North Wales

Just got back from a week in North Wales and I did a bit of birding while I was there. The coast is fantastic for reserves, just pick a direction and you end up in one surrounded by waders!!

Great Orm - 17/10/05
Kestrels and Meadow Pipits around with lots of Oystercatchers in the Southern bay.

Gresford Flash - 18/10/05
Canada Goose, Greylag Goose, Coot, Black Headed Gull, Heron, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Mallard, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Starling, Buzzard (in a tree), Mute Swan and Wood Pigeon

Loggerheads - various
Grey Wagtail and Dipper.

Newborough Forest, Angesley - 19/10/05
Terrific place... Goldfinch, Cormorant (over sea), Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Greenfinch (large flock of about 20 on the edge of the beach/forest), Raven (look massive when flying with crows, Magpie, Coal Tit (forest) and Crossbill. This was a new tick for me and I got an amazing view of a male ripping a pine cone off a tree, nibbing a few seeds then dropping it to the floor. He was a part of a small flock in the forest of about 10-15 birds.

There was also a small pond and hide just over the road...
Gadwall (4 or 5 pairs), Mallard, Coot and Dabchick.

Llyn Cefni - 19/10/05
Not as great a place but a hide and birds so...
Coot, Mallard, Tufted Duck, Pochard and Dabchick.

Llanferfechen - 21/10/05
Wow!... We started off by the car park and boating pong...
Black Headed Gull, Mallard, Mute Swan, Oystercatcher, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Greenfinch and Great Crested Grebe (on the sea).
Then past the woods to...
Goldcrest, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Song Thrush, Chaffinch, Robin.
And onto the first reserve marsh...
Dunlin, Teal (cf 40), Little Egret (at least 4), Redshank (cf 50), Twite (flock of around 30), Wigeon, Goosander (just the one), Pintail (cf 50), Heron (1 flying over), Pied Wagtail, Starling, Jackdaw and Stonechat.
And onto the second reserve marsh, first hide...
Lapwing, Shoveler (1 pair), Wigeon (cf 400), Redshank (cf 600) and Mallard.
And onto the second reserve marsh, second hide...
Dabchick (2), Redshank (cf 200), Little Egret, Dunlin ( a few mixed in with the Redshanks), Snipe (3)
... and on the way back, to add to the tally, Blackbird and Herring Gull

What a day. 33 species.

So all in all, a good few birds and a couple of lifers. I'm off to pack ready to move to North Wales :)

Pub Owl

We went to the pub on Friday night... hurrah. And on the way home at the top of the road we heard a Tawny Owl. I've heard it quite a lot since moving here hooting away while we're falling asleep but I've never seen it. But this night it was very loud and on turning the corner a large bird flew off from it's perch in a telegraph pole... yep... the Tawny Owl. So now I'm hooked and keep popping out for little walks after dark... you never know!!

Sefton Coast Trip

We've been over to Lancashire this weekend to the Sefton Coast and seen quite a few cool things. For a start the campsite was covered with rabbits! (much to Laddies delight!) I also saw many Pied Wagtail, Robin, Blue Tit and Goldfinch.

The whole area is covering with reserves... mad. We first found a reserve by accident while wandering through the dunes (where we saw some Long Tailed Tits... Sandlake Nature Trail. I saw Mallard, Coot, Moorhen and Cormorants (one swimming and diving... looks amazingly low in the water when swimming... like a submarine with a perescope) and Heron.

We also went to Formby, National Trust, which gave amazing views of Red Squirrels. I never knew they made sucha funny noise! They are reasonably tame seeing as they sell "squirrel food" on the way in but it's still fantastic to see them in the wild. There were an awful lot of Magpies around for some reason, a few Jays and I also got some great views of a Kestrel hunting over a farmers field.

Finally we went to Marshside... Mallards, Greylag Geese, Canada Geese, Dabchicks and Redshank. There was also a Heron and a Pheasant standing next to each on the sand in front of the car park... very usual site!
But the Marshside highlights were the flocks... Starlings swooping around, 100s of Wigeon (reportedly 2000 yesterday) and around 50 Pink Footed Geese (also 2000 reported yesterday)... which is a new tick!!!!!!!! Yay!!!!!