With Christmas and New Year over we decided to take advantage of some dry weather to get out to North Wales to see if we could get our year list off to a good start. Last year we both had colds so we got off to a slow start. Not this year!
Our first port of call was – oddly – the B & Q car park in Llandudno. There had been a flock of Waxwings there for a week or so and we wondered if there was any chance of any being left. The answer was that all the trees around the car park had been stripped – except one. In that one remaining berry tree, however, was a single Waxwing and it was giving us a good show. It was in a tree about twenty feet from us and about eight feet up. It often perched atop the tree giving us the chance to get photographs without any twigs in the way. We stayed there for about half an hour before the bird was flushes. A woman passing by asked us what we were looking at and when we told her she was so [leased that she walked straight up to it with her phone and it flew. I’m not sure why she thought we were standing back from the bird if not to prevent it being flushed. Anyway we were happy with this one bird. As we had seen plenty of Wawings recently in St Asaph we weren’t over bothered and this single bird was our first (maybe our last) for 2017.
A birding group friend of ours had told us that he has seen Snow Buntings at Llandudno West Shore Beach and subsequent reference to the birding alert sites had indicated that they could be found around the Groyn a kilometre south of the café. We parked at the café which was closed unfortunately. It looked like it could be a bit of a walk and I didn’t want to carry my tripod and my camera; I opted for the camera which turned out to be the right choice as, when we found them, even the camera seemed to be too close to focus properly !
The upshot was we got great views of three Snow Buntings grazing along the dunes. We slowly walked alongside of them and at one point one of them seemed to forget I was there a came to within a few feet of me. Cracking views.
In need of a cup of tea we headed off to RSPB Conwy where we added a fair number of “year ticks” of ordinary birds but there was no sign of the Firecrest that is often supposed to have been there. It is easy to find someone who says that someone he met saw one but not so easy to find someone who saw it themselves.
Be that as it may, we had a third great bird in our sights so we headed off to Llanbedr-y-Cennin where we had seen Hawfinch recently – but in 2016. We got a nice close view of a flying Red Kite on the way up there. We parked up in the little layby and this time we were on our own so we could linger a bit when the bird did not show immediately. We ran in to another birder who had been looking for about half an hour before us but with no luck. We did see Buzzard and Nuthatch and eventually we did manage to see a couple of birds fairly well and just got the scope of them before a Land Rover came down the road and flushed them. Four Hawfinches flew over our heads and away into the distance – perhaps to Caerhun ! We drove off there but we couldn’t see them and there were some builders around sizing up the repairs to the churchyard wall that had collapsed a bit at one side. We did get some birds on the estuary and a couple of Mistle Thrushes and a Song Thrush in the rough grass sloping away from the church.
A final trip to Rhos-on-Sea didn’t produce much and it was getting dark so we headed back to the Travelodge where we were staying, had a rest, got cleaned up and went to the Cottage Loaf for dinner.
Next day we were up bright and early – well as soon as it was light we were in the car- this time to Little Orme where we tried some sea watching to no avail really. We got the Fulmars that seem to be permanently at war with the Jackdaws and got a nice Stonechat as well. We did see a few Common Scoter but could not find the Red-Throated Diver that a fellow birder we met had seen.
In need of a little breakfast we drove to Pensarn where we had tea and bacon butties at the Pantry Bach – our favourite café anywhere ! We had less luck with the birds, though, seeing only Common Scoter again. We did turn up a couple of Turnstone so that was a nice bonus.
Having seen our main target birds in Wales and having checked the notice boards to see if anyone had seen the Black-throated Thrush at St Asaph (they hadn’t) we decided to return home in a meandering fashion via various birding sites.
We next stopped at Connah’s Quay hoping to get 2017 Twite but there weren’t even any Linnet there that we could see. We did get lots of birds on the estuary and what it lacked in variety, it made up for in numbers.
We then headed off to Shotwick fields where we had recently had great views of Bewick’s, Whooper and Mute Swans. When we got there this time we had the added bonus that they were a lot nearer and there were also three Black Swans with them. So it turned out to be a Four Swan day ! The views were magnificent with a scope and you could easily pick out the Bewick’s. We had thought that the Swans might disappear when they filled their previously favoured field with solar panels but they just flew a field over and settled there. This also means that they can be seen from the other side of the estuary as well – from RSPB Burton Mere Wetlands.
We intended to go there but we first popped over to Neston Old Quay for a drink at the Harp Inn and, again, it was possible to sit outdoors even in January. Anne had not even got back from the bar before I had located a Short-eared Owl quartering the marsh. We had views for about twenty minutes but didn’t get Marsh or Hen Harrier – Oh well; mustn’t be greedy. Had I been told a couple of years ago that I could see Waxwing, Snow Bunting, Hawfich and Short-eared Owl with a two day period I wouldn’t have believed it.
A final drop in at Burton Mere Wetlands reserve late in the afternoon gave us a surprising pair of Spotted Redshank showing really well on the scrape. Unfortunately they flew off but we still got a good five minutes before they did. A couple of Goldcrests showed well in the trees behind the loos.
We had to go because we wanted to be home before dark so we called it a day – or a two-days. Two days in which we really got our year off to a kick-start with some hard to find birds. And thus starts another birding year – can I get more than 200 this year ? We will have to wait and see.