Welcome to my Great Orme list!

The western reef heron that was in the Caernarfon area last week has relocated to the Conwy estuary and has been viewable rather distantly at low tide for the past two days from Llandudno West Shore and the Great Orme. 

We already had a walk over the Orme planned for today so we weren't really here to see the bird but it was a great opportunity to add it to my Great Orme list. By the time we arrived at 10:15 it was moving with the tide away from the Orme towards Deganwy but was still viewable from Marine drive. My rule is, if I'm in it's on and I was certainly in when I took this photo! Welcome to my Great Orme list! 

We had a great walk in lovely weather. Lots of fabulous flowers including a new one for me, tall sea-lavander, plus hundreds of silver-studded blue butterflies on the wing.

Rock sea-lavander Limonium procerum ssp procerum, also known as Tall sea-lavander. A very rare plant in the UK, or anywhere else, growing on top of the wall on Marine drive just above the pier.

The rock sea-lavanders are a very complex group of plants with various subspecies recognised. I don't know what the latest thinking is, but I'm pretty sure that this is a different subspecies to that which grows on Hilbre, but I'm not certain. Whatever the subspecies, I've never seen any rock sea-lavander on the Orme previously so another new species here for me today.

Bloody cranesbill.

Choughs.

Common rock-rose.

Field scabious.

Pyramidal orchid.

Silver-studded blue.

I don't think I've ever seen so many silver-studded blues, there must have been a mass emergence today, with 150 minimum flying around the footpath from Marine drive to the north end, on the west side of the Orme. We saw at least 10 pairs coupled like this.  

Thrift.

Viper's-bugloss.

This photo was taken from Marine drive, about 100m north of the gatehouse on West Shore, looking towards Conwy Morfa. The bird is about 1.2km (1 mile) way.