Pennington Flash

Today I arranged to meet Dave Broome at Penny to collect some unwanted Birdwatching magazines from him that were otherwise destined for recycling.  It was a beautifully crsip and sunny morning but being below freezing I was not hopeful that I'd see much as much of the water would be frozen.  I did have another aim and that was to try to see some Siskin which have been reported there this week.

On arriving at 9:30am I had a quick look in Horrocks Hide before returning to the car park to meet Dave and collect a big box of magazines.  From the hide I could see that the Lapwing had returned in great numbers, with well over a hundred of them on the ice at the bottom of the Spit.  There were also some small groups of Teal and a single Shelduck as well as all the usual suspects.  A quick look over the main Flash which was only partly frozen revealed some male and female Goosander, which I've not seen in this location before - I usually see them from Teal Hide.

This report is still  to be completed, but for now here are some of the better pictures I took today at Penny:

Song Thrush at Bunting Hide

Song Thrush

Male Chaffinch at Bunting Hide



Stock Dove at Bunting Hide



Meadow Pipit behind Ramsdale's Ruck

A pair of Meadow Pipits

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Meadow Pipit on fence

Not a great picture, but is it also a Meadow Pipit ?

Kestrel near Ramsdale's Hide

Kestrel

Kestrel



Part of a Skein of Pink-footed Geese



Mute Swans landing on the main Flash

Mallard Splash 1

Mallard Splash 2



Male Teal on main Flash



Female Teal on main Flash

Teal and Mallard from Horrocks Hide



Teal Cuddle

Teal head on

Teal close up

I call this one 'Rock and Teal'

A poor picture of a Siskin

Another poor picture of a Siskin

Yet another poor picture of a Siskin

Are my ears frostbitten ?

My daughter thought this was cute - until I told her it was a rat!



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.