South Stack, Maltreath Marshes and Gronant Dunes 19th June 2019

We started our second day in Wales with a return to the Fish Dock to see if we could get more than just the one Black Guillemot we had got the previous evening. We were rewarded with six of the birds gliding along at the opposite end of the dock. It was all set to be another beautiful day.

We headed off for South Stack whose visitor – we only discovered the night before in the pub – is now closed. In fact the demolition and rebuilding started the previous day so there is now limited parking at the top and no facilities. We parked at the lower car park where there are a couple of chuck wagons and some portaloos and the mobile visitor centre (if you need to buy tickets for the lighthouse) BUT none of these opens before 10am. No buses are allowed up there until the end of the year when they hope to have it finished. It seems that all their cameras and buildings have been so badly damaged by a succession of bad storms that they decided that they needed to rebuild the whole lot!

Anyway, perhaps as a result of this, we had the place more or less to ourselves for an hour. We walked along the cliff road stopping to look at Stonechats and Coughs. In fact we got within about twenty feet of a pair of adults feeding a young Chough – or at least showing it what to do. It was fantastic to get so close to the birds after yesterday’s rather more distant views.

There were plenty of Guillemots and Razorbills and even a few Puffins on the water, though we did not go all the way down to the usual viewing point for them. We stayed for a couple of hours enjoying the sun and still air. There is nothing better that some cliffs in the nesting season.

We drove off in the direction of Plas Newydd House and Gardens which Anne has wanted to see for some time now and always mentions it when we are on Anglesey but we had a little detour to look for a Savi’s Warbler at Maltreath Marshes. I had been noting several reports on Bird Guides alerts of this bird showing well at Maltreath Marshes and when I looked this up it was pretty near where were going anyway so we thought to give it a shot.

Unfortunately the reports for Maltreath Marshes had stopped that morning and now the Savi’s Warbler was at Cors Ddyga. We were a little put out until we realised that Cors Ddyga is just eh Welsh for Maltreath Marshes so that was a relief. We parked up reasonably easily though it was clear that something of interest was around because of the number of cars.

Anyway, as we were getting out of the car a chap gave us some directions and, in fact, you could actually see birders in the distance so it was pretty easy to find the right spot. Not quite so easy to see the bird but it reeled often. Over the space of about half an hour of forty minutes we did get two quick views of the bird and one in particular view I had it was reeling so that was nice.

After that it was off to Plas Newydd which turned out to be a bit of a let down – which worked for me because we could still manage to fit in a visit to Gronant Marshes on our way back home.

When we got there it was a lovely late afternoon and the Swallows were swooping over the fields and Willow Warblers and Cettis called from the bushes while a Chiffchaff sang from the top of a tree.

There had been a lot of rain the last few days so our two-day sunshine break was a rare thing and had helped the waterlogged trackway passable again after a of flooding. As we walked along the track Stonechats and Skylarks vied for one’s attention making for a lovely late afternoon soundscape. At the wardens huts we were pleased to find that there were plenty of Little Terns flying low down over our heads. We spent a good half hour chatting to the wardens and looking at the birds. We could even see the odd chick on a nest and we also got a couple of Ringed Plovers. These Little Terns were our last year tick of the two-day Wales break giving us a total of sixty-one species and five year ticks!

Bird Sightings Holyhead Fish Dock 19th June 2019

Bird Sightings RSPB South Stack 19th June 2019

Bird Sightings Maltreath Marsh 19th June 2019

Bird Sightings Gronant Dunes 19th June 2019