I’m back from a failed mission this evening. The Baird’s Sandpiper at Traeth Dulas failed to put in an appearance today, although there were a couple of sketchy reports from early this morning and a later one of a reported sighting in flight after noon.There was compensation though in the form of up to seven juvenile Curlew Sandpipers and a winter-plumaged Med Gull. The bijou estuary also held good numbers of commoner waders such as Dunlin, Ringed Plover and Curlew and other birds of note included a handful of Little Egret and a few flyover Ravens.
It’s a cracking, picturesque little bay really, and I confess that had this wader not been found then I would never have given the place a second glance on the map. There seem to be so many excellent birding areas in Anglesey – one can only imagine the number of rarities that pass through undetected at this chronically under-watched island.
One bird that didn’t go unnoticed was a cracking Bonxie I watched lumbering past Point Lynas this afternoon after I had given up on the elusive yankee shorebird and gone seawatching. To be truthful, passage was very light, but a spectacular feeding frenzy just off shore included hundreds of Auks, Gannets, Terns and Manxies.
It was a little surprising that no more Skuas were attracted to the melee, or indeed Porpoise. Just as I was about to pack up, I caught a gull flying in front of a massive oil tanker anchored offshore. It looked distinctly like a Sabine’s gull, but irritatingly the bird flew away from me at an angle that meant I could not get a good look at the wings. It will just have to go down in that increasingly long list of probables…
Until later.
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