Birding Group Visit to Wales 29th May 2012 : RSPB South Stack
By the time we had finished with the Fish Dock and Soldiers Point in Holyhead and got back on the South Stack Road it was already about 11am and about ten minutes after that we rolled into the car park at South Stack for a much needed cup of tea. The hotel we had stayed at in Holyhead (the Travel Inn) was primitive to say the least and did not do breakfast in any recognizable manner so we were glad of a cuppa. As soon as I looked towards the landward side of the rocks from the cafe I saw two Coughs hopping around the rocks – a perfect start to our day at South Stack. As soon as we were refreshed we set off down the track towards the observatory. From the cliff edge looking towards the lighthouse you could just make out with bins a few puffins floating on the water. Scouring the thousands of Common Guillemots it was possible to locate small numbers of Razorbills. They seemed to prefer to be less densely packed and their backs were much blacker than the dark grey-ish Guillemots. With the scope I even managed to find a couple of Fulmars on the cliff ledges. There were masses of Herring Gulls and at first we could hear Kittiwakes but could not locate the. In fact, as I later discovered, there is a hidden cove in the rock that the lighthouse stands on that they much prefer to anywhere else and this is where I eventually located a few but positive identification was only possible by looking at the leading edges of their wings as they landed in the crannies in the rock. Continue reading
