Anglesey

A day trip out to Anglesey, mainly to Cemlyn Bay and South Stack, but first we stopped off at a place called Daresbury in Cheshire, its close to the motorway, to locate a Woodchat Shrike. On arriving and parking up, two Ring-necked Parakeets flew over, then we had a ten minute walk, along the canal path, to the Shrike location. Unfortunately the Shrike wasn’t showing on arrival, so whilst waiting we watched, Swallows, Magpie, Blackbird, Common Buzzard, Kestrel, Woodpigeon, Common Whitethroat. Our cut off point for the Shrike was 9am, we still had to travel over to Anglesey yet, but at 8:55am the shout went up, the Shrike had been re-located and was near the railway line, behind us, we had views, but they were distant, next stop Holyhead Harbour.

It was a quick call into the harbour, or first bird were Oystercatchers, these were not what we were looking for, it was a wait and it was only a fly thru, before settling at a distance, a single Black Guillemot, this was the only bird we saw, we also saw Rock Pipits here too, it then onto South Stack.

At South Stack, the first problem was finding a car parking space, took us about ten minutes to get one, second problem was the wind, but not to be discouraged off we went. We soon picked up our target bird here, the Red-billed Chough, eight birds in total. Along the cliff top we encountered Stonechats, Meadow Pipits, Fulmars, Herring Gulls, Lesser Black backed Gulls, Shag, Kittiwakes, and a very active and noisy young Peregrine Falcon, we sat down nearby watching this spectacle and taking photos. Final call of the day was at the tower, passing more Stonechats and Pied Wagtails on the way thru. From the tower, along the rock faces were Razorbills and Guillemots, out at sea, passing by, were Gannets, and Manx Shearwaters.

Our last call of the day was at Cemlyn Bay, for the terns, of course, it was not difficult to view and take photos, due to the high winds, but we managed four species of terns, namely, Arctic, Common, Roseate and Sandwich Terns

Today saw eight species added to the year list, see Italic Birds. Tally now 184/200 (92%)

Birds Seen Daresbury : Buzzard, Kestrel, Magpie, Mallard, Ring-necked Parakeet, Swallow, Whitethroat, Woodchat Shrike, Woodpigeon

Birds seen Holyhead : Black Guillemot, Oystercatcher, Rock Pipit

Birds seen South Stack : Black headed Gull, Chough, Fulmar, Gannet, Guillemot, Herring Gull Jackdaw, Lesser Black backed Gull, Manx Shearwater, Meadow Pipit, Oystercatcher, Peregrine, Pied Wagtail, Raven, Razorbill, Stonechat

Birds seen Cemlyn Bay : Arctic Tern, Black headed Gull, Common Tern, Dunlin, Herring Gull, Linnet, Oystercatcher, Pied Wagtail, Roseate Tern, Sandwich Tern

Red billed Chough

Peregrine Falcon

Sandwich Tern

Stonechat