Firecrest Failure!

Myself and Dave went to Conwy RSPB on Tuesday 27th. December hoping to see the 3 Firecrests that have been showing most days for the past 2 weeks. Sadly it wasnt to be although every other birder we spoke to seemed to have seen it! Oh well there's always the next time. We didnt focus on much else at the reserve but did see some Snipe and Curlew. On the way home we had a look at Llanddulas beach. As well as plenty of gulls we saw thousands of Common Scoter and several Goosanders and a Red throated Diver

Anglesey Trip

Rather than having a lie in on Sunday I went over to North Wales and Anglesey on Sunday 20th. November with David Evans for some birding. After a foggy start we arrived at Llandullas in beautiful sunshine and blue skies and went sea watching for the velvet scoters that were seen yesterday. Sadly the birds were far out in the bay and there appeared little chance of picking ou velvets amongst the thousands of Common Scoters that could be seen. We did see Red Throated Divers and Goosanders.
We then went to Anglesey in search of the Glossy Ibis seen on Malltraeth Marsh. No show but saw Whooper Swans, Greylag Geese, loads of Ravens and plenty of chipping Snipe. Then onto Llyn Penrhyn for some excellent views of the long staying Red Necked Grebe. We then went to the Alaw Estuary where we looked for the Lesser Yellowlegs. After a failed first attempt on which several birders, myself included tried to convince ourselves that a Greenshank was the said bird, we finally nailed it after a quick visit to South stack to watch the Choughs. We finished off the day at Llyn Coron and saw White Fronted Geese, Tundra Bean Geese but no Siberian Chiffchaff that was reported from there earlier in the day.
In all, an excellent day smashing our day list record with 68 species!