We’ve had our good friends from the Netherlands, Roy and Anja de Haas, staying with us for a few days, and with the weather being amazingly kind to us, we’ve been able to take them out every day to experience some of the best of our Welsh birding.  Roy is a very keen bird photographer, running his own photography agency, www.agami.nl, so he was keen to get some cracking shots of our local birds.  We started on Anglesey with a visit to Holyhead, where the Black Guillemots proved extremely obliging.  South Stack was tougher, as the wind picked up and the Chough didn’t want to play ball.  But Roy’s persistence paid off, and he also got some excellent shots of the seabird colony on the cliffs.  The next day, we switched focus to passerines and visited Pensychnant Nature Conservation Centre where Pied Flycatcher was the target bird.  With some excellent shots in the bag, we then went to the Little Orme for some Fulmar photography.  While Alan and Ruth had to stick to taking shots of birds sitting on the ledges with our much smaller camera, Roy was able to capture some amazing images of Fulmars cruising effortlessly on the thermals – stunning stuff. 
After a dawn tour of the Great Orme in search of migrants the next day, we took a deep breath and plunged into the maelstrom of the Victorian Extravaganza in our home town of Llandundo, something Roy and Anja had certainly not experienced before.  Of course, they couldn’t visit a seaside resort without Roy taking some shots of Herring Gulls coming to chips on the promenade, though Ruth wasn’t too sure about being made the target of all the gulls’ attention with a cone of chips in her hand.  In the afternoon, our focus switched to football, with all our teams, Ajax, Manchester United and Chelsea playing critical games.  Despite all the teams winning their respective games, only Ruth (the Chelsea supporter amongst us) was happy with the final outcome, perhaps the reward for risking life and limb earlier on.
An early start yesterday saw us out on the moors at first light, watching lekking Black Grouse, with around 20 jaunty males displaying for the unobtrusive females.  A Red Grouse came in to investigate us, creating great excitement as a new bird for Roy and Anja who hadn’t expected to add a new bird to their already significant life lists well over 5000 species.  A breakfast stop in Llangollen, gave Roy the opportunity to take some breathtaking photos of Dipper on the River Dee, and then we headed into mid-Wales to watch the stunning Red Kite feeding spectacle at Gigrin Farm.  Although the sky clouded over just as the tractor loaded with meat arrived, Roy still succeeded in taking some magical shots of the Red Kites whirling in the sky just over his head.  Sadly, as you can see, our photos weren’t quite up to the same standard, but we still enjoyed watching this charismatic collection of birds taking full advantage of the bounty.
Today, Tuesday, we’ve had to leave Roy and Anja to concentrate on more photography on the Little Orme, while we wrap up some admin and preparation ahead of flying out to America for The Biggest Week in American Birding.  This seems to have come around very quickly, so there’s lots to do before we drive to Manchester airport tomorrow for our respective flights to Amsterdam and Cleveland – volcanic ash provided!