There's been a drake bufflehead frequenting the North Wales coast since the
beginning of December and finally today I managed to catch up with it.
Bufflehead is a North American species and this is, I think, the first record
for Wales.
It was originally found at Point of Ayr near Rhyl while we were in Cyprus but only stayed a day before disappearing for a week and finally being relocated at Foryd Bay just before Christmas. It's a new UK species for me
but I've been putting off going until now because I knew that I had a job
coming up on Anglesey yesterday so I gambled and decided to stay over in
Caernarfon last night in the hope of seeing the bird.
At first I thought that my cunning plan was going to fail because it hadn't been reported since Saturday and the places it was frequenting at the end of last week required a high tide in order for it to be there and unfortunately both high tides during my visit were in the hours of darkness (18:06 last night and 06:48 today - you couldn't make it up!).
However, after a couple of hours searching and with the tide receding all of the time, moving the available open water further and further away, I was at the point when I'd all but given up, when suddenly and with much relief, I spotted the bufflehead on the river on the east side of the bay just north of the hide, at a distance of about half a mile (800m).
After watching for a few minutes I began to wonder what my options were for getting closer. I've not been to Foryd Bay for years and don't really know the area, but I looked at
a map and worked out how I might be able to get closer by driving a couple of miles north.
Parking is a problem here but eventually I found somewhere and a quick scan of the river revealed the bird with a few goldeneye and a drake scaup about 250m away. Yet even now there was another twist as within a couple of minutes of parking here, an abnormal load escort vehicle pulled up and asked me if I could move another 400m away in order to make room for an approaching articulated lorry transporting a static caravan which was due past in 15 minutes. Doh! You really couldn't make it up!
I had no option but to oblige, but once the lorry had gone past I drove back to my parking spot, checked that the bufflehead was still there and then walked around a rocky bay to an even closer vantage point, where I was now about 150m from the bird .
What a tremendous experience to watch this wonderful duck swimming in amongst displaying goldeneye in the company of a drake scaup. Not as close as I believe it was earlier in its stay when it frequented a saltmarsh pool close to the track at the south west corner of the bay, but this was a very evocative and a thrilling sight and exactly the way I wanted to see the bird.
A really smart looking bird, I was delighted to see it today, my only other bufflehead in the UK was an extremely dodgy bird with a green leg ring which I didn't count. I have seen them in New York previously.
Bufflehead preparing to dive. Notice the change in head shape.
The bird has a disproportionatly large head and I believe that the name is a shortened version of "buffalo-head", due to its apparant similarity in shape to the North American buffalo. "Buffle" is an old name for buffalo.
Male and female goldeneye.
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