A round up on the River Clwyd

A few decent birds knocking around the Clwyd of late of including a superb juvenile Cuckoo in the fields on the Rhyl side, south of the railway bridge on the 1st August. 2 Knot hung around from July into August and Black Tailed Godwits numbers have been fluctuating below 10. A Bar Tailed Godwit joined them at the end of July and has stayed put since. 2 Greenshank appeared on 6th August but I couldn't relocate them on the 7th.

Cuckoo - River Clwyd

Amazing numbers of Common Sandpipers have been roosting lately with 29 birds altogether on 6th August. A Green Sandpiper was reported by Marc a week ago or so much further up the river where also a Reed Bunting was showing occasionally. A Little Ringed Plover also looks like it has moved on after spending a lot of the summer alone.

Little Ringed Plover

Little Egret numbers have built up since June to around 10 birds and a darvic ringed individual (D yellow right, X white left) was rung on 18th June 2013 (assuming as a chick) at Porth Penrhyn, Bangor.

 

A Red Kite was a cracking audition to the patch list in mid July flying over the Rhuddlan side. Kestrel, Buzzard and Sparrowhawk are amongst over raptors regularly seen. Lapwing, Dunlin and Ringed Plover have steadily built up over the last month with all around the hundred mark each. Hopefully, a migrant Little Stint, Curlew Sandpiper or something rarer will join them in the coming days/weeks.

 

Sandwich Terns have declined since the start of June where I found 3 Roseate Terns. They do however fluctuate massively and depending on the tide could result in over a hundred birds. In terms of warblers; Blackcap, Lesser Whitethroat, Common Whitethroat and Chiffchaff have all been seen in the last month on the Clwyd. Reed warbler was a good addition to the list on the 6th August accompanying our summering Sedges!

Whitethroat