Black and white day
Alan and Ken again headed out to try and get some more photos for Ken’s book. The weather was awful early on so a slow start to the day. Heading west they were soon on Anglesey and checking the gulls at the rubbish tip north of Menai Bridge. They were quickly onto a cracking second winter Glaucous Gull. This huge gull dwarfed the Herring Gulls and Lesser Black-backed Gulls in the same field. The Glaucous was white with a huge bill, yellowish with a dark tip, great bird.
Next stop was Beddmanarch Bay where Ken was keen to photograph that hard to find bird, Black-headed Gull. There were plenty of gulls and we duly threw our bread and, nothing, the gulls sat on the sea and never moved. What is wrong with gulls these days? Have they been watching all the cooking programs on TV and now demand gourmet food, bread just not good enough? Eventually a few gulls deigned to pick at the bread and Ken got a few shots.
We gave up and headed for Holyhead Harbour, luckily the Black Guillemots were more helpful and flew past and reasonable and in the sun, remember Ken only wants flight shots, tricky! At least seven of these piebald auks showed off and a Shag added value.
Up to South Stack RSPB and it poured down with a howling wind, grim, needless to say we did not stay long but managed to see Hooded Crow and Chough.
Back into Holyhead and some of the worst fish and chips ever, but they were warm, much needed. We had plenty of chips left over, despite our hunger we could only eat so many of these grease covered excuses for chips. Back to Beddmanarch Bay and guess what? Chips work better than bread, even bad ones, and we soon had a crowd of Black-headed Gulls all around us. A huge flock of 197 Pale-bellied Brent Geese flew and landed out on the mudflats where Bar-tailed Godwits and Grey Plover fed.
Heading back to Llandudno we called in on the two Snow Buntings at Penury Bay more black and white birds! The day finished on the beach below the cliffs of the Little Orme at east end of Llandudno north shore. Ken was really pleased to see a flock of Kittiwakes loafing offshore and got some great shots.
We are giving a talk on The Biggest Twitch at RSPB Conwy on 16th April at 7pm, again a donation to the reserve will be made, do come along and hear all about our adventure and support this great reserve. Tickets available at the reserve, 01492 584091 for details.Would you like to come birding with The Biggest Twitch? Well now you can!
We are putting together a package of birding tours here in the UK, Europe and further afield using our huge experience to share our enthusiasm for birds, wildlife and wild places with you. We are offering the following trips as set departure tours:Galapagos Islands and Ecuador: April 2010 – there’s been a lot of interest already!
India, Tigers and the north: November 2010We offer custom tours to the following countries with dates to suit you for an individual tour, or you can join a group of like-minded people:Spain, visiting Extremadura and/or the Coto de Doñana
Eastern Turkey for wonderful birds and mountain scenery
Finland and Norway with the very best guides for all the owls and woodpeckersWe also offer custom tours throughout the year in North Wales, day trips or longer to see all the special birds, dates to suit you. Highlights could include Red-billed Chough, Black and Red Grouse, Dipper, Red Kite, Hen Harrier, Goshawk, Atlantic Puffin, Ring Ouzel.  Expect to see over 100 species on a two-day tour!If you would like more details of any of these, please email us at info@thebiggesttwitch.com.  We would love you to join us for wonderful birds and much more!