Six new birds in rapid time! One of the best things, and there are many, about birding in North Wales in spring is lekking Black Grouse. These most spectacular of birds display at dawn on a few upland areas and we always look forward to seeing the bizarre behaviour of the males as they strut their stuff. If you don’t know what a Black Grouse looks like, take a moment to look it up, the male is quite something. Don’t let the name fool you, this no Blackbird! Blue/black plumage is iridescent and shines in the dawn sun, red combs adorn each eye, a gleaming white lyre-shaped tail is fanned and held upright as the males joust on the display ground, or lek. Not content with looking amazing they also make the most outrageous calls: bubbling noises that float across the heather and weird 'cceerrrekk' calls as they leap into the air! If that’s not worth a pre-dawn start then nothing is.
We left Llandudno and headed south down the Conwy valley, a Sparrowhawk skimming the bonnet of the car, and picked up Richard Birch, a former colleague of Ruth’s from the days when she worked at Cadbury Schweppes in Africa. Richard, also a keen birder now living in Buckinghamshire, is up in North Wales with his wife Julie for a week's birding. We didn’t need to ask twice when we mentioned we were after Black Grouse for our year list.
The Berwyn Mountains near Llangollen was our destination and we arrived to a beautiful dawn: calm, sunny, but pretty cold. At first, silence.  Had we left it too late in the spring? Were the Black Grouse having a day off? A Grasshopper Warbler began its reeling song on the hillside, new bird for our list, but not in the same league as the grouse. We moved further up the road, stopped, listened, and yes! The unmistakable sounds of lekking Black Grouse! We quickly located the birds, just look for the white bums! Wow! What an incredible spectacle, just spell-binding. The males were in full display despite the apparent absence of females, but their cryptic plumage may have kept them hidden from our view. What a wonderful addition to our list. As we watched the Black Grouse, a male Red Grouse suddenly erupted from the heather behind us like a very ungainly rocket, calling 'Go back Go back', then just as undignified it crashed back into the vegetation, another new bird! The morning was going very well. It got better as a Common Cuckoo flew along the ridge, yet another new bird. A ghost-like male Hen Harrier, the palest grey, wings tipped black, white rump, floated over the heather like a model glider, so light of wing, few raptors can match this bird, especially in the early morning sun. We dragged ourselves away and stopped at a larch plantation which was alive with birds. It took only a minute to locate our target bird here, Lesser Redpoll, new bird. Four of these streaky diminutive finches fed high up in the conifers. Four Common Crossbill were also here.
Heading for home we stopped to admire an exceptionally confiding Dipper preening mid-stream, what great views of this charismatic little bird. A little further along the same stream, a duck out of the corner of the eye.  What? You don’t get duck here normally.  Slam on brakes. Amazing! A drake Mandarin on a slow moving section of the stream. No sooner had we seen it, than it saw us and took flight downstream, our sixth new bird of the day and we hadn’t had breakfast yet!
Ah yes, breakfast.  We suddenly realised we were very hungry. We called in at Trefriw in the Conwy valley to pick up  Julie, and then went a few yards up the road to the Prince’s Arms Hotel, overlooking the Conwy River. Only one thing on our mind, food.  The Prince’s Arms does an excellent full Welsh breakfast, just what was needed after our early start. We feasted well and chatted with Lindsay and Ann Gordon who run this excellent establishment.  If you’re looking for a base to explore North Wales, this is it! You can birdwatch from your bedroom window, or better still get up, go and see the grouse! Check out www.princes-arms.co.ukSpecies Total 2192 13 May Llandudno, North Wales