Anglesey : Signs of Spring

There was still at least 1 Long tailed Duck at Valley Wetlands on Llyn Penrhyn yesterday. A good turn up for the books was Rhys finding the adult Glaucous gull today whilst presumably looking for Jim Clarks immature bird. I wonder if this adult is the returning bird that frequented the Pentraeth Automotive area for years? Theres loads of Gulls in the Rhosneigr area at the mo due to lots of ploughing and muck spreading so it's worth a look if passing. Reg also had a Glauc off Carmel head today, a second calender year bird. Reg also won the prize for the first Sand Martin of the year for our region, again at Carmel head, along with a Chiffchaff. Tony White also had a Chiffy today at the car park by Wylfa woods.I twitched it with no joy but Goldcrests and Treecreepers were in full song and very photogenic.Birds at Cemlyn today included 2 Snow Buntings on the islands, probably of the frostier yet scarcer Scandinavian race. Upto 6 Med gulls were with the accumulating flock of Blackheads.Theres also c100+ Goldies roosting on the island, I'm sure were overdue an American!  2 Red throated divers were in the bay and 2 Little Egret and c.100 Wigeon were on the lagoon.. At least 5 Purple Sands, 8 Grey Plovers and the over-wintering Whimbrel were on the rocky coastline by the Trwyn (west end). Mippets and Pied Wags are on the move with 50 - 100 at Cemlyn (Mips) and a few hundred at Carmel Head. I also had a flock of c.300 near the Range plus a few Chough and a Nordic-esque Jacky with c.50 Jackdaws on the access road upto South Stack cafe. 

Spring is in the air.

Llanfaelog Galucous Gull

Jesse and I had a smart adult Glauc  amongst the thousands of Gulls just South of Llanfaelog today. The gulls are attracted by the ploughing and muck spreading going on over a large area there. The gulls are flighty and difficult to get close to though. We also saw a nice BP Med Gull and I'm sure there area few other goodies lurking there as well.

Floods between Holt and Rossett, Wrexham.

Lots of birds still on the flooded fields here today. A Wrexham first for me in the shape of a family of 4 bewicks swan. Also here 3 whooper, 20 mute swan, 2 scaup, 100 pintail, 4 shelduck, 30 wigeon, 2 black tailed godwit, 300 lapwing. A pair of little owl were also showing well in one of their usual tree holes. A single goosander still on Gresford Flash.

Glaucous Gull at Rhosneigr

Jim Clark had this worn spring 1st Winter Glaucous gull on Friday the 28th Feb at Tywyn Fferam, Rhosneigr, @ 11-20am.

It was on a flooded area next to the car park. SH 330716. He also thought he saw a white wing gull a couple of weeks ago between here and Aberffraw, it flew across the road with some Herring Gulls but he couldn’t find it again, so it may have been here a while.

Martin Jones had it again today roosting on a field between Llyn Maelog and the caravan park. It later flew over the Oystercatcher restaurant towards the beach, maybe heading to where Jim had it?

Heres 2 photos Jim got of the bird on Friday. Nice one Jim!

Kazakhstan : The greatest country in the world?

I'm giving a talk on the birds of Kazakhstan (well the ones I saw anyway!) at Bangor Birdgroup   this Wednseday at the Brambell building. All welcome.

Cemlyn Today

Nice weather (at last) drew me out there today. Black heads are back on the Islands breathing life back into the place. There have been 2 Meds recently but none were obviouse today. Stonechat and Mippets are back on the Trwyn. Still a Greenshank and Little Egret on the Lagoon. David Wright had the overwintering Whimbrel recently. There were at least 13 Grey Plover and 6 Purps on the rocks today, at least! 3 Goldeneye were on the lagoon. The Dunnocks were all in full song, it was starting to feel like Spring, .....a bit!

Seabirds wrecked!

I'm sure you've all heard that all the awful weather over the last few months has taken it's toll on out Atlantic seabirds with large numbers being washed up dead on  NW European coasts recently. I had a look along blackrock sands from the Cricieth end of the beach to the outlet/stream at the Porthmadog end on Wednesday (c.1km) and counted a minimum of.

Razorbill       101
Guillimot        28
Kittiwake       7
Shag              1
Fulmar           1
Raven            1

Not sure what happened with the Raven. Checked the first 20 birds for rings then got put off by a few stinky corpses! I hope numbers bounce back over the next few years.