A long weekend in Anglesey with the missus in largely beautiful weather was welcome. Much of the time was spent waking the wonderful beaches at Newburhh Warren (where I saw my first Anglesey Red Squirrel), Rhosneiger and Benllach, but there was time for a few birds. We stayed in a lovely newly built cottage near Llanfachraeth at the base of the Alaw Estuary. The creek by the cottage held multiple Greenshanks, 2 Green Sandpipers and Little Egrets.
I walked the footpath along the southern shore of the estuary and also birders Beddmanarch Bay from
Penhros. Highlights were c100 Pale-bellied and 1 Dark-bellied Brent Geese, Mediterranean Gull, Slavonian Grebe and good numbers of commoner waders.
At South Stack I was surprised to see the cliffs already stacked with Guillemots and a good number of Razorbills on the sea, whilst 4 Chough flew through cheerfully calling away.
A trip over to Benllach Bay failed to result in the Surf Scoter, but plenty of Common Scoter, 3 Long-tailed Ducks, lots of rafting Great-crested Grebes and Red-throated Divers were nice to see.
Finally a quick visit to Holyhead Fish Harbour yielded four Black Guillemots, before we set off for home. We broke the journey up with lunch then a quick stop of Llandullas yielded 2 drake Surf Scoters. They were quite distant but in excellent light and calm conditions the views were decent enough. At least 2 Velvet Scoters were amongst the Common Scoters and there seemed to be at least 30 Red-throated Divers.
Not a bad return for a chilling weekend, and a reminder how good the birding on Anglesey is.
Back home there was still a couple of hours daylight, so I headed back to Kingsmead again for the impossible White-throated Sparrow. The score is now Sparrow 6. Me 0. Ah well.
No comments:
Post a Comment