Despite being very jetlagged, we struggled out of bed early again and went birding, this time in North Wales. We met up with our friends Steve Culley and Ken Croft at RSPB Conwy and headed east along the North Wales coast. Our first stop was in the unlikely surroundings of a trading estate at Kinmel Bay, where we quickly secured our target, Short-eared Owl, floating majestically over the rough grassland. Just down the road, we collected that locally scarce species, Tree Sparrow. On to Bodelwyddan Castle woods, where in the morning sunshine (what no rain??) we enjoyed a selection of woodland birds, including drumming Great Spotted Woodpecker, Nuthatch, Treecreeper and Jay, all year ticks of course as this is the first time we have birded in the UK this year. A quick dash west along the A55 had us back at RSPB Conwy in the midst of this month’s Farmer’s Market. Progress was slow here as so many people were keen to hear our news of The Biggest Twitch. Great to see so many familiar faces. Having added a good selection of new birds to the list, we pushed on again to the NWWT reserve at Aber-Ogwen. As always, great numbers of birds were busy feeding on the estuary including wheeling flocks of Knot and Dunlin. On the adjacent pool a Spotted Redshank was roosting amongst a gang of Greenshank while Little Egrets fed close by in the shallow water. Just a few minutes up the road, we scored Dipper on the Ogwen river near Penrhyn Castle. Across the bridge onto Anglesey at Red Wharf Bay, we were very fortunate in seeing three Jack Snipe in the salt marsh. We headed northwest to Holy Island and as always this area produced great birds. Pale-bellied Brent Geese and Bar-tailed Godwit, and Slavonian Grebes were scoped from the edge of the bay. Holyhead Harbour quickly produced its now reliable Black Guillemots and we were fortunate to see both Great Northern and Red-throated Divers here. Next stop RSPB South Stack and despite the biting cold gale force winds, Hooded Crow, Chough and Peregrine all joined our day list. Happy with our 98 species recorded (58 of which were new for the year), we called it a day in the fading light and headed for home. Many thanks to Ken and Steve for their enthusiastic company and chauffeuring today. New species total: 1122
Posted 7.30 pm Llandudno 30.1.08