Twite at Connah’s Quay : 25th March 2016

Twite at Connah’s Quay : 25th March 2016

Twite, Connah’s Quay

I joined the Deeside Naturalists Society a while ago but had not managed to get the opportunity to make my first visit to their reserve Connah’s Quay. On a lovely sunny Good Friday we set out. The traffic was a little hectic with the masses heading for Wales for the Easter weekend. We came off the motorway and took the Flintshire Bridge route to the reserve (the A548) which reduced the traffic a little and we arrived at the reserve without getting lost. We signed ourselves in in the checking-in box and saw that there were only three other people on the reserve at that time.

We drove down to the “Education Centre” where the map showed the parking; I had read that this was the place to see the Twite. My misunderstanding was corrected by by a chap we met who explained to us that there was parking at the far end of the reserve as well (where the white, two-storey hide is. It is here that they feed and ring the Twite. No sooner had be reached the car park than I saw one perched on a barbed wire fence just as we had been informed they would be.

As we wathced a few other birds came along and joined in the feeding frenzy. It looks as if they feed them niger seeds and there was a ound on the grass under the barbed wire fence. They were very easily flushed but after fifteen minutes or so they all came back and this was repeated several times that afternoon so we got very good views of this elusive bird (at least for me as this was a life tick and a bird I had really wanted to see for ages.

There was a sort of high tide around 12.30pm this day but it was only a 9.1 metre one and, in any case, I think that it works a bit differently on that side of the River Dee. In fact. it may prove to be better at low tide when there is more mud. We will have to check that out. In any case, from the several other hides they have down the long, thin strip of land between the river and the power station, that consituted the reseve, we got really nice close views of a Curlew and some Redshank. We also had long views of a fox we had been seeing now and again throughout the day. It had obviously been marking its territory and doing its rounds. Eventually it settled for a sunbathe right in fron of the hide we were sitting in and was quite the poser as I fired off lots of photos.

It will be interesting to visit this site at different times of year and I am looking forward to a visit when some of the spring migrants start arriving – which cannot be long now !

A fantastic day out to an interesting new reserve for us and a life tick to boot. Awesome !!

Twite Flock, Connah’s Quay

Fox, Connah’s Quay

Common Redshank, Connah’s Quay

Bird Sightings : Connah’s Quay