Birthday Trip into N.Wales.

Twitcheruth · #1 (**permalink**) 16-01-12, 12:40 PM

An extended weekend away to celebrate my birthday began in bright sunshine with clear skies and a stopover at Kinmel Bay on the N.Wales coast,the temperature was only 6c but the sea was calm and flat and visibility was very good.

Turnstones were soon spotted and then good numbers of Sanderling,Oystercatchers,Redshank,Dunlin,Black-tailed Godwit,Curlew and Ringed Plover.

We continued along to the wooden viewing area from where we soon spotted 3 Snow Buntings joined by a nice male Greenfinch taking advantage of the seed that had been put down in the area.
Out to sea we saw Great-crested Grebe,Shelduck and a group of 11 Velvet Scoters were a nice spot and a super start to my special day!

We arrived at Rhos-on-Sea in good time for the hight tide at 1.00pm and walked along the promenade soon coming upon groups of roosting waders on the nearby large rocks of the coastal defences.

Ringed Plovers,Dunlin and Turnstones were present in good numbers along with at least 3 beautiful Purple Sandpipers,their colours showing nicely in the by now warm wintry sunshine!

Scanning the sea we saw good numbers of Great-crested Grebes,Eider ducks and a wonderful Red-throated Diver......it's bill tilted to the sky in classic pose!

After lunch we moved further along the coast and saw a group of Teal looking out of place at sea as well as Meadow Pipit and a nice lone Grey Plover at roost with some Oystercatchers on a rocky outcrop.

A great lunchtime venue!

After a very comfortable and warm overnight stay in our hotel and with a full Welsh breakfast inside us we headed out for a full day at RSPB Conwy.

The weather was again cold and very frosty (in fact in shaded areas the frost remained all day!)but with warm sunshine and good visibility.

Walking amongst the low bushes,hedges and trees of the perimeter of the reserve we saw Bullfinches,Song Thrush,Dunnock,Robin,Wren and Blackbird all busily feeding while overhead a lone Little Egret flew.The usual Tits were all present along with a nice Siskin flock.

On the various pools were good numbers of Snipe along with Pochard,Tufted,Shelduck,3 stunning male Goldeneye and a nice female Red-breasted Merganser.

A pair of Mute Swans were displaying,copying each others movements with much head dipping in a beautiful feathered ballet.

While looking for the elusive Firecrests we saw an over-wintering Chiffchaff flitting through the tops of Elder trees......but sadly no sign of the Firecrests for us!

On the estuary itself were good numbers of Curlew,Redshank,Wigeon,Teal and more Shelduck.

Another fantastic sunshine day on the coast!

PeterB · #2 (**permalink**) 16-01-12, 12:59 PM

Great trip, nice pics. Glad you had a great birthday. Love the Plovers pose.

Little Sparrow · #3 (**permalink**) 16-01-12, 01:38 PM

Wow...what a brill Birthday treat Ruth! The images are all great especially the water reflection images!
You were lucky having such sunny albeit cold weather for your weekend away and that Hotel looks splendid!

A great report and pics, thanks for sharing your 'Birthday Trip', glad you had such a wonderful weekend.

Twitcheruth · #4 (**permalink**) 16-01-12, 02:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PeterB

Great trip, nice pics. Glad you had a great birthday. Love the Plovers pose.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Little Sparrow

Wow...what a brill Birthday treat Ruth! The images are all great especially the water reflection images!
You were lucky having such sunny albeit cold weather for your weekend away and that Hotel looks splendid!

A great report and pics, thanks for sharing your 'Birthday Trip', glad you had such a wonderful weekend.

Thanks Peter and Judith,glad you enjoyed reading about my birthday trip.
Those waders were all good little posers!!! lol

Goldmaxx · #5 (**permalink**) 16-01-12, 04:05 PM

Great Pics Ruth, glad you had a great time. I was rather disappointed with my trip to Conwy, I saw much more in the Estuary than on the reserve, maybe I was just unlucky.