EARLY MORNING VISIT TO WORLD'S END MOORLAND - TRANSFER TO HOTEL IN TREFRIW WITH STOPS AT - BOD PETRYAL COUNTRY PARK - LLAN BRENIG RESERVOIR
WEATHER: cloudy all day with some short sunny spells, rain for most of the late afternoon. Top temp 19C
I said we had an early start this morning and I meant it, we met in the foyer of the hotel at 4:30am!!!!, it was 5am when we arrived at a traditional site where BLACK GROUSE lek at Worlds End. We were not disappointed , seven males were strutting their stuff, squaring up to one another and dancing to and fro in unison. It was quite comical to watch at times, and sometimes three birds would get into a ruckus.
hand held phone shot of some of the Black Grouse, taken to show you what the distance from the car they were
We could not get out of the car in fear of flushing the grouse, so we watched for 30 minutes and then drove further down the road, then I got out and oops!! they all flew off, doh!!
The next two hours were taken up with various stops further into the moorland, we also spent a good hour near a pine woodland, we had a great time and saw some fantastic birds. At least four Whinchats were singing from their territories, as did Chiffchaffs, Willow Warblers, Blackcaps, Siskins, also Robins, Wrens, Song Thrush and Blackbirds.
the road leading down to the pine woodfs at Worlds End
We had seen a flock of 14 Crossbills fly over earlier and Debbie located at least four of them in one of the pines. A Cuckoo was calling all the time but it never came near us and we never got to see it. A lone Buzzard was the only raptor seen, we heard a distant Curlew calling at one point.
a record shot of one of the Crossbills
On the way back up through the moorland we discovered that six of the Black Grouse had returned to the lekking area, this time I was prepeared and managed to phone-scope from within the car, we also saw a Red Grouse in flight on the other side of the road.
Black Grouse, ready for a fight
We stopped to watch Northern Wheatears at the grassy area, we saw Song Thrush and Mistle Thrush, lots of Jackdaws and Collared Doves on the way back to breakfast.
After our 'all-you-can-eat' breakfast we wobbled back to our rooms to gather our things in preparation for our transfer to Trefriw near Betws-y-Coed. We planned two stops along the way and both proved to be very successful.
A woodland country park not far from Ruthin was our first stop, a place recommended to me by David Jones alittle while back. The target bird was Crossbill which we had already seen but another look never hurts does it? We parked the car and walked all of 50 meters before we found our first Crossbill, it was a stunning Red male. A dozen more were flitting about in the pines and sat nicely for us.
a better shot of a young male Crossbil
Birds song rang out from all directions we quickly found Siskins, Spotted Flycatcher, Chiffchaff and a Pied Flycatcher made a brief showing. Goldcrests called too as did a lot of common species. We could find a Blackcap or a Wren but both sang from the dense vegetation.
Grey Wagtail on a picnic bench in the car park at Bod Petryal
Around the pool area we bumped into a noisy family party of Goldcrests and more Siskins. We were directed to a place where a guy had seen Wood Warbler earlier this morning but we never heard a peep or a tweet and the bird did not show up. A Grey Wagtail was added to the day list.
Moving on we drove the large Reservoir called Llan Brenig, famous for its breeding Ospreys which was our next target species. After some 'google-maps' confusion we arrived 20 mintes later than expected!!
some nice colour at the feeders - Siskins and Goldfinch
Apparently the female had mated with a young 'pretender' and was sitting on 3 eggs until the regular male showed up two weeks later. They have a web-cam on the nest and watched the male turf out the interloper and destroy the eggs.
a distant record shot of the male Osprey
So now, there are two new eggs and are a tad late in hatching due to the confusion! Before we went down to viewing area we watched the bird feeders around the main lodge where we saw Redpoll, Siskin, Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Blue and Great Tits. We had lunch in the cafe before walking down to the Osprey Centre to watch these super-fishers.
Along the way we had a great time watching Willow Warblers feeding young in two road-side nest, Tree Pipit on the wires, more Redpoll sightings including a superb 'pink' coloured male found by Debbie.
Willow Warbler with food for the chicks
After a second coffee in the cafe we made our exit, it had a been a wonderful visit to this iconic reserve managed for Ospreys but a great beneift to all types of wildlife.
a female Redpoll - I couldn't get a picture of the very pink male
one last picture of the bird of the day - Black Grouse
It was 4pm when we left Brenig and about 30 minutes later we arrived at our hotel having driven through the crowed masses in Betws-y-Coed. All our rooms overlook the River Conwy and the grass meadows that surround it. The tide was high but receding, we saw a few species from the rooms, we never went for a walk as it was raining and we had all been up since 4am!! Good-night to you all.