Birding Group Visit to North Wales 18th June 2019

The next birding group outing was to North Wales starting at RSPB Conwy. We had thought just to do a quick tour of the nearest hides but, in the end, we did the full circuit. There were reasonably good numbers of birds but for the best was a very good sighting of a Lesser Whitethroat.

It was a nice sunny day and we took our time searching the bushes at the far end of the reserve. Whitethroats were heard of ten and also the odd Sedge Warbler. The pools were nothing special though we did get a Red-breasted Merganser. Anyway it was a great morning so we were happy to stroll around.
We pondered our next options and plumped for the Little Orme which turned out to be very good with almost immediate sightings of a pair of Choughs. The resident Fulmars were in good quantities and a Song Thrush filled the air with its loud song. It wasn’t too windy and really very sunny mostly. Another good spot was Rock Pipit giving us a second year tick to accompany the Choughs.

Afterwards the rest of the birding group went back in the direction of home but we had planned to stay overnight at Holyhead at the Travelodge (£70 for the night) so that we could get to South Stack so we headed in the opposite direction and went to Cemlyn Bay where we were surprised to find that there were very few Common and Arctic Terns (I only manage to see one Arctic Tern – a year tick) but there were hundreds and hundreds of Sandwich Terns busily to-ing and fro-ing for food for their chicks which have survived better now that the electric fence around the scrapes has been keeping Otters out.

We left there as the afternoon was getting on and headed for Holyhead but stopped off at the Fish Dock where we managed to get a single Black Guillemot – our fourth year tick of the day.

A Note on Eating in Holyhead

We then had a quick shower at the hotel before going out to eat. I had done a bit of internet searching before our trip because Holyhead is pretty grim for decent restaurants (or indeed any!) and I came up with the Simply Street Bar and Grill which seemed worth a try. Located at 1 Stanley Terrace, Boston Street LL65 1BY, it was about a fifteen to twenty minute walk from the Travelodge.

It turned out to be a nice surprise. It is a bit basic in that you order at the counter etc but it was clean, minimal and modern. I had the Sesame Chicken and Anne had the Crispy Chili Beef both of which came with Egg Fried Rice. One slight hitch was that the rice wasn’t very hot. When I mentioned it she fairly quickly came up with two big bowls of (especially good) Fried Rice and when it came to pay the chef said that he did not want us to pay. We tried to insist but the waitress was more insistent. The food was actually really, really good and perhaps the best of that sort of food I’ve ever had. Don’t bother with the starts though. At the prices they charge (cheapish) you might as well get a third course and share. We left a good tip because they had been so good with us. We would certainly go there again. I can’t imagine that there is anywhere else as good in Holyhead. Not a vast amount of choice regarding drink but we had Peronis.
Holiday Birding

Bird Sightings RSPB Conwy 18th June 2019

Bird Sightings Little Orme 18th June 2019

Bird Sightings Cemlyn Bay 18th June 2019

Bird Sightings Fish Dock Holyhead 18th June 2019