Anglesey

Today was to be the hottest day of the year so far, virtually no wind and a gorgeous blue sky. A trip to Anglesey with Jim was planned, with a stop at World's End to look for Black Grouse on the way.

A drive across the moors found several males, quite distant but good views in the scopes and a lifer for me! We then located what was obviously an area they favoured with nine males together. More were spotted nearby making a total of about nineteen.

Continuing to Fedw Fawr on Anglesey, two Black Guillemots were seen and all the expected species at South Stack. Although the rocks looked remarkedly empty in areas that I've seen crammed with nesting birds in previous years. Only two Puffin seen, here's the one of them...





After lunch and a cooling Calippo we headed to Cemlyn Bay. Not long after we arrived, a Red-breasted Merganser landed on the water near the car park...





A Bar-tailed Godwit, several more Merganser and Oystercatchers were about and numerous Ringed Plover and Dunlin on the shore, this being the only one coming close enough...









Of course the Terns were the main attraction, 800 Sandwich apparently with many Common and quite a few Arctic. We spent a while photographing them as they flew back in from the sea, these are a few of my favourites...

























It was now getting late so time to press on to Gronant to see the Little Tern colony. About 300 birds present, another lifer for me. I didn't attempt any pics as they weren't really close enough, but this lovely Ringed Plover kept my camera busy.













A smashing end to the day.

Catching up

I've been doing a bit of local birding lately, going to areas I've never been before, seeing what's about and trying to get some pics. Yellowhammer are very common all around the area and always nice to photograph.





A pile of soil in a treeless area makes a useful song perch














Such beautiful birds.

That is until they decide to do this to themselves...









Several Wheatear, a group of twenty Corn Bunting and many Linnet around too, only the latter coming close enough so far.










Hopefully more pics to come soon.

Wood Lane

Today I decided to head north to see the Barwit at Wood Lane and Hobbys on Whixall. Couldn't resist a quick look at Chelmarsh first though to see if there had been an influx of waders! Well you never know

Or maybe I do... an LRP had the scrape to himself. A Cuckoo was also calling and soon located on a bush nearby. Despite having heard many this year, this was the first I'd actually seen! After being mobbed by a Crow it flew to the big tree allowing me to at least get a record shot.





Arriving at Wood Lane there was no sign of the Barwit, so after a quick look to see if anything was on the Meres, I returned and began a long wait in the hide. Hardly any birds were close enough to photograph so the couple that were were very welcome...











These I took to show Laura who's always loved Great-crested Grebes!








Then at around 1.30pm I heard a wader. Not knowing many calls, I expected to see the Barwit appear, but what flew across the pool had a curved bill... Whimbrel?? It landed almost out of sight on the far island so a quick walk to the other hide was called for and yep it was!





Excuse the pic, it was a bit too distant. This is only the second I've ever seen (the first being a few weeks ago) so that brightened up the day nicely!

The weather however was very dull and showery so I decided to give Whixall a miss. Gave up on it Barwit when it was nearly 5pm only to hear later that it was there again that evening!

HOOPOE!!!!!

I had a free day today and Jim, on his week off, offered to take me to see the Hoopoe at Clayhanger Marsh in Staffs where he'd had good views the previous day. If I had a 'must see' birds list, this would probably have been at the top! I didn't go to see the one in Much Wenlock in 2005 and have regretted it many times since. I knew about it but found the idea of travelling to see a bird (even 8 miles!) all a bit strange back then!

On arrival we were told what you don't really want to hear 'it had been showing well but flew out of sight half an hour ago'. Oh well, at least we knew it was still around, so waited patiently in the hope it would return to its favoured area. Trying to spot a singing Grasshopper Warbler helped pass the time!

After a while we decided to walk around the area and soon heard it had been seen up the other end... and there it was. I couldn't believe how small it looked! I'd been expecting something Woodpigeon size! We had the most fantastic close up views, though it was often so close we had to 'freeze' and couldn't move to take pics! So this one taken from a distance is as good as they get from me.





I have memories though and this is one I shan't forget for a while!

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