Foryd Perfect

It was one of those chilling winter mornings that would have had soft southerners reaching for the Berghaus catalogue, whilst we tough northerners ponder whether or not to get the long trousers out as we defrost the beef dripping.

Foryd Bay was bitterly cold when I arrived at the hide just after dawn – fortunately the structure had its back to the cutting south-easterly wind and I was sheltered from the worst.

It was my debut visit to this area and my initial impressions were very positive. The bay held good numbers of birds – wildfowl in particular – and seems to have been spared high levels of inappropriate development save a handful of noddy homes to my left.

Aside from the more common ducks and waders, highlights from an hour’s vigil included a dozen or so Goldeneye, a handful of Red-breasted Mergansers, a Peregrine and an unusually mute Greenshank.

The bird I had hoped to see though was absent: the Great Northern Diver. Now to paraphrase a well known song, I don’t like divers, I love them!

I relocated to the picnic site directly opposite Abermenai Point and started to scan the strait. The water in this part of the channel appears terrifying and looks like it has a stronger current flowing through it than a Dixieland electric chair. After a couple of Cormorant false alarms I managed to pick my loon up near the sailing club – excellent! It had plenty of other birds for company too including a Shag and innumerable Great Cresties.

Foryd Bay 1.12.09

Great Northern Diver 1
GC Grebe 20+
Little Grebe
Little Egret 3
Wigeon 400+
Pintail 50+
Goldeneye c10
RB Merganser 6
Greenshank 1
Turnstone 1
Bar-tailed Godwit 1
Peregrine 1

Later in the morning I dropped into Abergwyngregyn and Morfa Madyrn at Lavan Sands. The former was busy with a huge herd of Curlew roosting on the fringes of the marsh, but the most interesting bird was a Dipper casually strolling along the tide line?!

Morfa Madryn was doing good business, with a massive flock of Oysties roosting on the spit and plenty on the sea too including a trio of Slavonian Grebes and a small skein of twenty or so Brent Geese flying past Beaumaris.

Lavan Sands 1.12.09

Slavonian Grebe 3
GC Grebe 6
Brent Goose c20
Red-breasted Merganser 7
Curlew c1,500
Oystercatcher c4,000
Dipper 1

And if you are wondering why I have posted a picture of Alan Shearer, well it was the best picture I could find of a Great Northern Diver!

Until later.

Lavan Sands

A window of decent weather in the middle of the current monsoon season had John Boswell, 007 and I motoring down to the Llanfairfechan to try and connect with at least one of the clutch of Slavonian Grebes reported from the Lavan Sands area over the last week or so.

The omens were not good when we searched the sea from the hide at Morfa Madryn – it was a struggle to find anything at all on the water except from a sprinkling of Wigeon, Red-breasted Merganser and Great Crested Grebe. We did however turn up a light-bellied Brent Goose - perhaps on a day excursion from Anglesey!

Noticing a few dots on the drink further west along the shoreline towards Abergwyngregyn we opted to chance our arm from the hide at Morfa Aber. When we arrived the heavens opened, the light worsened and the surface of the water became distinctly choppier – hardly ideal conditions and as before we could find the odd GC Grebe and Merganser but nothing else.

The appearance of a couple of rainbows then signalled a change of fortune – of sorts – and we located a small grebe, albeit at quite a distance. Frustratingly, it seldom spent more than a couple of seconds on the surface and teasingly drifted right with tide taking it gradually further away. I was fairly confident it was a Slavonian Grebe, but with the scope on x60 there is always that element of doubt…

Another pair of teases was two small passerines feeding around a roosting female Goosander on a grassy spit to the right of the hide. Again, they flatly refused to move close enough to confirm their identities and upgrade themselves from suspected Twite to confirmed Twite – not playing ball today these birds!

With the tide now creeping out we re-located to the promenade at Llanfairfechan via a quick excursion back to Morfa Madyrn to scour the sewage work environs for Firecrest. With the gates firmly looked, some low level trespassing was the order of the day but despite finding plenty of passerines in the surrounding wood, a Goldcrest was the best we managed, plus a couple of Treecreepers.

It was more productive at Llanfairfechan, although again the birds were fairly far out. The best two birds were picked up in flight: a Great Northern Diver and a drake Eider, but the Slavonain Grebes were playing it coy again and refused to show.

Lavan Sands 14.11.09

6+ Red-throated Diver
1 Great Northern Diver
1 Slavonian Grebe (Almost Certainly)!
30+ Great Crested Grebe
1 Gannet
1 Brent Goose (hrota)
1 Eider
2 Goldeneye
1 Goosander
15+ Red-breasted Merganser
2 Greenshank
2 Turnstone
1 Guillemot
1 Goldcrest
2 Treecreeper

With a couple of hours light remaining we rounded of the day by calling in at RSPB Conwy. Very quiet really, although JB did record the reserve’s first Perambulator Pipit – for those of you unfamiliar with the call, it is exactly the same as the noise a squeaky buggy wheel makes!!

Until later.

Morfa Madryn (Reprise)

After an impressive showing last week, I was back at Morfa Madryn for yesterday’s high tide.

After badly mistiming my previous visit – I reckon you need to be hunkered-down three hours before a high tide – I was in situ much earlier.

The Oysties were already piling in to roost on the shingle spit and out in the bay Red-breasted Mergansers and GC Grebes were drifting in on the tide.

The next group of birds past was a flock of Dunlin, that for my money also contained a Little Stint but unfortunately I could no re-locate the bird.

I did find four plonkers though. An elderly couple with two ratty little hounds has decided to ignore the warning signs and walk right out on to the spit. Incredulously, the other couple were wearing binoculars and despite being more circumspect when approaching the birds caused just as much disturbance.

When the birds had re-settled I moved over to the marsh to scan through the gulls and terns. There was very good numbers of Sandwich Terns again – plenty of young ones too – and also a moulting Common Tern. From the ranks of gulls, I also managed to find a find Med Gull.

For the next hour or so the sun shined and I just sat and enjoyed the spectacle. I am really becoming quite fond of this reserve that seems incredibly under-watched. It won’t be too long before my next visit.

Until later.

Being and Nothingness

“Hell is other People”, claimed JP Sartre, and today I could not have agreed more.

Having driven 55 miles to Morfa Madryn, I was looking forward to plonking myself down in the hide and watching the tide come-in. What I hadn’t budgeted for was the fact that two blokes had decided the structure would make excellent temporary accommodation and had duly set up camp. Indeed, when I arrived they were mid-way through a picnic.

I pointed out that people may wish to use the building for its intended purpose, but this plea fell of deaf ears. I called the warden at Conwy borough council. “There will be someone down this afternoon.” Great.

Given that the tide was now practically in, I decided to check the pools from the other two hides. Two Sandpipers: a Green and a Common with a dodgy leg showed very well from the first hide, whilst the second pool held a good smattering of Lapwing, Redshank and a Greenshank, whilst just out to sea an immature Gannet prospected.

With the camp campers still in residence, I walked to the marsh to scan the spit. It was teeming with birds: if hell is other people, then heaven may very well be other birds!
Hundreds of Oystercatchers and Curlew were roosting on the shingle, joined by similar numbers of Sandwich Terns. Patient scanning revealed an Arctic Tern, a brace of Whimbrel and two superb adult winter-plumaged Mediterranean Gulls.

Returning to the motor a dragonfly sped past and landed on a flower. Incredibly, as I crept towards the critter it remained stationary – close enough for me to take a snap with my mobile. Back at Casa del Shenton a Golden-ringed Dragonfly was confirmed!

On the way back to Chester, I decided to nip into RSPB Starbucks. The five juvenile Red-crested Pochards reported yesterday were still dabbling around near the new screen. The provenance of this species is difficult at the best of times, but the appearance of this number of young birds seems bizarre to say the least. No tick.

I then repaired to the Benarth hide for a spot of lunch where I encountered a less uncommon species – the trigger happy photographer. As with many of this ilk, he seemed incapable of judicious shot selection and fired a battery of shots at flying Curlew running into the hundreds. He will probably still be looking through them next spring.

Until later.