White-winged Black Tern at Cemlyn

Here's a selection of photos I got of the cracking breeding plumaged White-winged Black Tern that roosted  at Cemlyn this evening. I took the photos just prior to the sun setting. It was feeding on Tyn Llan Pool and roosting on the bricks around the main island on the lagoon. I also saw 2 separate non-breeding Roseate Terns come in to roost on the bricks. See the notice board as to whats at Cemlyn at the mo. Thanks to David Wright (Cemlyn Warden) who found the bird and let me know about it, there's also a shot of you with the bird here David :-)  Many thanks.

Moths, Rock-pooling and a few birds.

This weekend was good for wildlife in general. Highlights in the mothtrap included Elephant and Small elephant Hawkmoth in the garden plus a Peach Blossom. Rock pooling at Cemlyn this evening with my Wife, Kids and Dad was a great evening topped off with a Lobster and very vocal Roseatte Tern flying around the bay and over out heads. What a great day :-)

Rose coloured Starling on Anglesey

This fine female Rose coloured Starling turned up today on Anglesey near Valley. Unfortunately it is feeding in an area of gardens that aren't visible from any roads or public rights of way, so you can't see it unless you actually go into peoples houses. Thanks to Norman and Jackie, nice find. If there's one out there I'm sure there's more so it may be worth checking your feeders. There was one on the same housing estate about 2 years ago when there were quite a few records in North Wales.

Another rare at Cemlyn - Mandarin Duck ;-)

Ken Croft found this female Mandarin at Cemlyn yesterday at the far end of Tyn Llan Pool. It was an Anglesey tick for him as it's a rare bird on the island. I had one about 10 years ago on Cors Erddreiniog around this time of year as I was twitching a Hobby and it was a very flighty individual indeed. Where it came from nobody knows. They breed nearby on the Glaslyn and also at Llandulas I think but they can occasionally suffer from wanderlust! I remember hearing about a bird that was ringed somewhere in the Northeast that turned up a few months later in Eastern Europe! So they're not all cage-hopers even though they are common in wildfowl collections. There are more birds in the wild in Western Europe now than in their original haunts in the far east.

Cemlyn Blyth's Reed Warbler

My fellow warden David Wright had the good fortune to find a mystery warbler singing from low in a Hawthorn beside the pool at Ty'n Llan on Saturday night. Views were brief and poor, enough to see that the bird was an Acrocephalus spp. With such a strange song Dave's rarity radar went into overdrive and he summoned me to the site. We both realied that this was a good bird, were confused by the vocalisations and went back to base to check the mighty xeno-canto database for candidate species. Listening to some of the fantastic recordings here or suspicions were confirmed and we realised that we had an A.dumetorum! Back at the bird I attempted to obatin recordings with my Sennheiser mic and minidisc. Unfortunately, the bloody minidisc died :-( The only option was to obtain a recording with my Blackberry phone. So here it is, a poor quality raw unedited sondscape with the noise of me creeping along (plenty of 'snap, crackle and pop') an Oystercatcher overhead and the Blyth's Reed singing away. This is a very significant Welsh record with only a handful of previous records. Does anyone know exactly how many there have been? I spent two frustrating days watching one on my local patch in Aberdaron some years ago but without photographs I couldn't properly document that occurence so it's great to finally nail one! Great shame that no other birders connected, I had a few texts back with messages like 'Too late and/or pissed'! Here's the link - not quite 'Sound Approach' quality! Still I'm glad tht some tech works, without this recording the record would most proabaly be lost... http://www.xeno-canto.org/180476

Anglesey Update

I've just come back from a nice week on Lesbos with a few quality birds. Some birds that have been on the island whilst I've been away have included Wood Warbler (Thursday/Norman - Today/Marc H). A Bee-eater was heard over Tywyn Aberffraw on the 27th May (Mike H). A Red Kite was in the Newborough/Brynsiencyn are on the 23rd (John R). A probable male Rosefinch has been at some feeders at an Undisclosed site. David Wright found a Blyth's Reed Warbler at Cemlyn yesterday but it was elusive and not reported after 9pm.