We’d decided to go for the Black Kite at Gigrin Farm in deepest darkest mid-Wales, which was perhaps a bit optimistic given the weather forecast. But when we looked out the window in Llandudno with not a snowflake to be seen we thought it worth a try, so we picked up Mike Duckham from Glan Conwy and headed off. Rather than drive up over the mountains though, we decided to play safe and take the A55 Expressway along the North Wales Coast as this would surely be well gritted and snow-free. How wrong can you be? It wasn’t long before the black tarmac completely disappeared under a thick blanket of white with just two ruts of tyre tracks to follow. Perhaps heading for mid-Wales was a bit foolhardy in these conditions we decided, and as the sun was briefly shining over Anglesey, we decided to try our luck there instead.
We headed for Malltraeth, where Bittern had been seen recently, but even here, as soon as we turned off the main road, driving conditions became interesting, to put it mildly. With the car fishtailing round the bends, and wheels spinning up the slightest incline, we took things very cautiously indeed.
During a very brief spell of bright weather at Malltraeth, we hopped out of the car and walked a little way along the cob. There were some good birds here: a Spotted Redshank was standing with its Common cousins; hundreds of Pintail loafed on a small patch of melted water on the pool and on the estuary itself, two fine male Bullfinches hopped up into view on a bare willow, and a Bittern flopped unmajestically over the saltmarsh and dropped into deep cover. This was the cue for the snow to start again, and with huge flakes floating down all around us, we hurried back to the car.
We battled our way back along the slippery A55 with snowploughs clearing the track in front of us, and were very glad to get back to Llandudno, which, with its unique microclimate, was still completely snow free!