A Lovely Trip Down Memory Lane

Recent reports of a Savi's Warbler on Anglesey have had me wanting to go for a couple of weeks now and today was to be the day that I decided to look for this little bird, as it would have been a lifer for me. However, you may be wondering about the title - the reason for it is that we had a caravan on Anglesey for about ten years and it's where our kids grew up, being the only place we used to go in the holidays.

The story of our caravan is a long one which I won't repeat in much detail here except for the fact that we though we'd have it for life, because the (mad) little old lady who owned the site didn't seem to bother with the rules about how long caravans can stay on a site.  She also said she'd never sell up, until one day she did and everything changed.  

She was bought out by the Talacre Beach Caravan Company (similar to Haven) for a good few million pounds due to the amount and location of the land, who then proceeded to increase the site fees and force people to upgrade their caravans or leave as they were turning it into an upmarket country-club type facility with a golf course, swimming pool, bistro and other such yuppie delights.  Not for us, even if we could have afforded it, so we left - in a huff!  It's called Plas Coch which is near Plas Newydd just in case are you wanted to know.

Anyway, having the caravan here meant we got to know Anglesey very well and we'd often call it our second home.  Driving along the A55 Expressway through the tunnels at Conwy, Penmaenbach and Pen-y-Clip brought back a lot of memories and especially the one where our family game was to award 1000 points for the first person to spot Puffin Island from the Expressway - it wasn't really hard to spot it unless it was nightime or raining, but remembering to say it out loud was what caught our children out, so I nearly always won!

Crossing Britannia Bridge sent a little chill up my spine and I was back at the start of the new millennium as I looked out at the Menai Straits, the Marquess of Anglesey's Column with his statue on top and the statue of Nelson at water level.  I could also see Plas Newydd which wasn't far from Plas Coch and had to stop myself coming off the first exit after the bridge which would have taken me in that direction.

Instead I stayed on the A55 for a few junctions until I reached the one for Gaerwen.  I drove through remembering the Stermat supermarket and the shoe shop where we'd bought Robert some wellies and the onto Pentre Berw and Cors Ddyga Nature Reserve just past the village on the left.

Along with a few other people I spent a couple of hours trying to get a clear view of the distant Savi's Warbler in some reeds and gorse on this part of Malltraeth Marsh but although we could all hear it sounding like a low-pitched Grasshopper Warbler from time to time, I never got anything other than a small flitting object which could have been almost anything.  It didn't help that there were Reed Buntings, Reed Warblers and Sedge Warblers about and I think the only shots I got were of a distant hazy Sedge Warbler as it perched up on Gorse bush.  Very disappointing.

So I decided to put Plan B into action, which was pretty much foolproof at this time of year - visit Cemlyn Bay to see the Tern colonies there.  To get to Cemlyn I travelled up many more of the roads we used to use in our trips around Anglesey - if only I'd been a birder back in those days!  When I passed the Jam Factory I knew I was nearly at Cemlyn Bay and I thought to myself, the next time Sarah and I come here we really should stop for Tea and Scones!

The three main types of sea Tern here are Sandwich Tern, Arctic Tern and Common Term and all three were seen quite easily today as they flew over the shingle beach from the lagoon where they nest to the sea where they feed on Sand Eels.  They seemed to be going a little further than the bay to fish today and were quite difficult to pick up on their return journey as they fly so quickly calling all the way.

So the birds didn't disappoint here but I spent more time chatting to a couple of people than taking photographs, so I decided to cut the conversation short and head for a barn just up the road where a Little Owl is known to frequent. I found the barn quite easily but the Owls were nowhere to be seen.  I did manage a couple of shots of this Common Buzzard though.

And finally Plan C was to visit the Little Tern colony at Gronant Dunes near Prestatyn on the way home.  As it only just being past midsummer and a sunny day with few clouds, I knew I'd be able to stay out with some light until at least eight o'clock, so it was worth having a look in spite of it being a bit late in the season with many chicks having fledged.

The Little Tern colony is firstly fenced and then roped off with plenty of notices to avoid the public disturbing these ground nesting birds and there is usually a warden on duty during the day.  However, at gone 7:45pm I wasn't sure if someone would still be there, but there was.  Now I always obey all the rules so I kept away from the fences and ropes and headed for a patch of beach where some of the Terns were bathing.  There were plenty of Ringed Plover about peeping away as I made my way down the beach and I managed to get a couple of flight shots of fledgling Little Terns.

I didn't really get to within a 100 metres of the Terns when most of them took off as if spooked by something.  I couldn't see any large Gulls or birds of prey, but I didn't think it was due my presence either, so why they flew I really don't know.  But when I looked over at the hide I could see some looking at me through binoculars.  I retreated from my position taking shots as I went and thought nothing more of it.

Juvenile Little Tern photo here ...

When I got back to the new gazebo structure at the end of the boardwalk before it rises to the viewing platform which overlooks the dunes, I sat down to chimp some of my shots.  As I was doing this I noticed two Police officers walking down the boardwalk towards me.

'That's a big lens', one said. 'Yes', I answered, 'You need it for small birds like these' (my standard response to this statement which so often gets made when photographers are out birding.). 'You heard any shooting?' he asked. 'No', I replied. 'We've been called out due to a report of shooting being heard', he went on. 'Well not by me', I said, 'except shooting photographs', I smirked. After asking me the way, they headed off in the direction of the hides and soon met up with a girl coming back from one, who stopped and chatted. I guessed she was one of the wardens and the person who had been looking at me.

All the time I was wondering, "Does she think my camera and lens is a gun and that I was firing at the birds and perhaps that's why they took off" - and so she called the Police, surely not.  But I was the only one on the beach at the time so I was puzzled all the while I walked back to my car.  The Officers had also returned along the same route so I stopped and asked them if she thought that I was shooting at the birds.  One of them said that she'd reported the shooting after hearing loud clicking noises near the Terns, but the Ifficer said that as soon as he saw me he thought it was probably just my camera - I really didn't think it was that loud!

So we had a slight laugh and that was the end of it. It didn't spoil my mini-trip down memory lane - how I wish it was still 2005 and me and my kids were still young.

Second Attempt at Using the Campervan

It's been two weeks since my nose job operation and as I've not been anywhere, let alone take any photographs, I've been itching to get out for days now. This also coincided with the fact that I've finally got my campervan working well enough to use and so this week, despite having no confidence in it at all and fully expecting to break down yet again,  Sarah and I decided to give it a try. Well, I had paid for membership of the RAC to give me a little more piece of mind if we were to break down.

We started with two day trips out, as well as needing to use the van for a couple of hospital checkup appointments. The first day out was to Marshside RSPB at Southport - no camera, only binoculars and so no photographs I'm afraid, but we did have good close views of a Snipe and several Black-tailed Godwits, as well as more distant views of the long-staying Cattle Egret and quite a few Little Egrets.  Apart from these there wasn't really much else about of note, but we has a nice picnic lunch on the car park in the campervan.

Our second trip was to the Wirral, starting at Burton Mere Wetlands RSPB and then driving up to Hoylake for lunch, before finally walking across to Hilbre Island over low tide.  This time I did take my camera and some of the landscape shots I took are included in this post.

At Burton Mere Wetlands we had good view of the long-staying Spoonbills, but I could only count eleven when twelve are said to be present. We also had distant views of a Little Stint and closer views of a Green Sandpiper as well as the many usuals which are present in front of the Visitors' Centre. As Hilbre Island was our main target for the day, we only stopped by at the Visitors' Centre area and were soon on our way.

After a quick lunch at King's Gap, Meols in Hoylake where we watching a massive Gull and Oystercatcher roost, we set off for West Kirby where we parked by the side of the Marine Lake after popping into Morrison's to use the toilets.

The walk across to Hilbre Island via the islands of Little Mouse and Middle Mouse takes around an hour, and we had distant views of a large group of Atlantic Seals basking on the sand banks on the way. There really wasn't much bird life around today apart from Gulls of various denominations, but the geology and scenery of the area were fabulous.

As a former geology teacher who has been to Hilbre several times before, I was surprised not to have noticed a classic fault line running through the bedding layers in the red sandstone rocks before. This area would have been great for one of my class's geology field trips with good examples of bedding planes, folds and faults as well as classic coastal erosion geomorphology.

The final trip of the week was an overnight stay in Anglesey, the main reason (apart from being my bird-mobile) for buying the campervan in the first place. It was on this very journey back in November 2014 when I bought the van that all our troubles started. We broke down on our first trip away and had to be recovered home. Following this there were two years of constant problems resulting the fact that we had only ever 'overnighted' in the van once, and that was on that first trip when we broke down.

Since then the van has been constantly in and out of three garages with one repair after another, a saga I'd much rather forget now. So deciding to go for an overnight stay somewhere was quite a big deal given the van's previous history and I decided to go 'light' with as little gear as possible. This meant no cameras, only binoculars and a scope.

Sarah drove the van from our home in Tyldesley to Llandudno where we had a fish supper on the Deganwy side of the Great Orme, overlooking the sandy beach. There were no problems on the way and the van seemed to find a natural speed of 60mph. I then drove it to Anglesey where we parked up in a lay-by which overlooked the sea on the single track road to Penmon.  It was dark by the time we arrived, so all there was to do was have a cup of tea and go to bed. It didn't half rain that night and there were lots of gurgling noises as the water found its way down the windows and into gullies and channels designed to shed the water. But we stayed dry and there were no leaks. It was also very windy and the van was buffeted quite a lot as this was a bit of an exposed location. I did wonder if we might get blown into the sea as I fell asleep.

In the morning we awoke to see a beautiful scene, with a rocky beach in the foreground and some of the North Wales mountains in the background. But better still, there was bird life here including three or four squabbling and noisy Grey Herons, at least ten whistling Curlew, many Oystercatchers and Gulls, three or four Rock Pipits, two or three Redshank, at least two Cormorants and best of all, a Sandwich Tern preening itself on a rock.  After breakfast we had a short walk across the beach to a picnic area where we met a lovely lady with her dog and had a chat. On this walk which was bordered by gardens with some tall conifers and other trees we saw a Great Spotted Woodpecker, a charm of about fifty Goldfinches and a lone Wheatear. I think I also heard a Stonechat and a Robin, but I didn't see them.

The main target for today was to walk to Llanddwyn Island near Newborough, and so we were soon on the road a heading for the main car park at Newborough Warren. However, as we approached Newborough we thought we'd take a look at another small parking area which we'd visited with our two children many years ago when we had a caravan at Plas Coch (before it got to be a country club for the rich and famous). The car park was packed, but luckily there was just enough room to park the campervan there and there was even a bird hide overlooking a small lake here - I never knew that! On the lake there were many Coot and a few Moorhens, but the stars here were the male and female Gadwall which looked stunning. After a while three Little Grebes appeared and later, a couple of Mute Swans.

After some discussion, Sarah and I decided that we could walk to Newborough beach and on to Llanddwyn Island from here - it would be twice as long but it was a free car park and a sunny day, so we went for it.  It turned out to be a bit of a trek for me however as I'd recently hurt my leg in a fall whilst gardening. It wasn't a problem at first, but I really felt it on the way back.

With its broad sweeping stretch of golden sands backed by shifting sand dunes and a Forestry Commission conifer plantation, the beach at Newborough has to be one of the finest beaches in the UK. We'd been canoeing here a couple of times when the children were younger and I was longing for those days again. I really wanted to go in the sea, but my gammy leg and lack of suitable attire prevented me, so I just had to think about returning soon - as soon as possible.

On our walk along the beach we stopped at the classic 'pillow lava' structures at the northern end, just before you cross over to Llanddwyn Island. The geology teacher in me was revived for a second time this week as I marvelled at the shapes and considered their age in millions of years. There are five main places to visit on the Island: the ruined church, the celtic cross, the cottages with a cannon outside, the two lighthouses and the stone cross - we touched all of them bar one of the lighthouses.

Whilst on the Island I saw a male Stonechat and Sarah saw another which was probably the female. There were many Cormorants perched on the rocky outcrops just off the edge of the Island and a few Gulls here and there. What a fabulous place this is with it's sandy coves and rock formations. The view back over Snowdonia is stunning and the sea is a beautiful green blue.

As I previously mentioned, the 3.5 mile walk back to the campervan was a bit of a trek for me and I soon started flagging. This was helped by an ice-cream and drink of pop when we reached the main Newborough car park, but we still had over a mile to go to get back to the van. However the journey was made easier with the sight of several large Ravens cronking on their return to roost in the conifers.

We walked just over seven miles in total on a lovely sunny day whilst thinking that we really mustn't leave it so long before we return once again. The only photos I've got were taken on Sarah's iPhone - they'll have to do for now, but I'll be back with my proper camera gear before long - can't wait!

Anglesey Again

On what turned out to be a disastrously short overnight stay in Anglesey on Bank Holiday Monday, Sarah and I managed to see very few birds and certainly many less than I had intended.  We had gone to do some geocaching and birdwatching and had carefully planned our route up the western side of Anglesey before cutting across to Holyhead - however, it seems it just wasn't meant to be.

The first proper birdwatching location was Llanddona Beach on the southern side of Red Wharf Bay. Here there were three Little Egrets in and around the marshes on the edge of the beach .  The first bird we saw was on the marshland and a little distant but quite clearly a pure white Egret.  But we had a really nice view of two more flying over us as we waded through the stinky swamp.  Unfortunately I didn't have my Nikon camera with me and so there are no pictures of the birds, just my sodden feet taken on my Canon compact!  The only other birds I spotted there were various sorts of gull.

We left Llanddona heading for our next location and then disaster struck as we approached Pentraeth - when we stopped the car, the rear driver's wheel was smoking with horrible fumes and it had got red hot.  The brakes were either seized or had failed in some way. After letting it cool down for a while we tried to reverse and got a terrible clunking sound as the wheel didn't want to turn round.  After waiting a little longer, I decided to try to free it by driving back and forth in short bursts and it seems this made things a little better.

We then planned an alternative route to as directly as possible to Holyhead where at least we had a bed for the night. Sarah drove in short bursts whilst leaving the window open for the smell of burning, and every so often I got out to check the wheel temperature and see if it was smoking again.  In this way we thankfully managed to limp to Holyhead with the promise of a hotel, hot meal and hopefully repairs at a garage in the morning.

In the morning I was up 7am to look for garages - unfortunately the one right next to the hotel had shut down for good and the next nearest didn't open until 8.15am.  So I went back to the hotel still wondering if I could get it fixed in time to get home for a medical appointment I had that evening in Wigan. When I returned the garage said it could be fixed today but not before five o'clock - therefore I'd need to go home by train at 12:30am for my appointment. Whilst in Holyhead I didn't even have time to look for the Black Guillemots in the harbour and so I was really miffed about that.

As I had waited for nearly four weeks for the appointment (and couldn't get changed) I got the train home on my own whilst Sarah waited for the car to be fixed at the garage in Holyhead.  On my train journey home I managed to see some Oystercatchers and either Curlew or Whimbrel on the beach at Talacre in Flint - and that was about it I'm afraid.  Still, it was nice to see the landscape from a different view for once - you get to see so much more on the train.

Anglesey and Conwy Birds

Sorry, the formatting of the post is a mess and the pictures are mixed up at the moment, but I'm working on it.

Sarah and I took a short Wedding Anniversary trip to Anglesey last week to do a spot of birdwatching and geocaching (see my other blog here) - sad aren't we?  Anyway, this post includes some of the better pictures I took (although none are that great) mainly at South Stack Lighthouse and the RSPB Reserve at Conwy.

On our way down to Anglesey we stopped off at the beautiful Bodnant Gardens to have a look a the Larburnum arch in full June bloom.  I just had to include a piccie of it here and can thoroughly recommend a visit if you are in the area.

At the entrance to Bodnant we were greeted by this peacock:

Peacock outside Bodnant entrance

Who's a pretty boy then?

The Laburnum Arch at Bodnant Gardens

We stayed at a very pleasant B&B with a lovely big garden run by a couple who by coincidence had more than a passing interest in birds too.  As we sat having breakfast looking out on to the garden a nuthatch and great spotted woodpecker were pecking away on the feeders and there were frequent visits from greenfinch, blue tits, great tits and a robin.  Unfortunately, when I returned with my camera after breakfast, most of them had disappeared!

A robin in the B&B garden

We spent the first day at South Stack and the first birds we saw were the ubiquitous razorbills, guillemots and various types of gull.  I was quite disappointed that even with my 500mm zoom lens I couldn't get any real closeup pictures from the viewing point at Ellin's Tower.  Here are some of the better pictures I took:

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Next we went down the steps towards South Stack Lighthouse, and here we had our first very brief glimpses of some Puffins, but not good enough to photograph.

The best photographs I took at South Stack were actually of a Chough which fortuitously landed right in front of me as I was looking for Puffins - however none of these are perfect as it took me by surprise and kept moving about.

Chough at South Stack

After our day out at South Stack we did some geocaching in the Rhoscolyn area and in the evening went to Conwy for a free guided walk round the RSPB reserve there.  Here are some of the better photographs from the informal tour:

Canada Geese

Swans with their cygnet

The following day we did some more geocaching on Anglesey and whilst we were out and about I took these photographs:

Song Thrush battering a snail

Greylag Geese on Afon Braint

An Oystercatcher on the Menai mudflats

Carrion Crow on the Menai mudflats

Although I was a little disappointed with the overall quality of my photographs, it didn't matter too much as we'd had a great few days in the Anglesey and Conwy.  No doubt we'll be back.