Anglesey Adventure

Wen we opened the curtains this morning and couldn't see the Great Orme because of fog, our hopes for the day were not good. A full English did lift spirits a little bit.

The fog was pretty dense all the way onto Anglesey but, if by magic, the sun was breaking through by the time we reached Beddmanarch Bay. Tide was pretty high with good numbers of curlew and oystercatcher roosting. Scanning the estuary produced a slav grebe, a few goldeneye and 140 smart looking pale bellied brent geese. Not something often in Norfolk.

Now in full sunshine we headed to Holyhead harbour. Almost straight away we found the Great Northern diver which was just starting to moult into summer plumage. At least 6 black guillemots were about including a couple already in full summer plumage.
Just as we were about to leave I heard a wader-like call from the harbour behind us and was rather surprised to see a black necked grebe. Apparently a scarce bird here :-)

On a high we left for South Stack where we bagged chough before we even got out of the car!
The last time I visited the site was to see the BLACK LARK :-)
Not a great deal changed but is was nice to see the cliffs and walk to the bottom of the steps to the lighthouse. Another 4 chough, several raven, 2 peregrines, good numbers of aukd and a harbour porpoise were seen.

The rest of the day was spent checking sites along the southern side of the island. 3 long tailed ducks on the Inland Sea, 22 goosander at Llyn Coron, 162 pintail on the Cobb Pool.

Last stop was the RSPB reserve at Malltraeth Marsh. Although the site was quiet, I was jammy in seeing the small flock of Greenland white-fronted geese. Having heard they had flown off a while before and couldn't be seen I was very lucky that the greylag flock were flushed and I could here the white-fronts calling. Although fairly distant, I could see 19 birds in flight. Everything in the hitlist for the day seen.
The walk back to the car produced 7 raven, 2 little egrets and a buzzard.

A great day but only the warmup act for tomorrow...

Pic 1 - mmmmmmm
Pic 2 - Beddmanarch Bay
Pic 3, 4 - Holyhead harbour
Pic 5 - black guillemot
Pic 6 - record shot of the black necked grebe
Pic 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 - South Stack
Pic 12 - raven
Pic 13 - female peregrine at South Stack
Pic 14 - Malltraeth Marsh RSPB reserve