Woodcock Paradise

A very rewarding visit to Glanwyddan Lane, llandudno gave us spectacular views of Woodcock, not just in the hand but on the ground. Chris Bridge is a fully trained ringer with a C permit and is able to ring birds. We were granted permission to visit the neighbouring fields in the hope of catching Woodcock. We managed to get 3 in all and a Jackdaw by the form of 'Lamping'. Chris ringed the birds, collected the statistics and realised them back into the wild. All in all, we saw about 8 Woodcock, and Chris missed catching 3 by inches. Other birds about were 2 Teal, a Moorhen and a Buzzard.

Woodcock

Woodcock - view of it's wing (notice its beautiful decorative patterning)

Jackdaw

Jackdaw- looked nice and broad, although a little tatty



Yellowthroat, Lesser Scaup and Glossy Ibis storms Wales

Potentially the bird we travelled down to see could’ve been present since November. The Common Yellowthroat is a stunning brightly coloured warbler and is an American migrant. It was found over a week ago, soon after, it was correctly confirmed and news was out. It’s always stressful prior to planning a visit to twitch a rarity like this one as the bird could disappear at any time. First thing on Sunday morning we were faced with a whole new problem: heavy snow at 6am... nightmare! I could only hope that it would stop and fast as I couldn’t imagine seeing it otherwise.

You can imagine the domino effect here...

 After a good 4 hour journey down, we eventually made it. The Common Yellowthroat showed intermittently, but when it did, it gave superb views. It was incredibly stunning and we soaked up the views of this little gem. Everybody behaved exceptionally and respected the privacy and welfare of the bird.

Common Yellowthroat

 Next stop, we travelled to Cosmoston lakes for the over-wintering Lesser Scaup. This was a fantastic plumaged adult which seems to be a returning bird to Cardiff.

Lesser Scaup

The Bonaparte’s Gull that was also in Cardiff sadly wasn’t showing so we decided to head back north up towards Aberystwyth where a Glossy Ibis was also taking up residence. In the mean time, we were kept entertained with the good numbers of Red Kites on the journey. After taking the longest diversion route around Borth Bog, we finally made the journey with spectacular views of this Spanish-born bird.

Glossy Ibis

A touch of Ice

Headed down to both sites today. No sign of Lesser Pecker sadly or any willow tit at Moore... I don't know if the latter still breed there as I haven't seen them on my last few visits and I remember at one time they used to be guarenteed. Had this cool Tawny Owl well camouflaged in its usual space.

Richmond Bank brought up at least 2 Iceland Gulls, a Med Gull and a Glaucous reported by someone else... I thought I had a Glaucous until the flock flew up and the mystery bird disappeared.



What looked to be a 2nd winter Iceland Gull

and a 3rd winter Iceland Gull

Tundra Bean Goose Video

Tundra Bean Goose at Aber Ogwen (The Spinnies), Bangor, North Wales



Tundra Bean Goose and Glaucous Gull

A great weekends birding on Saturday brought a nice line up of good birds. After watching 3 Slavonian Grebes at Llanfairfechan, I went off in search of the Tundra Bean Goose at Aber Ogwen (The Spinnies) near Bangor. After a false start, I finally locked on to this lovely bird outside the estuary hide. Tundra Beans are the commoner of both Bean Geese. Of which the other species, Taiga Bean Geese, I was luckily enough to see a couple of weeks ago in Norfolk. At the moment these geese are known as sub species but I doubt it'll be long before they are split do to their varying differences.

Tundra Bean Goose

Tundra Bean Goose with Greylags

The Tundra Bean Goose was showing very well with the 40 or so Greylags. As you can see from the picture, Tundra's appear a lot smaller all round and have just a small amount of orange on the bill. Goldeneyes showed very well along with a handful of Red Breasted Mergansers, Redshank and a cool over-wintering Greenshank. Even better, was this stunning drake Eider which showed very close to the shore providing opportunities for photos!

Common Eider

The next and what appeared to be the last stop of the day was Aberdesach on the Lleyn Peninsula for a Glaucous Gull which took me nearly 2 and a half hours to track down due to its excellent skills in hide and seek. After checking pretty much every field within a square mile around the Aberdesach area 2 or 3 times, and after hearing news that it had flown off, I decided to call the search off and name it a disaster. Heading out of the little village, still hoping, I saw a massive white gull-like bird sat in the middle of a field... knowing that it was the bird i'd been looking for I immediately pulled over and ran back down the road to view the bird! Glaucous Gull and a bit of a loner by the look of things. It was great to catch up with this fresh looking 2nd winter bird... definitely the ghost of the gull world!

Iceland Gull Influx

There have been a massive influx of Iceland Gulls across the UK and North Wales has had a few records this winter. There is one long stayer located on the Lleyn at the moment at Rhyd-y-Clafdy which appears to be a fine adult bird. They have taken other parts of the UK by storm though.

Here's a couple of images of the Iceland Gull I saw in Preston last Winter

 

Garden Birding take 2 - who needs nets?

Taking advantage of this colder weather, Chris Bridge decided to come round in the hope of catching some more birds. Last time he came, he caught 20 birds which considering the method, was excellent. Using the same method,  we set up the potter traps and hoped to beat 20 birds. After missing his first train, he finally arrived with a garden full of birds. The first birds in, 2 Blue tits in 1 one trap!

This was followed by a very unexpected visitor - a lovely female Blackcap. Who knows where this bird will end up in the Spring? This could well be a winter migrant from the continent...

We had 2 Robins during the day, both adult birds

A stunning Goldfinch was very much welcomed when it jumped into the trap

We also had two cheeky male Blackbirds that ran straight in after a nice wedge of apple

We also got a couple of Great Tits

Altogether we caught 42 birds which included 33 Blue Tits and no re-traps which more than doubled Chris's last visit. Next time we hope to catch the cheeky male Blackcap which played games with the traps all day and also dispite the good numbers of House Sparrows and Chaffinches, they keep well clear from the traps so i'll have to write down a few tactics for next time!

Big thanks to Chris Bridge for spending his time ringing the birds... His blog is available here: http://traineebirdringing.blogspot.com/

But as far as small scale garden birding goes.. who needs nets?