Shotwick Boating Lake Superb Swan Selection!

On our way over for a family day out near Chester today we popped over to the Boating lake on the border. What a fabulous spot. There were 69 Swans today. Recent counts have included 1 Black Swan (Australian escapee), 28 Russian Bewick's Swans, 13 Icelandic Whooper Swans and 26 resident Mute Swans. There aren't many places you can see 4 species of Swan in one flock! Also on the Boating lake there were 3 Black necked Grebes and whilst I was there I had a flyover Great White egret. Not the best shot, but two other groups of birders had better views as it flew over their heads with it's large yellow bill! A great spot! I'm not sure on access here. The gate was open today, but to be on the safe side it is probably best parking outside the gate by the "under-pass" and walking in to avoid any awkward situations, i.e. getting locked in !

Grebe corner

Black necked Grebe

Bewick's, Mute and Black Swan

Same as above

Mute's fly in

Look at the size difference in Whooper (left) and Bewicks.

Grebe Corner

Great White Egret

Rhys Swan Spotting

Long tailed duck day

Normans had a good morning with these ducks. One from the bus stop at Llyn Penrhyn and two from the Anchorage at Four mile bridge on the inland sea.

Check them gulls!

There's quite a few Ring billed Gulls in Ireland so keep your eyes peeled!

Anglesey Today

Ben Stammers and Paddy did a bird-race on the island and threw the gauntlet down to anyone else having a go at 104 species, with Short Eared Owl the highlight at Llyn Coron. Cemlyn today had 3 Purple Sands, c.200 Curlew, 12 Grey Plover, 1 Whimbrel, 4 Twite, 2 Goldeneye, 2 Greenshanks and  1 RT Diver. Norman had 2 GND's on the Inland Sea and 4 Slavs in Beddmanarch Bay and the LT Duck was still on Llyn Penrhyn (there has been another on the Inland Sea recently but not today), Ken had similar stuff plus a Med Gull in Beddmanarch Bay. I had the Cemlyn stuff plus Common Seal and Gannet off Amlwch Port, 3 Red Squirrels at Llyn Parc Mawr ("Birdless Pool"), 1000+ Lapwing and a few dozen Pintail at Malltraeth Cob (great light!), Martin had 8 Jack Snipe at Dulas (with Brian Iddon), 7 Black Guillimots, and 20+ RT Divers  at Traeth yr Ora and 10 Pale Brents at the Dulas Estuary.

Llyn Parc Mawr

Squirrel spotting!

Malltraeth Lapwings

Bird-race boys

Adding Twite to the list!

New County Bird Recorder for Anglesey

Yes Happy New Year to you all. So out with the old and in with the new. I've been the County recorder for Anglesey since the 1998 report but I've decided to stand down. Many thanks to everyone who has sent me records and helped me over the years. Thankfully I have managed to find a suitable successor in the form of Robin Sandham. The official handover took place yesterday, the 1st January, in a field in a neutral County, Yorkshire. It wasn't planned, it just had something to do with there being a Little Bustard there!

Good luck to Rob and thanks again to everyone for their records over the years. 

Please could you send future Anglesey records to

Robin Sandham     robinsandham@hotmail.co.uk

Neckarmont, Woodlands, Conwy, LL32 8LT

07584320882

RSPB Conwy sightings board

Choughs have been seen daily here for the last week or so, flying south into the Conwy Valley each morning, with a flock of nine northeast yesterday afternoon - heading for the Little Orme?

Two firecrests showed well yesterday afternoon (male and female), and at least one chiffchaff is in the same area, around the Bridge Pond. Woodcock and merlin have been seen a couple of times in the last fortnight; there are numerous water rails around the reserve, and a few more goldeneyes starting to arrive.

More details of recent sightings on the reserve blog. Great photo of one of the firecrests on the Conwy Flickr pool, by Bob Garrett.

Kelvin and Rob nail the Twite!

Thanks to Kelvin and Rob who managed to ring the 4  Cemlyn Twite this morning. They identified the ringed bird as being Z033607. This bird was ringed this summer up at Gairloch  near Ullapool in Scotland as a youngster on the 29th August. Well done chaps :-)