May
the 4th [be with You] Star Wars Theme!
Well, the next morning at South Stack they were all back,
thousands of Guillemots and Razorbills. Mind you there was blatant cowardice on
view in the face of a Raven attack, which was embarrassing to watch. A poor
Guillemot was left lonely protecting briefly her egg from the raider as all of
the others quickly flew out onto the sea. The Raven had Guillemot egg for
breakfast. Such craven behaviour displayed by the auks! Sandwich Terns I
am sure, would have got together and beaten up the Raven but this one got away
with the bright blue egg easily.
A
long cycle to Cemlyn Bay next and a meeting with Dawn Wild, the reserve warden
for the chat and a spoken thanks for all the birds due to her and the other
conservation workers efforts there. Brilliant watching the Sandwich Tern's
courtship dance and there were thousands indeed on view here. A superb site
with its lagoon behind a shingle bank and islands for the nesting birds. An
interesting initiative was the use of lasers criss crossing the breeding area
to deter Grey Heron predating tern chicks. I wonder if it worked.
Another
incredible reserve on the North Anglesey coastline, I had first been here when
I took a party of Sixth Form students away from the council estate
Comprehensive school where I worked until 1989 for a Biology Field Week.
Together we did line transect studies of the plant communities, all part of
their A level biology work. Yellow-horned poppies and sea dock featured away
from the splash zone. The fact that there were thousands of birds was not lost
on everyone. “Oh, that's why Prezza wanted to come here!”
I
had also had a couple of new birds, lifers, here since then. An American Golden
Plover was nice to get, so distinctive by jizz and plumage amongst a flock of
Golden Plovers but the Sooty Tern of
July 2005 was incredible! A famous twitch in that year, the tern was
originally only accessible by a flotilla of boats made available at high cost
to each twitcher. With a friend, Steve Allcott, I arrived at the harbour to
hear a top ten twitcher, Steve Whitehouse announcing to the crowd that the bird
had not been seen that morning on The Skerries and that it was probably flying
through the Bay of Biscay! Now my friend Steve believed Whitehouse and so he
wanted to go back to his home in Wolverhampton depressed by the imminent dip.
My pleas over breakfast in a nearby café went unheard and so we drove all the
way back from Cemlyn to Wolverhampton. On arriving back home, news came out
that the Sooty Tern had been relocated and found at Cemlyn Bay. Great! Luckily,
another great friend, Ian Crutchley, picked me up and for the second time that
day I went to Cemlyn on Anglesey. Pushing our way through the masses of birders, we both had remarkably
close views of one of the most amazing terns I have ever seen, especially when
it flew over our heads to briefly go out over the bay. It was seen perched on
the islands, posturing at any of the non-interested terns nearby. What a bird!
As
a reward for the persistence in seeing this bird, Ian and I spent the evening
counting hundreds of Manx Shearwaters pass by over a mill pond flat Irish Sea.
Suddenly a shearwater went past larger than the Manx’s with a steadier flight.
Cory's! An exceedingly rare bird in Welsh waters.
To
Lynn Alaw I cycled and met Owen, the warden and shared chat with him and some
local fishermen, especially one named Hugh. A fabulous local Hugh with a
thousand stories, heard over a coffee and a welcome Twix. Camped by the Lynn
and enjoyed another comfortable night sheltered from the drizzle outside by a
few shrubby bushes.
Tickle My Feathers
No comments:
Post a Comment