Bempton Cliffs

My breeding bird survey started at 4:10am this morning and by 9:30am my working day was over until tomorrow morning, so it was either spend the day in my hotel room or find somewhere to go birding. In those circumstances it's hard not to elect to go to Bempton Cliffs and get my annual dose of seabirds.

Seabird colonies fill every sense, but especially those of sight, hearing and smell. What great places they are! Bempton Cliffs is by far the best and most accessible UK mainland colony. Ok you could argue that Clo Mor on Cape Wrath has many more puffins, or more perhaps even more birds in general, but I've been to Clo Mor and it's not exactly accessible to the majority of people in Scotland let alone the rest of the UK.

Where Bempton Cliffs really excel is with the gannets. To the best of my knowledge, this is still the only mainland gannet colony in the UK, and it's an impressive place with upwards of 10,000 pairs. I did once visit the Bass Rock in the days when you could land on the island and walk amongst the birds, but these days there can't be too many colonies where you can get much closer than this.

Sanderling at the flash - the wader fest continues

Waders are on the move and today an early morning visit came up trumps again with two sanderling and a dunlin on the sailing club shore. Later in the afternoon the sanderling had gone to be replaced by a common sandpiper. Sadly water levels are now high and the only shoreline available to waders is at the sailing club which gets disturbance from early morning dogs walkers so if you're not there very early, chances are you've missed the best birds of the day.

Turnstones and dunlin, Pennington Flash

Fourteen dunlin were on the sailing club foreshore this morning until they were flushed by a dog walker and left. A site record for me, they were all in breeding plumage. 

Then mid-morning there were four turnstones including two cracking breeding plumage birds on the spit. I did have a quick look at the spit first thing and didn't see them so chances are they arrived later.

Y Foel Lus

We had a truly spectacular walk from our holiday cottage this morning, taking in Y Foel lus, a 300m+ hill above Penmaenmawr. There was a low mist over the coast, but up here we were above the mist and it was almost like being in the high mountains looking down on the clouds. 

Llandudno sits on a flat piece of low lying land that was laid down by the River Conwy at the point where it enters the sea and it connects the Great Orme, which at times of higher sea levels would actually be an island, to the mainland. In the photo above the mist covering Llandudno really shows this well, with the Orme revealed in it's true light.

The mist didn't stretch far inland, covering only about half of Dwygyfylchi, just over a mile from the coast. Our holiday cottage is down there somewhere.

Sychnant Pass

Sychannt Pass is a spectacular pass that lies between Conwy and Penmaenmawr, and conveniently situated for us being just a short, if steep, walk from our holiday cottage in the village of Dwygyfylchi. Plenty of birds here, including pied flycatchers, redstarts, choughs, cuckoos and stonechats.

The woods around the conservation centre at Pensychannt have nest boxes for pied flycatchers. I also accidently flushed a tawny owl here, it was perched in a bush within the woodland.

Aber Falls

On our way for a long weekend with family near Penmaenmawr today, we called in at Aber Falls where we had a lovely walk and saw a few new birds for the year including at least three singing redstarts. Other year ticks were cuckoo and garden warbler.

Hoary rockrose, Great Orme

In the UK hoary rockrose is almost exclusively found in coastal North Wales, though I have also seen it in Teesdale.

Now is a great time for seeing it on the Great Orme, along with many other plants such as common rockrose, bloody cranesbill, primrose and cowslips.

Red kite over Rainford, a St Helens first for me

I was watching cricket at Rainford today when a red kite flew over. Seems a very matter of fact way of putting it, but the truth is, despite red kites now apparently being all around us, this was the first that I have seen in St Helens and also a first for Merseyside for me. I don't know why, but both Merseyside and Greater Manchester seem to be no-go areas for red kites. I'm sure it's only a matter of time...

Rainford area

I've been spending a lot of time in the Rainford area this spring since I returned from India, mainly because it's been so good as opposed to Pennington Flash which has been pretty dull. The main places we bird are Dairy Farm Road, just off the Rainford bypass, Old Coach Road and Moss Lane which is near Liverpool St Helens RUFC.

Highlights have been a pair of whinchats along Dairy Farm Road on 2nd May, female marsh harrier (only my second ever in St Helens) on 10th May and red kite over Rainford cricket club the following day. The latter I will discuss in a separate post.

Four ravens chased each other over Moss Lane on 9th May, where there is also a pair of stonechats.

Little owls have put in a good showing this spring, I know of at least two, possibly three sites for them.

Grasshopper warbler on the Ruck

A grasshopper warbler was singing just above the leaning posts on the Ruck at Pennington Flash this morning.