North Wales

Out with Mark yesterday and we decided on a trip to North Wales picking up Darren (Leeds) and Dave (Huddersfield) on the way, we headed out to South Stacks first, a Sand Martin over Holyhead was the first of the year for us all, at South Stacks a few Auks were back in, there was a Peregrine sat on the cliffs, a couple of Ravens croaked as they flew high above us and our main target, Chough were soon located and a pair performed well for us. We then headed back to Holyhead Harbour but unfortunately failed to find any Black Guillemots so carried on round to Cemlyn Bay for a very showy Lapland Bunting, a bit early for any Terns to be back in there but a Little Egret and Greenshank were on pools by the car park. After a late lunch it was back to the mainland, a Red Kite flying along the coastline near Llanfairfechan was unexpected and posed the question are the Welsh birds expanding their range or was it a wandering English bird, we called off at Conwy RSPB as there had been a Firecrest wintering, we had a quick look but apparently there had been no sightings since last Thursday, fairly quiet otherwise so we ended up further along the coast at Pensarn where an immature Iceland Gull treated us to some mega views, an enjoyable day.

hiding in the grass

flew up onto a nearby wall after being flushed by a dog

also Little Egret

and Stonechat

very confiding Iceland Gull