Cader Idris is just a pimple!
(Sorry, couldn't resist)
I have just got home from a 4 day trip to wales,based near Dolgellau, me and my mate had a productive time
On our arrival we decided to spend the first evening exploring the local Mawdach trail,on the river at the start of the trail we had dipper,red breasted merganser and grey wagtail as we walked along we had tree pipit,linnet willow warbler and chiffchaff however we then spent about an hour trying to get a view of two reeling grasshopper warblers without success.
the next day despite a dodgy weather forecast we headed to ynis-hir where we had great views of wood warbler, pied and spotted flycatcher a cracking male common redstart singing his head off overlooking the estuary we saw osprey and raven in the afternoon despite the rain we managed to find a rather bedraggled red kite
the next day we headed north to angelsey we visited south stack where we had great views of chough, raven, puffin guillimot,razorbill,fulmar and kittiwake after a few very enjoyable hours we headed to cemlyn bay tern colony where we saw artic,common and sandwich tern i particularly enjoyed watching an artic tern offering his mate a fish with a little dance although she was having none of it. Whilst trying to decide what to do next the very helpful lady looking after the terns suggested we try puffin island down the coast we eventually found where she meant and as we scanned the water were rewarded with views of my first black guillimot another puffin and a dolphin.
On returning back to base we decided to have another crack at the groppers we returned to the previous spot and once again heard them reeling away a movement in a bush drew my attention so i put the scope on it nothing and then as i was about to move away it flew right into my scope view and sat there singing for a good ten minutes not only that but halfway through it turned round and gave a great view of it's beautiful tail not bad for my first ever views.
the final day we decided to stay local and had a bit of a climb up cader idris the woods at the bottom produced pied flycatcher, wood warbler and cuckoo and the stream dipper.However despite pounding the hills of suffolk it soon became apparent how unfit we were so we abandoned our attempt on the summit some way from the top, about ten metres above the tree line, and just scanned the wonderful views being rewarded with views of what seemed like our 50th buzzard of the trip,they are everywhere.
the final evening had us heading further along the mawdach trail to an area we fancied for the elusive nightjar, i've heard them loads in suffolk but have yet to catch a glimpse, the attempt started well with great views of a barn owl and as night fell the nightjars did indeed start to call with me and my mate congratulating ourselves on our fieldcraft however things went downhill fast as once again the nightjars failed to fly,i beleive they hate me, and then the midges which up to that point had only been eating us alive stepped up there game and went for the kill even the plentiful bats couldn't save us.
all in all despite the midges and the crazy drivers a great trip with 99 species seen a hundred if you count the lapwing i saw just over the border in england 7 of them lifers!
ironically as we arrived back in hadleigh suffolk we had great views of a red kite being mobbed by a couple of crows,this being the species we had a bit trouble with in wales,we only saw 2
cheers
I take it you're an octogenarian Paul?
Cader Idris is just a pimple!
(Sorry, couldn't resist)
[QUOTE=halftwo;1211067]I take it you're an octogenarian Paul?
Cader Idris is just a pimple!
(Sorry, couldn't resist)[/QUOTE]
the octogenarians were racing past us,by this point between us we had a bad knee,bad back and a dodgy neck and amazingly for wales sunburn
cheers