Clocaenog Forest

It was a nice morning so I decided to get out the house and instead acquiring eye-ache by watching the sea for 4 hours off Llandulas for the hope of finding a Surf Scoter, I decided to head in the direction of Clocaenog.

Clocaenog is a big pine forest and good for crossbills, but many come for the wintering Great Grey Shrike that has been returning over the last few years there. Its amazing the difference in the wind speed when you add 100ft or so to your height. I reached the area where the shrike is usually viewed for about 45 minutes without any luck. I met a couple of local birdwatchers up there to which they kindly told me about another area (that forks off a little further down the track) that is usually also good for the star bird. So we took a walk down, let and behold, we had arrived just in time to see the bird perched on a pine tree.

Great Grey Shrike

The bird seemed really mobile flying to tree to tree and then soon dropped down the other side out of view. It was great to see and well worth the visit.

Whilst on the way up and back down, there was a good presence of Crossbills (possibly saw 20+ overall). Here's just a couple of images:

Male Crossbill

Female Crossbill