Sunday 21 February 2010

Kinmel Bay - Black start.....

Escape from Shropshire is not impossible but with the prospect of Mordor or Crane Hunts as local options...... No question, it had to be the snow covered single lane corridor of liberation to some decent birds - the A55 to North Wales!






The target was Snow Buntings plus undoubtedly a few year ticks? Yvonne had her camera packed (prospect of lifer) too, question was - would they show?

A pretty good omen for the day - the first bird seen - within seconds of leaving the car was a Black Redstart!






A flighty little so and so, prone to completely disappearing but every now and then popping up on one of the fence posts....








(Presumably) this same bird has been reported several times a 'female/juv' - it looked to me with the dark ash grey colouration more like a juv male!






Appears to be a white wing patch developing too plus a noticeably darker shade to the head....








It wasn't long before the Snow Buntings put in a an appearance - 4 of them including a very nice male. Even more flighty than the Blackstart though and two brief glimpses - near the rivermouth and later further along the beach were all we got that morning!






I really like the thought of capturing them feeding on the wild grass seeds, so much more appealing than on the deck!

No great numbers of waders but Sanderling, Turnstone, Ringed Plover, Redshank and numerous Oystercatcher were present on the beach/estuary mud. A pair of Goosander were on the river mouth.

We headed down the coast to Pensarn.....