What a beautiful morning it was, so I set off down to Benllech seafront to see what was visible. The sea was like glass, and the sun was behind me as I panned across from Benllech to Red Wharf Bay. There were lots of birds visible at fairly long range. Small groups of Common Scoter were closer to shore however. I picked out 1 Slavonian Grebe, 5 Great Crested Grebe (very low count), 1 female Long Tailed Duck, 1 Velvet Scoter amongst 180 Common Scoter, 3 Eider, 60 Red Throated Diver and 2 Black Guillemot. There were certainly a lot more birds out towards Llanddona, but just out of my range. The highlight for me was seeing at least six small groups of Bottle Nosed Dolphin (about 20 in total) jumping and feeding, giving great views in the sun. They seem to be pretty regular in this area at the moment.
On to Traeth Lligwy, where divers were the order of the day. A 1st winter Black Throated, 2 Great Northern and 10 Red Throated Divers were visible from the car park.
Finally on to Moelfre, having helped round up an errant flock of sheep en route! 2 Great Northern Diver, 25 Red Throated Diver, 8 Black Guillemot were on the sea with lots of mixed auks. 30 Knot were roosting on Ynys Moelfre.
A great days seawatching in brilliant weather conditions. This area doesn't get a huge amount of coverage compared to say Colwyn Bay, Black Rock Sands or Morfa Harlech but its certainly worth a look on a day like this.
Great post David. Should try and get up that way more often. Although I probably overdosed on Moelfre area in the 90s there was always something to see on the sea and with the advantage that the sea was often realtively calm and sheltered with our prevailing South westerlies. Don't think I ever saw Velvet off that coast though. That's a good enough excuse for a visit I reckon
ReplyDeleteThanks Rhys, hope you manage to get over soon. I hope to try the other side of Red Wharf Bay, from Llanddona. Just need to find a good vantage point and some flat seas. Never found all those Black Redstarts you used to see!
ReplyDeleteThis has inspired me to get out there! The east coast seems a lot quieter than the west (people-wise), so it should make for a nice quiet day.
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