Scouting for gulls: Conwy’s rare visitor from the Black Sea coast

Bird Notes columnist Julian Hughes of RSPB Conwy reveals the three rarities spotted in the past week and outlines where to go birding in the coming days

Andrew Forgrave

23:48, 15 MAY 2017

I was doing a waterbird survey on Saturday when local birder Marc Hughes sent a photo to my phone from the other end of RSPB Conwy reserve. 

His hunch was that he’d found a Caspian Gull , but he wanted a better view. And a second opinion. 

The photo looked good, and in the flesh it had a lot going for it as a Caspian Gull.

Identification requires a combination of features, but we remained slightly doubtful because the bill was not the colour we expected.

It was a big call, as it would only be the second ever seen in North Wales, and May is a surprising month to see one.

Marc grabbed a few more photos on his phone, and I scanned through gull pictures on the internet on mine.

When this chunky seabird spread its wings and flew, we became even more convinced that this was a Caspian Gull, but it circled high and disappeared towards Colwyn Bay , having been seen by just five people. 

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Group of five cattle egrets on Anglesey is 'unprecedented in Wales'

Bird Notes columnist Julian Hughes of RSPB Conwy reveals what birds have been spotted in the past week and where to go birding in the coming days

If you have time off work this week, it’s an ideal time for some mid-winter birdwatching, especially as the weather forecast is reasonable.

Birders who keep a year-list will be totting up their counts for 2016 and preparing to return to zero on Sunday morning.

If you fancy a bracing sea-cliff walk, watching Choughs hang in the wind, take a trip to Anglesey’s RSPB South Stack ; these specialist crows even come and hang on the feeders outside the café window!

Wetlands are good places to find a gathering of birds. Burton Mere Wetlands and RSPB Conwy are well worth a visit, especially in the afternoons when birds come into roost: geese at Burton Mere and Starlings at Conwy .

North Wales Wildlife Trust has some terrific nature reserves, with The Spinnies just east of Bangor good during the winter, especially on an incoming tide.



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Red-flanked Bluetail is another spectacular find for Llandudno's Great Orme

19:15, 11 Oct 2016

By Andrew Forgrave

 

Bird Notes columnist Julian Hughes of RSPB Conwy reveals what birds have been spotted in the past week and where to go birding in the coming days

 

When I was a young birder, a few birds shone colourfully from my first European bird book.

One didn’t just look amazing, it had a descriptive name that spoke of the Russian taiga: Red-flanked Bluetail.

But this piece of exotica was way out of my league: its nesting grounds lay behind the Iron Curtain and the handful ever to be seen in Britain were on remote Scottish islands.

But through the 1980s, their breeding range extended west into Finland, and then a friend found one in Dorset, and thousands of birdwatchers went to see this semi-mythical bird.

Bluetails have become more frequent visitors to Britain’s shores since that 1993 mega-star, with typically five each autumn.

Wales is not well-placed to find birds from the east, with just three previous Bluetail records, two of which were on Bardsey Island.

So, one found in a garden above Llandudno’s West Shore late on Monday afternoon drew an appreciative crowd, as it fed busily in the branches of a Sycamore. 

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Rare Booted Warbler causes a flap on the Great Orme

23:34, 3 Oct 2016

Updated 23:35, 3 Oct 2016

By Andrew Forgrave

 

Bird Notes columnist Julian Hughes of RSPB Conwy reveals what birds have been spotted in the past week and where to go birding in the coming days 

Russian bird pays a surprise visit

I couldn’t find anything more unusual, but early visitors to the Orme on Monday did – a Booted Warbler.

This unremarkable-looking songbird from Russia should have been on its way to India for the winter.

There have only been two previous sightings of the species in North Wales, both on Bardsey, so this was an excellent find.

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