Another year, another trip to Bardsey Bird Observatory, located on a quiet island just off North wales- It’s one of my favourite places to visit.
Myself and good friend Josie Hewitt, went for a week in September. We were hoping for some decent migrants to turn up and we weren’t disappointed! Having arrived on the Saturday, we dumped our stuff and headed straight out along the mountain the see what we could spot: within half an hour of wandering we flushed a Wryneck! After watching it showing itself really on the top of a tree, it disappeared and we continued onwards. Other highlights of the week was a Melodious Warbler which had been hanging around the Obs garden for a couple of weeks. The biggest stand out for me
The biggest stand out for me of the week was the waders! I do have a passion for waders as they are amazing birds and truly fascinating. The birds were very confiding and with some good light and great location – I managed to get some nice shots.
Another joy from the week for being able to ring some waders with the warden Steve, and being able to do one thing I love to do whilst out birding: reading rings! I managed to read 2 Ringed Plover rings and 2 Dunlin rings along with a very interesting Turnstone ring, overall not a bad haul for laying on your stomach in seaweed trying to read rings. It was a bit unfortunate that I couldn’t read all the digits of the Turnstone ring with only the first 3 being visible and the last two obsecured no matter where it moved to: the bird is a migrant and know where it’s from (I won’t mention as not wanting to ruin potential posts from Bardsey BBFO) but will edit once something is published.
Dan Rouse 