A Corking day at Cemlyn

Corkwing Wrasse at Cemlyn Yesterday

Yesterday (Sunday) I had a little wander around Cemlyn as Spring was kind of in the air. A single quiet Sandwich tern was on the rocks, and later fishing in the bay, my first of the Spring, and perhaps the first record in North Wales this Spring? I think Ken had a Wheatear on the Range on the Saturday, but I couldn't find one over the weekend or tonight as I searched the Trwyn at Cemlyn with my 6 year old son, Sion. Even though we didn't spot one tonight, Sion was amused by the fact that a bird's name Wheatear, meant "White-bum!" We did have a few goodies though. The over-wintering Whimbrel was still present, on the tip of the Trwyn. The Barn Owl, that occasionally flies in the day was giving great views at dusk around Tyn Llan pool, and we saw Little Owl at one of the two Cemlyn sites. The lagoon is coming to life again, with upto 16 Med Gulls of various ages with the Black heads recently (Martin/Tony), but the numbers of Meds will typically decrease over the next month or so. 30 Pale bellied Brents also paid an unusual and brief visit to the lagoon yesterday morning. They will be on their way back to Arctic Canada soon.
The weekends highlight at Cemlyn for me though was this fish. For my 10 year old son Rhys's birthday-bash, he wanted to go Rock-pooling with some of his friends. Last year on his birthday we had a red-letter rock-pooling day with Octopus, Common Lobster, Squat Lobsters and a foot long 5-bearded Rockling. It was a Spring tide day though and yesterday, I didn't feel their was enough Spring in the tide. However, under one of the first rocks I turned over was a fish, a real corker, my first ever Corkwing Wrasse! It's the sort of fish that would look more at home in the tropics. A real treat for the kids and myself :-)