In-car Seawatching!
Some people might not consider seawatching the best way to spend your birthday, but this was no ordinary seawatching. Forget sitting huddled on a drafty headland, with nothing but a scope and flask of hot tea for company, peering through your optics for a scant view of a distant seabird somewhere out on the waves. This was seawatching, Rhos Point-style!
Firstly you can watch perfectly well from the warmth and comfort of your car. Secondly there is a convenient buoy and row of wind turbines to act as landmarks. And thirdly, on days like today the seabirds pass very close inshore.
While Alan was updating Birdline and Ruth was opening her birthday presents, we fielded reports from our birding friends of a constant stream of Leach's Petrels passing by Rhos Point. So before long, we headed out to Rhos Point ourselves and parked up at a suitable place. Pointing our scopes out of the front and rear seaward windows of the car, we sat back and waited for the petrel show to begin. We didn't have to wait long. First one Leach's Petrel came fluttering by, with its distinctive flying style part flapping, part gliding low over the water. The bird was so close inshore that we were able to see all the details of its plumage: sooty black with a greyish rump, a pale carpal bar and forked tail. In ones and twos, a constant stream of Leach's Petrels pottered their way over the waves only a few metres offshore, while cigar-shaped auks scooted past on whirring wings. Then something slightly different: smaller and flapping steadily into the wind - a Storm Petrel. Then a wave of Sandwich Terns joined the parade, followed by something a little larger as a Bonxie swept over the waves beating its way across the sea with great purpose. And still the Leach's Petrels came past.
Rumbling stomachs reminded us it was lunchtime, so we headed for the nearby Pen-y-bryn pub where we soon enjoyed even closer views of Gressingham Duck with roasted vegetables washed down with a glass of wine to celebrate Ruth's birthday. Not a bad way mark the occasion!
Leach's Petrel