Today we returned to RSPB Conwy Nature Reserve to record a piece for HTV Wales news about The Biggest Twitch. We Ian Lang from HTV in the coffee shop over looking the lagoon which was thronged with birds. The tide was high and had pushed many waders and wildfowl off the adjacent Conwy Estuary on to the reserve. Most obvious were a crowd of 140 Redshank busily feeding in the shallow waters of the lagoon. They seemed to finding plenty of food and were joined by fourteen Black-tailed Godwits and a single Greenshank. Ian was keen to get started so we ventured out of the warmth of the coffee shop on to the reserve. We made our way along the boardwalk and round to the Tal-y-fan hide. This hide has panoramic views of both the lagoons, Conwy Castle and the snow capped mountains of Snowdonia beyond the estuary, simply stunning! A great selection of birds was visible from here, Lapwings fed on the causeway, Common Snipe probed the edges of the islands, Goldeneye and Tufted Duck dived for under water food, a Grey Heron sat hunched like an old man on a park bench, head tucked in out of the wind. Ian took some film of us birding and then decided it was time to an interview. We moved down to the Carneddau hide where it was quieter and set up the camera and microphone. Gone are the days when HTV would have sent a camera man and sound recordist along with the reporter. Ian does the lot! Just as we were about to begin a group of birdwatchers arrived in the hide and we thought it best to wait for them to continue with their walk before we did our bit. No problem there, more time for birding! We enjoyed watching some 200 Lapwing tumbling across the sky buffeted by the wind, spell binding! A pair of Red-breasted Mergansers dropped on to the lagoon joining Pochard Gadwall and Shoveler.
With the hide now almost empty, just a very well behaved couple in the corner left, we did our interview with Ian and he asked us lots of questions about our adventure, how many make it in to the piece we shall have to wait and see. Not sure when the item will be used on the HTV regional news but Ian says not tonight. It will take a little while to edit as we have given him some of our own footage we shot during 2008, before our video camera was stolen! But we do hope to be able to provide a link from our web site to the footage once it has gone out, so watch this space.