Alan is doing some research work for the RSPB and as a result has been having meetings with various staff around Wales. Today took him to the Bangor Office and it was great to catch up with friends not seen since 2007! A packet of chocolate biscuits helped make Natalie Thomas’s day.  Nat is a star and just about runs the Bangor office and always has a beaming smile! The meeting was with Reg Thorpe, not only an RSPB employee but a great birding friend of Alan’s but they managed to keep the conversation work focused, well mostly! Reg had a great number of ideas to help with Alan’s research, many thanks! As Alan was in Bangor and had to drive back towards Llandudno, it meant passing the North Wales Wildlife Trust Reserve at Aber Ogwen, so it just didn’t seem right to drive past.   This great reserve consists of a small pool behind the beach at the mouth of the River Ogwen. The car park at the end of the road overlooks the estuary and as usual the mudflats were teeming with birds! With the tide just dropping the birds were pretty close, the scope was quickly up and scanning through the crowds of birds in the winter sunshine was perfect. Plenty of waders, the majority being Common Redshank, with plenty of Oystercatchers and Curlew alongside. A gang of Knot fed as a tight grey mass on the water’s edge, heads down and bills working like sewing-machines as they picked up tiny items of food. A ghostly grey Greenshank waded through the shallows, elegant and aloof compared to the rather hunch-backed Redshank around it. “Chew-it, chew-it” rang out as two waders flew in across the mud and landed in a tumble of long red legs and grey wings.  Spotted Redshanks, wow! These are pretty scarce birds in North Wales so it was a thrill to see them, especially in the bitter cold of a February day; we see them most often as Autumn passage migrants, a tiny number over-winter here. A long straggling line of Eurasian Wigeon were feeding at the waters edge slowly moving further out with the shrinking tide, hundreds of these beautiful ducks showing off in the bright sunlight.  What a lovely sight! Shelduck and Teal were here in smaller numbers while offshore, Goldeneye and Red-breasted Merganser dived for food below the icy waters, rather them than me!This idyllic scene was then shattered! Quad-bikes! These ugly squat machines like some alien life forms drove out on to the mudflats with growling engines and shouting riders. The wildlife spectacle was gone, ruined instantly by these man-made bird scarers with their pillaging riders. These were cocklers, who’d come here to rip the shellfish from the sands and cause havoc amongst the feeding waders and wildfowl. The mudflats here are a Site of Special Scientific Interest, but didn’t look very special with gangs of quad bikes ripping across it scattering birds in all directions! In this spell of prolonged bitter weather we can only guess at the effect this massive disturbance will have on the feeding abilities of the birds.  Being disturbed will mean they use up extra vital fuel fleeing from the cocklers, the last thing they need!  Sadly this is not a new problem and no-one it seems is able to stand up for these birds and stop the operation, a very sad story indeed. The next meeting was at RSPB Conwy Nature Reserve where a steaming mug of tea was very welcome! Only time for a very quick look from the first hide but still well worth it! A Water Rail was feeding in a small pool just before the hide and bird photographer Steve Round was sat waiting for that one extra special shot - though looking at him he looked frozen stiff, doubt he could have pressed the shutter! Tough guys these photographers!   Alan moved to the relative warmth of the Tal-y-fan hide and scanned the lagoons. As ever there was plenty to enjoy: over 100 Lapwing were crowded on one island, a gang of Common Snipe were blending in nicely amongst some dead grasses, a Little Egret waded about in search of fish and thirteen Gadwall fed quietly around the islands.Having meetings does have its compensations!