South Stack
Our first full day was spent on Anglesey. We started out driving up to the RSPB cafe and shop. When you drive up the road leading to it you are given the impression that the parking is some way from the shop and cafe but if you keep driving past the car park there is further parking just outside the cafe and this is where we parked. In fact there is more parking a little further on if you want to see the cliffs from the north side looking south which is the best view.
The whole place has been refitted and is very comfortable with good toilets and a little shop. You can sit in the cafe and look out onto a field where we saw Pied Wagtails, Goldfinches and other birds bobbing around on the ground. Apparently a Grasshopper Warbler had been seen a little earlier (as were Choughs) but we did not see it. On the other side of the cafe the windows look out to sea and there are a number of tables and chairs outside which would be great in mild weather. The day we went there was a fairly high wind so it would have been a bit draughty but it was very nice sitting drinking tea in the warm and bird spotting in comfort.
We left the cafe and walked down to the visitor centre. On our way down we heard a the Grasshopper Warbler – loud, long and clear and we could see the small patch of rough grass where it clearly was but we could not see it no matter how hard and long we looked. We reluctantly gave up looking for it and went on down to the visitor centre where there are viewing windows with a couple of scopes. You get a view of the cliffs from the south side looking west and north and can see lots of Kittiwakes and Guillemots. You can look at some nest cams and there are staff members and volunteers to ask any questions about what is happening on the site.
We were keen to see the Puffins so we climbed back up the steps and then back down to cliff to the bridge that joins South Stack to the little island that the Lighthouse is on. The path down zig zags and gives lots of good views of the cliffs (which are interesting from a geological point of view anyway) looking westward. We got good (if not too close) views of a few Puffins at their nest holes, Guillemots, Razorbills, Kittiwakes and lots of Gulls. We went over to the lighthouse and climbed that but really don’t bother unless you like lighthouses – the view from the cliffs is better anyway. The rock it is on is colonised by Great Black-Backed Gulls many of which seemed to have been sitting on a nest with three brown eggs in each. As soon as you approach them (which is impossible to avoid there are so many of them) they start yelping and come straight off the nest so you can see the eggs clearly. When you pass by they return to incubating their eggs.
On the way back up we stopped frequently to catch our breath and to look again at the colonies of birds and when we reached the top again we saw a Chough rising from behind the hills and swooping over. We were told that they were nesting in a crevice in the cliffs but we couldn’t locate it ourselves. You can see the Choughs feeding their young on a web cam at the visitor centre however. We also saw a meadow Pipit and a Stonechat.
We spent around 4 hours there and could have spent longer. The birds we saw (and/or heard) included the following
Bird List
(including birds seen around the environs of the site as well as the site itself.)
| Species | Count |
|---|---|
| Blackbird | 1 |
| Carrion Crow | 2 |
| Chaffinch | 1 |
| Chough | 1 |
| Collared Dove | 1 |
| Coot | 1 |
| Goldfinch | 8 |
| Grasshopper Warbler | 1 |
| Great Black-backed Gull | 40 |
| Guillemot | 2000 |
| Herring Gull | 40 |
| House Martin | 8 |
| House Sparrow | 4 |
| Jackdaw | 12 |
| Kittiwake | 150 |
| Magpie | 2 |
| Mallard | 2 |
| Meadow Pipit | 1 |
| Pied Wagtail | 2 |
| Puffin | 4 |
| Razorbill | 20 |
| Rock Dove / Feral Pigeon | 1 |
| Starling | 8 |
| Stonechat | 1 |
| Swallow | 20 |
Map of the Site : South Stack, Holy Island, Anglesey