Hooded Crow The Range
I went on my usual birding jaunt with John small on Monday. First off we headed out to The Range at South Stack on Anglesey where we had excellent views of Manx Shearwaters passing very close in shore. Also present were good numbers of Gannets and a few Sandwich Terns. Shags were sitting on the Rocks. Raven and Kestral flew passed as we watched the sea. On the way back to the car we found a couple of Chough which are always nice to see along with a wren and some Stonechats. While watching these birds I noticed a funny looking crow, which on closer inspection turned out to be a fine looking Hooded Crow.
Ruff at Valley
On Leaving The Range we drove round to Valley where we planned to visit the Alaw Estuary at high tide. Unfortunately the tide was very high and most birds were very distant. That said there were good numbers of Dunlin and Ringed Plover Roosting on the banks. Our highlight was driving into Valley were there is a flooded field which often contains the odd gull. As we drove past John noticed a wader in the field which turned out to be a very nice Ruff. I hadn’t realise that Ruff’s were actually quite uncommon on Anglesey.
Our next stop was the foreshore at Abergwyngregyn were we went to look at the gull roost in amongst the many Common Gulls, Herring, Lesser Black Back, Great Black Back and Black Headed Gulls was one Mediterranean Gull.
We also found some wigeon and a very small looking Whimbrel along with a nice cormorant.
Cormorant at Aber
Med Gull at Aber
Green Sandpiper at Morfa Madryn
The final visit was to Morfa Madryn where there were some excellent bird on the sea there were good numbers of Goosander, Merganser and Great crested Grebe plus a few Common Scoters. The Oystercatcher Roost is building up very nicely as well. The best birds here was a very smart Green Sandpiper which was in the first lagoon. Other good birds were two Greenshank, a good few Redshanks and a single Spotted Redshank. We even picked up a Common Sandpiper as we left. This was a really excellent birding day
