raining |
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| Bleak is beautiful |
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| A bit of the Golden Plover flock! |
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| The spooked flock |
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| The front bird seems vey small but assuming just a European Golden Plover rather than something more exotic, opinion welcome! |
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| Get him guys!! The Buff-breasted Sandpiper leading the way |
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| The Buff-breasted Sandpiper landing "reasonably close" |
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| Golden Plover |
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| Couple of Meadow Pipits landed on the fence next to us!! |
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| Buff-breasted Sandpiper |
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| Golden Plover |
Cracking little fella!!
On the walk back we noticed a big sign on the gate, saying no admittance!!! Oh well no harm done!! The gate was wide open and the sign was on the back so not visible on the way in!!!
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| Couple of Jets flew over the beach, these have a habit of appearing low over our heads at random times making us jump!! |
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| Margie found some Fungi |
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| The Airport |
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| More Fungi |
A good start, next stop was the Spinnies Nature Reserve to see if the reported Osprey was still present! It wasn't!!😢 However we drove a few hundred yards further on to the beach, which was quite productive, looking over the Menai Straits, first thing of note was a large group of Eider spread out along the foreshore!
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| Part of the Eider flock difficult to estimate numbers as they were so spread out over a wide area but over twenty off the beach in front of us |
There were several large flocks of waders, which occasionally took to the air, however they were all rather distant!
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| I think these are possibly Oystercatcher |
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| Fairly certain these are Redshank |
Every time the waders went up I hoped for a returning Osprey but no luck, even when 40 or so Little Egret took to the sky off the far bank and headed towards us I was hopeful but no luck! Several groups of Wigeon flew past as well!
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| Wigeon |
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| Little Egret, loads of em in this area! |
Meanwhile Margie exploring the beach had found some Jellyfish, presumably washed up at high tide, as the tide came in we were wondering if they would re-float, can they survive being out of the water for long? Certainly a weird sight and there were several of them in a small area, so if the situation was the same along the length of the beach maybe hundreds? A few of Margie's pictures below.
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| Penrhyn Castle (I think) |
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| The beach |
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| Jellyfish |
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| Hunk alert! |
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| Fair few Swans in the bay |
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| This tree seems just about to be hanging on! A lot of people know how it feels in Tory Britain😡😢 |
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| Jellyfish refloating, difficult to tell if they are still alive or not! |
A very nice interlude with plenty going on and the weather held! With no more delays we headed for RSPB South Stack with a view of getting the bins on some Chough. We arrived in good time, but the weather finally stopped playing nice, luckily South Stack has an excellent café where we waited out the rain in the company of some excellent Lamb Burgers and a slice of Coffee & Walnut Cake which was very tasty, great views over the sea from here as well, with tantalising views of a flock of Corvids along the cliffs!
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| Coffee and Walnut |
The rain stopped and we headed out, Margie has developed a bit of a thing about being close to cliff edges but bravely overcame it here along the narrow cliff path💓, we soon found the Chough and a couple of Ravens, was a great hour or so being surrounded by these aerial masters! unfortunately the grey day didn't help with photography and they were far to manoeuvrable to get many flight pics, but we got reasonably close to a few as they fed on the cliff edge!!
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| Raven, maybe a Juvenile? |
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| Chough |
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| Most of the birds have a good amount of bling, I appreciate it is important for research, but can't help wondering if Choughs have bright red legs for a reason and what effect these bright coloured rings have on them in terms of courtship success? Although as numbers are increasing the answers probably, not much!! |
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| Bling free hurrah! |
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| Raven |
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| In between Chuffing I had a bit of a Seawatch a few Gannets went through but little else. |
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| Back to the Choughs |
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| Raven |
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| Chough in flight |
Fantastic with them flying all around calling, apparently there are about 50 in the area now and I reckon we had at least half of em along the cliff!! Great to watch their mastery of the air especially when they are doing it around your head it's a fantastic sight! Margie likened them coming off the cliffs one after the other like a firework display!! Shame the light and my lack of skill with the camera doesn't do em justice!😏
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| Almost as interesting, was watching this Helicopter bringing in bags of something to the Lighthouse some very tricky manoeuvring in the high winds |
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| The Lighthouse |
We were so fixated on the Chough's even Margie forgot to take pics of the Scenery which is pretty spectacular to be fair she managed a couple!
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| The view from the cliffs |
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| Elin's Tower |
For our final quest on Anglesey, we thought we would look for Red Squirrels in Newborough Forest, no luck but we stopped at the Malltraeth Estuary viewpoint, where pulling up in the car, we spotted a large bird of prey being mobbed by various Corvids and Gulls, yep we finally got our Osprey Hurrah!😁🏆
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| Osprey |
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| Getting Hassled |
The bird headed up the channel, with Gulls and Corvids in hot pursuit, so while we waited in the hope it would return, we had a scan around the estuary to see what else was about. Turned out quite a bit, as well as the birds pictured below there was a large flock of Linnet along the foreshore and a Sparrowhawk went past but I didn't manage a picture! Quite a few Redshank and Oystercatcher in the Estuary and a few small waders, which seemed like Dunlin but were too far away for a positive ID with just the bins!
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| The Osprey returned being hassled buy a Herring Gull |
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| Redshank |
The end of an excellent day for birds, though not so easy for the photography, I blame the Welsh light and weather though it was probably my fault in reality! Some very enjoyable encounters and yes we were very "Chuffed with the Chuffs" !! 😁😂 A great experience that will live long in the memory, highly recommend going at this time of year when they flock together they put on a great aerial show!! The Osprey showed superbly and the Buff-breasted Sandpiper was a star!! Great day!!
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