Red Lane, Gospel End Village (August 10)

The vegetation and undergrowth on the lane pond is such that it's difficult to get a totally clear view at this time of the year, but managed to see 2 adults, 2 chicks and 1 juvenile moorhen (pictured above).

Lots of juveniles around of other birds too including swallow, goldfinch, greenfinch, blue tit.

Single stock dove on the bottom field on the right. Several swift, all very high in the sky.

Red Lane, Gospel End Village (August 9)

After a week's birding on Anglesey it was back to earth with a bump! Red Lane is a local walk that I enjoy doing. It's a paved lane and due to the fact that there are just a couple of farms and a water plant at the end it has minimal traffic.

The moorhens on the pond have had another successful brood of young. I heard them but could only see one juvenile due to the dense vegetation and undergrowth.

Other juvenile birds around included great spotted woodpecker, long tailed tit, goldfinch and greenfinch.

The bottom field area on the right is great for stock dove and today I saw 3. Other birds on the walk included willow warbler, collared dove, starling.

Anglesey adventures - Day 7 (August 8)

Last day of the holiday and another visit to Cemlyn Bay. Nothing new to be seen, but after an absence most of the week of sandwich tern I counted 7 birds, both adults and juveniles. And guess what - I didn't have my camera with me so couldn't capture them on film.

The common tern and arctic tern were there as usual along with stonechat (adults and juveniles), red-breasted merganser (the female and the juveniles were on the grass alongside the lagoon preening and basking in the sun), redshank, curlew, turnstone, dunlin and lapwing.

Saw 3 little egret and a further 2 while walking back to the car. I couldn't be absolutely sure, as birds could have passed in flight, but I'm pretty certain that they were all individuals, thus making a total of 5.

On the drive to the site 2 raven were perched on the roof of a barn alongside the road. Again a missed opportunity with the camera.

Video clip of turnstone, dunlin, ringed plover: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kf7f77L8jI

Anglesey adventures - Day 6 (August 7)

Back to Cemlyn Bay for a morning walk along the shingle bank that divides the sea from the lagoon.

The red-breasted merganser female and juveniles were still there (pictured above). They kept their distance but I did get excellent views with the scope. I also managed to capture them on film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5IARZZYZSc

Other birds included: little egret (2), curlew (32 on grass on far side of lagoon), wheatear, redshank (9 seen at one time), dunlin (several), turnstone, ringed plover (several).

Anglesey adventures - Day 5 (August 6)

Back to Cemlyn Bay which is just down the road from where we stayed. There are good numbers of terns present but not as many as when last visited the site at the beginning of June 2007. The sandwich terns were absent today but numerous arctic terns and common terns.

A female red-breasted merganser was on the lagoon with 11 juveniles in tow. Other birds included: stonechat (male, juveniles), little egret (single bird), curlew, wheatear, dunlin (c.20 birds on lagoon islands), turnstone (3 on beach), ringed plover (several on beach), redshank (2 on lagoon).

You can view video footage of the terns here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7kJi4YIuSI

Also saw my favourite British mammal today - a brown hare on the headland at Cemlyn Bay at dusk.

Anglesey adventures - Day 4 (August 5)

Very wet day today - well it's Wales after all! A brief walk around woodland near Llanfair PG. Not much doing at all - lots of herring gulls (pictured above) as always though and oystercatchers visible on distant shorline of the Menai Strait. Also saw first swifts since being on the island.

Anglesey adventures - Day 3 (August 4)

As the sun shone bright in the sky I visited the RSPB reserve at South Stack, Holyhead. I was there at the beginning of last June when the cliffs and the sea were alive with guillemots, razorbills etc but this time round they were all gone.

The choughs (pictured) were still there of course and I got some good footage of them. You can view the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kBMrA4X7Ws

Also got a shot of a meadow pipit on the heather that is everywhere along the coastal reserve, which you can see here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmGsQtKKsfE

Other birds seen included kittiwake, stonechat, willow warbler, raven (2 birds flew overhead and then soared in the immediate area producing some stunning acrobatics), wheatear (juvenile).

Anglesey adventures - Day 2 (August 3)

In the morning visited the very local Cemlyn Bay nature reserve. There is a steep shingle beach and then beyond that a lagoon with two islands. It's an excellent place and one of my favourite birding spots.

The tern colony had numerous arctic terns and common terns around, both adults and juveniles. I had to search hard for sandwich terns though but I did manage to spot a single bird in amongst the others.

It's been a few years since I've come across little egrets (pictured above) so it was a pleasant surprise to find 3 of them on the lagoon.

Other birds at Cemlyn Bay included oystercatcher (group of c.25 birds on shoreline), curlew (7 birds in rough grass on far side of lagoon), turnstone (5 on beach shoreline), dunlin (numerous birds), ringed plover (several on beach and lagoon), redshank (2 birds on lagoon).

A Clifftop walk later in the day at Bull Bay produced more turnstones (2 birds landed on rocks) and stonechats (male and female) while a similiar walk at Cemaes Bay had me watching a group of 5 rock pipits (adults and juveniles).

Video clip of little egrets: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARIxTpg_76k

Anglesey adventures - Day 1 (August 2)

After just one day, 'Birding in and around South Staffordshire' uproots to Anglesey as we go on our annual family vacation. On arrival, while my wife and girls do the food shopping in Holyhead's Tesco, I pull in down the road and spend an hour at Penrhos Coastal Park.

Coming from a land-locked background it's always a novelty to see certain birds on the sea and the first birds I saw on open water were four great crested grebes diving 200 metres from the shore. Adult and juvenile swallows were also feeding low over the shore and calm sea.

In the evening I had a walk around our caravan park near Llanfechell. Numeous herring gulls (pictured above) on the fields and in flight. The odd lesser black-backed gull in amongst them but no other gull species.

Whites Wood, Baggeridge Country Park (August 1)

I didn't have long to bird, so while my wife was at her parents I visited the local Whites Wood, which is part of Baggeridge Country Park. Whites Wood is very diverse as far as tree species are concerned and I may as well have focused on the trees, as the birds were pretty scarce. It is a good autumn through spring place to bird but at the height of summer can sometimes be hard going. In all honesty I should have gone elsewhere, but I like the challenge, plus time was limited.

Several swifts were feeding over adjoining fields, as were a couple of house martins. Several juveniles were in the wood including wren, great tit and robin. The wood itself was very quiet and apart from the calling of juvenile birds, the only bird singing was a wren.

So my first entry to the blog doesn't exactly set the world alight. But if nothing else, my blogging will be honest. However at least Twinkle my Bedlington Terrier (pictured above) enjoyed herself. She accompanies me on all my walking birding sessions (as opposed to when I'm birding while fishing). So it's a good time to introduce her to the blog as well, right at the beginning.