Sunday 2 June 2013

Spring is not over yet!

A few bits and pieces are still on the move, and hope is not all; lost yet of a goodie or two before the spring is out. The last few days have seen a good arrival of Spotted Flycatchers on the end of the Lleyn and on Bardsey. On Friday morning, I had 40+ birds around the Aberdaron headland early morning along with 2 Whinchat and 4 Lesser Whitethroats. Bardsey had a similar number of birds on the island as well as a nice singing 1st summer male Common Rosefinch.

Back to the Great Orme this monring and a new bird for the year came in the form of a smart Hooded Crow in the Sheep fields. The bird, which looks every bit the real deal, is associating with a group of nine or ten Carrion Crows and seems to be frequenting the fence posts in the centre of the fields. It was also seen near the cairn. Two groups of Crossbills moved west early morning with one flock of 18 and another of 7  including some singing males! Very strange hgearing them sing in flight as they flew over.
Finally a smart female type Yellow Wagtail was on the limestone pavements, associating with some 5 Wheatears.

Still time for the biggie :-)

This morning's female type Yellow Wagtail on the Great Orme limestone pavements.

 An arrival 40+ Spotted Flycatchers on the Lleyn on Friday was cool, however it was eclipsed by the 1000+ that arrived at Portland Bill the following morning!!
Plenty of local birds on show on the Great Orme at the moment, including Kestrels, Stonechats, Peregrines, Black Guillemots, Chough, Ravens and Wheatears.

2 comments:

  1. Hello Marc, good to meet you on Friday, I did a similar walk on Saturday and couldn't find a single Spotted Flycatcher - which felt strange after seeing them in just about every clump of gorse from the bay back to Aberdaron [once you'd drawn my attention to them!] All the best, Peter

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good to meet you to Peter. It's not often you come across another birder in the far west of the Lleyn. I hope you had a good holiday and enjoyed your stay. Hope to bump into you again soon.

    ReplyDelete