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Sunday, 4 February 2007

Field Visit to North Wales Coast

Twenty members met at Pensarn beach on a mild, still and sunny morning. The sea was calm and birds such as divers, grebes and ducks were easier than usual to see and identify. Well out towards the horizon the sea was covered with hundreds of common scoters. After an hour or so here the group headed for Llanfairfechan promenade, where it had been arranged to meet Mike Duckham, a warden at Conwy RSPB. The tide by now was at its highest, which brought many seabirds closer to shore, including the black scoter (the American yellow-billed version of our common scoter), spending yet another winter here. Good views of all three species of diver were enjoyed, along with grebes and sea ducks. Led by Mike the group set out to walk along the coast to the seamarsh at Glan-y-Mor Elias, beginning with a search along the stream for dippers which turned out to be unsuccessful on this occasion. However, a good number of other species were recorded on sea and land, including song and mistle thrushes, Slavonian grebe, little egret, pintail, goldeneye, wigeon, teal and red-breasted merganser. Waders included ringed plover and oystercatcher, and a large flock of lapwings could be seen flighting over Morfa Madryn reserve. A visit to the nearby sewage works yielded grey wagtail, goldcrest and reed bunting, and the return walk to Llanfairfechan produced kestrel, stonechat and meadow pipits. After lunch a short drive brought the group to the final destination of the day, Aber Ogwen. More waders were added to the day list, including curlew, knot, turnstone, dunlin and greenshank, and a pair of eiders was a highlight. A walk into the Spinnies nature reserve added little grebe, moorhen, chaffinch, greenfinch, blue, great and long-tailed tits. An excellent day's birdwatching had yielded 65 species.