NORTH WALES DAYOUT

I set out early this morning with my son Dylan for a days birding in North Wales.We soon made are way down the A55 and I had stop to take a few photos of the Conwy Estuary as the sun came up, the views of Snowdonia were stunning.

Conwy Estuary and Snowdonia 

Conwy Castle

We soon arrived at Llanbedr-y-cennin and soon connected with five Hawfinch's around the churchyard.After a good hour a good number of birders had turned up to see these scarce birds when a Sparrowhawk flew through the churchyard and up to 11 Hawfinches appeared out of the conifers and flew west.I have never seen this number of Hawfinches at this site so they must be doing well in the area.

Hawfinch

Plenty of birders were around this morning

After great views of the Hawfinches we moved onto Penrhyn Bay where we caught up with a Twite that had joined up with a flock of Linnets on the beach.

Twite

Moving along the beach we walked up to the quarry at Little Orme where a Black Redstart showed really well along with a couple of Stonechats.

Stonechat

 Black Redstart

Looking down from the quarry to Angel bay the Grey seals which breed here every year were basking in the winter sun.

  Grey Seals

Other birds of note offshore were good numbers of Common Scoter and a Great Northern Diver.The Fulmars were showing really well in the quarry.

Fulmar

A quick call in at Pensarn beach on the way home but there was no sign of any Snow Buntings. Another cracking mornings birding with my son on the North Wales coast.

My son Dylan stood on the top quarry of the Little Orme

RIVACRE VALLEY LOCAL NATURE RESERVE

At last it has stopped raining and with the sun shining and clear blue skies I had a nice afternoons walk around my local nature reserve in Rivacre,Ellesmere port.The nature reserve used to be a huge outdoor swimming pool from 1934 until 1985.Due to indoor swimming facilities in the area the baths shut in 1981 and were demolished and filled in in 1985.

Rivacre Baths

The Rivacre is so named because of the Rivacre brook which runs through the area and it is known locally as Rivacre valley because of the beautiful valley through which the stream runs.

 Rivacre Valley stream

On arrival I soon connected with a stunning Kingfisher and up to 4 Grey wagtails were seen along the stream.

Kingfishers breed on the stream

Grey Wagtail

The area had a good variety of woodland birds which I managed to get a few photos of and a fly over Little Egret was a bonus,heading towards the River Mersey.

Two Great Spotted Woodpeckers were seen

 Robin

Nuthatch

 Song Thrush

Blackbird

Other birds of note were Sisken,Lesser redpoll and Bullfinch.