Saturday 27 January 2018

Friday 26th January

NORTH WALES

South Stack RSPB

We were up early and drove to South Stack in search of Chough. Last year was the first in ages that I failed to see the species. On arrival the sun was out although it was a little cold it was a fine day. There were several Fulmar on the cliffs whilst on the sea there were a few Red-throated Diver moving north and a small party of five Common Scoter going the same direction.

A Stonechat was seen and it was whilst watching this species that a couple of Chough flew past then perched up on a telegraph post which allowed me the opportunity to photograph the species. We had a few auks on the sea and a fly past Raven, not unsurprisingly being so early in the year the cliffs were rather quiet.
Chough, South Stack RSPB

Holyhead Harbour

We stopped at Holyhead harbour where there were several Black Guillemot on offer and a distant Great Northern Diver was feeding actively the whole time we were there. A flock of 20 Oystercatcher flew past and a single Shag was also seen.

Penrhos Country Park

We spent 20 minutes here where we saw c.50 Pale-bellied Brent Geese plus a lot of waders with c.250 Dunlin, c.40 Grey Plover, as well as Curlew, Turnstone plus there was a Slavonian Grebe in the channel.

Anglesea Lakes

I had heard about this Black-throated Diver via RBA and a birder that I met told me where to go. As it wasn’t too far out of our way we went and had good views of the bird as it fed on the larger of the two lakes.

Black-throated Diver, Anglesea

The rest of the day was spent at a variety of sites along the north coast where we saw lots of Common Scoter but most of the birds were over a mile out and difficult to few. Other species of note were Red-breasted Merganser, Red-throated Diver, Slavonian Grebe and lots of gulls minus the Glaucous Gull we were searching for.


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