Saturday, 22 February 2014

Llay Slav Grebe

With Gem feeling under the weather birding was taking a back seat, but a quick out and back to see the Slavonian Grebe would at least allow us to get out of the house for a while and get a breath of fresh air.

The Sat Nav soon had us at Llay and then the directions from the North Wales Bird forum did the rest and had us bang on target.

We soon found the bird but as always on the opposite side from where we were, so a quick walk along the road and then into the field soon had us on the bank of the pool watching the Grebe, we even saw it catch a fish, and it even allowed me to get some shots.

Slavonian Grebe at Llay 






Sunday, 16 February 2014

Connah's Quay and Burton Mere

We went for the double today visiting Connah's Quay firstly followed by Burton Mere with lunch down at Burton Mere.

With a fine forecast we headed off with high hopes of some good birding and we were quite happy with our day out no lifers but just some good birds and nice surroundings, if you can ignore the power station at Connah's Quay although it does have a sort or rugged beauty,

Scattering a few seeds around the car park in the hope of attracting some close Twite action didn't quite go according to plan they came down just no where near our car oh well at least this time I was close enough for at least a record shot.

Twite at Connah's Quay


Moving up to the hide the tide was starting to come in allowing for some close up views of Redshank out on the mud.

Redshank Connah's Quay
Looking back in land a Peregrine was perched up on the pylons.

Moving down to the other end of the reserve a Little Egret was hunting by one of the channels.



And to end the list at Connah's Quay a Kingfisher was pointed out to us by the end screen/visitor centre


The plan was to then head for Burton Mere for lunch as Burton Mere's main hide/visitor centre can be quite packed, well so was Burton Mere down at Denal Lane, I was rather worried on a few occasions that my car was going to be hit, and Lesley even had to move my car forward at one point as one idiot had parked so close behind me if a car had parked in front of me I would have been stuck.
But apart from that it was a good idea and we managed to watch the Meadow Pipit feeding around us as we ate our lunch.



Sunday, 9 February 2014

Its All Twite

Today we headed off to Connahs Quay nature reserve after making the decision to join this was our first opportunity to pay the site a visit.

The main attraction for ourselves right now being the large flock of Twite that have moved in for the winter.

It didn't take too long to reach the reserve and we soon parked up at the Western hide over looking the Dee, we watched quite a large group of Redshank moving across mud looking for their lunch we even saw our first lamb of the year in the neighboring field.
Plenty of Teal, Curlew and Canada Geese were also on show with a few Shelduck thrown in for good measure.

Soon though the main attraction and a life tick for Lesley and me turned up with a flock of around 20 - 30 Twite arrived in the car park by the hide, and for Little Brown Jobs they don't look that bad, quite smart even. So after missing them at Flint Castle last year and plenty of other places we have finally gained the all important tick.

Redshank at Connahs Quay


It was then down to Flint castle to try and find the Black Redstart, but the news was very much negative when we arrived and even after a good hunt around I just couldn't find the bird any where.

But the Twite and reasonable weather more than made up for the no show.