North Wales Break 15th – 17th June 2021

With three days of good weather predicted, we took the opportunity to visit North Wales in order to catch up with all the cliff nesting birds and other special species that we normally manage to get on our trips to North Wales. As it happened, there were two really sunny days that sandwiched one awful one. This was a shame because it was the day allocated to visiting RSPB South Stack. However we did manage to get fifty-eight species, seventeen of which were year ticks.

We headed off towards North Wales stopping off at Pensarn for a cup of tea. From there we went straight to Little Orme where we got good views of all the nesting Fulmars on the hillside. The usual mob of Jackdaws were also present. On the water we got a few Guillemots and Razorbills. There were plenty of Cormorants but we didn’t see Shag. A single Common Gull looked a little out of place, perched atop the large rock that rises out of the bay. We saw a single Seal.

From Little Orme we went on to Conwy where he had a quick look around getting year tick Little Grebe and Bullfinch. We didn’t really have the time to go round the site because we were more interested in getting to Cemlyn Bay to see the Tern colony.

By the time we got to Cemlyn Bay, a wind had got up and made scoping hard. We did not see the Roseate Tern that had been an occasional sighting there in recent days but we did get good numbers of the usual Sandwich Terns and Common Terns. We even got a very small number of Arctic Terns. There was supposed to be A Mediterranean Gull on one of the islands but it was so windy, most of the birds that weren’t actively hunting and feeding, were hunkered down. As a bonus we got a Black Guillemot in the bay. All these birds were “year tick” birds.

Regarding the Black Guillemots, we were told that four pairs nest at the power station and can be seen regularly.

By this time it was time to go to the Travelodge and check-in. We had a quick wash and brush-up and then it was time for us to go over the Seacroft at Trearddur Bay. It was a rubbish meal and the people at the next table complained about the poor food and the way it had gone downhill over recent years.

We were at a bit of a loose end and it was only 8pm so we decided to drive up to South Stack just to see what it was like at the end of the day. The answer was, quiet – very quiet. All the cacophony of the daytime colonies of Guillemots and Razorbills and Gulls had fallen silent as they prepared to settle down for the night. It was interesting but you can’t beat that cacophony for giving the place character. A lot of the other birds had settled down for the night too, so no Choughs or Rock Pipits or Stonechats or Linnets. There was always the next day, however, which we had singled out as out South Stack day.

When that day came, the weather was not as promised, in fact a very heavy drizzle made everything very hard work. We started out at the Fish Dock at Holyhead where we got four Black Guillemots and then we drove up to South Stack. We waited under cover outside the newly rebuilt visitor centre which in many ways is much better but in others not. There is a nice new covered patio (OK for protection from the sun but not the drizzle), the toilets are a big improvement but there is no seating overlooking the back of the building where you could previously sit and look over the meadows and the rocks. That is a real shame.

When the visitor centre finally opened we drank tea until there was some let of on the drizzle. It never really fully stopped so using a scope was pretty much pointless and you had to dry your binoculars every minute or two.

We didn’t get Chough at all – obviously not their kind of weather; neither did we get Rock Pipit and, even though we were told that there were a couple of Puffins a way out at sea, we couldn’t see them without a scope and the Ha kept rolling in every so often anyway making sea viewing tiresome. We did get the usual Guillemots and Razorbills and even a “year tick” flock of Linnets but it was basically a wasted morning and extremely disappointing.

We decided to stay another night and we plumped on the Groes Inn just outside Conwy town. On our way there, though, we dropped in at LLanferfechan to see if there was anything about. The first thing we did was to head up to the little bridge over the river that is known for Dippers. The moment I arrived at the bridge, I saw one flying upstream but it was a very momentary glimpse. We walked up to the next bridge just a few yards up-river and we got great views of not one, but two Dippers. We watched one of them swim under the water before emerging to perch perfectly for us. A bonus was a Grey Wagtail that seemed to follow them wherever they went.

We went to the opening of the river into the sea and walked along the promenade. We didn’t see much elsewhere but we did get a pair of Eider o the way back down to the car which was another “year tick”

Time was getting on and we were a bit bedraggled as a result of a day in the drizzle, so we drove to the hotel and checked in. Our room (no 7) overlooked a large field and behind that were the mountains of Snowdonia National Park. The room had a little balcony so you could stand out there and look around. This brought us another “year tick” Red Kite – the only one we saw during our three days – surprisingly.

It was from that same balcony that we saw (and heard) a Raven flying past the next morning – yes, another “year tick”. We were very happy with our room; the bathroom was really big and well appointed and the room had a good, big bed. Apart from the sheep bah-ing it was totally quiet come late evening. The food wasn’t up to much but the beer was OK.

The next day we went to Bodnant Gardens but we still managed to get a couple of nice birds including a Pied Flycatcher and a Grey Wagtail.

We left there to return home but we had one last stop before getting home – Gronant Dunes. I was pretty tired by the time we got there but the weather was good and we started out with the long walk to the dunes. There has been a lot of work on the path with gravel patches and a big extension of the boardwalk. You no longer have risk a soaking half-way down the path. We followed our usual route to the warden’s hut but it didn’t seem to be there any longer. Perhaps they did away with the hut and used the hide instead. It was probably closed to the public and would have made a much better “hut” for the wardens to spend their long days protecting the Little Tern colony. I hadn’t taken my scope with me – too tired – but it was hardly needed as there were Little Terns everywhere, many flying gout for food or returning with it; others just sitting on the sand waiting to be fed. There was no one to ask but it looked like the colony had done well this year.

We decided to have a sit down on the dunes so we went over the top of the dunes and, as we did so, flushed three Ringed Plovers who flew just a short distance away giving us excellent views of them. In the wet meadows around the dunes there were good numbers of Skylarks who often display very close and most impressively; it is the best place possible to see them lift into the air, rising then hovering – in full song.

We walked back along the sandy beach on a beautiful afternoon with hardly any wind and how wonderful it was. On our way back to the car we got lots of Stonechats and even heard both a Reed and a Sedge Warbler. The area was much wetter in general than we have seen it in the past with a large body of water. Fortunately the boardwalk made it a breeze

That was the end of our three-day Wales break. It had been disappointing on the one wet day but birding isn’t always easy. We did get seventeen new year ticks” and fifty-eight species in all bringing our UK year list to 102 species. Not too impressive but, in these Covid times, it has sometimes not been allowed to leave Manchester, sometimes it had not been allowed to go to Wales or Scotland, more often not possible to go abroad, and, in general, the new normal is pretty challenging for casual birders like us. We are just pleased to be able to go out again and with some hides opening up again, we live in hope of a return to the old ways. This might be easier said than done as the country enters a third wave of the virus.

Year Ticks : North Wales 15-17th June 2021

Bird Sightings : North Wales 15-17th June 2021