North Wales

On Saturday (08/03) I was joined by Jon & Kirsty Philpott. We started off ludicrously early and made our way to 'World's End', a large expanse of moorland habitat between Wrexham and Llangollen. Jon & Kirsty had been there relatively recently with Dave and had sussed out a couple of excellent spots for lekking Black Grouse. We weren't to be disappointed seeing in total around 31 birds altogether, from 3 leks. One lek in particular was incredibly close and we enjoyed fabulous views from the car together with their eerie and fascinating bubbling and hissing calls, it really was awesome to watch. (Jon kindly let me use his camera to get the shots below). We had the added bonus of a male Red Grouse close by too. 

We moved onto Llangollen thereafter to look for Dippers. We weren't to be disappointed, finding two birds along with a confiding Grey Wagtail.

We enjoyed these for a while before driving a further hour to Pensarn on the North Wales coast for the Surf Scoters. There had been up to 7 birds amongst the masses of Common Scoter in recent weeks. Our luck sadly was not in though despite there being several thousand Common Scoter on offer. Other birds noted here included several Red Throated Diver, Red Breasted Mergansers and good numbers of Great Crested Grebe.

We decided to then go along the coast to look for a Snow Bunting along the beach at Llandudno. Despite the stunning scenery, a nice pair of Stonechat and a Ringed Plover, there was very little else about and no sign of the Bunting.

So on to Rhos-on-Sea, an excellent spot for close views of resting waders on the sea defence boulders. We were in luck, getting great views of a single Purple Sandpiper. Below are iphone-scoped (bottom) and taken with Jon's camera (top).

Also present were several Turnstone and Dunlin, as well as a couple each of Shag and Cormorant offshore.

We went back to Pensarn, where I had another good scan, however it had become increasingly blustery and so we decided to start the long journey home. Was a real nice day out but a dam shame the Surfs failed to show, particularly when 5 were reported the next day!!! However that's birding, you've got to take the rough with the smooth!