Just back from four fun-filled family days in Rhyl, Nth Wales and managed to grab a few hours on the beach bird watching. I have two cousins that live in the area with their families, and through them I've made several friends, so I always look forwards to my trips there. I stay with David and his wife, Joe, and they live literally two streets away from the prom and beach. I've been going there for a few years now so they're well used to me popping off to do some bird watching for an hour or two each day. Luckily for me the weather stayed dry. All the usual birds were to be seen, Redshanks and Turnstones are guaranteed. I was hoping to see some Sandwich Terns, but had to make do with a group of six Great Crested Grebes bobbing about on the water. I also saw my first Curlew of the year, and although the pictures are poor, you can see how close he came to the prom wall.
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| Curlew |
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| plenty of gulls around in various stages of plumage |
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| Redshank |
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| Curlew |
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| Redshank |
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| Turnstones |
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| 90% sure this is a Rock Pipit, but feel free to correct me |
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| Huge population of House Sparrows in all the gardens along the sea front |
We made a brief visit to RSPB Conwy as well over the weekend. Nothing much of note there at the time, though they had an Osprey fly over two days previously. It's very child friendly there. Eleven year old Aimee enjoyed playing Bird Bingo, and some of the bird hides had windows low enough for two year old Jack to see out of. My cousins and their families are into Geocaching, so we found a cache that was nearby too. The mountains around here are still heavily covered in snow. Made quite a contrast against the green grass and trees.
I've attached a link to RSPB Conwy and Geocaching below.....
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| view from RSPB Conwy. Snowy mountains in the background |
Yesterday Joe and I took Jack to visit Joes friend, Katie and her two boys. It was one of those days that wasn't planned, but which turned into a great day. Very near to where Katie lives is Bodafon Farm. It's free to get in, has a steak restuarant, lots of children's toys, a playground, farm animals, and is also the base for the North Wales Bird Trust.
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| deer at Bodafon |
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| lamb at Bodafon |
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| one of many owls at Bodafon |
We all enjoyed our walk around the farm, even if we did get chased by some territorial geese. The owners immediately rounded the geese up and apologised to us. Apparently the geese have only just started acting like this, so they're looking into putting them in a new enclosure. They also mentioned dogs were actually allowed on site so long as they're kept on leads, so next time we visit we can bring David and Joes dog, Buster. We saw Red and Fallow deer, llamas, pigs, sheep, cows, horses and geese, ducks and chickens. The sheep have complete free range of the farm, so we had lots of encounters with ewes and lambs walking past us.
This is another place I would like to go back to, especially to learn more about the work the North Wales Bird Trust does. We saw some lovely owls, but most of them weren't native to the UK. However the NWBT is also the primary point of contact when it comes to rescuing owls and birds of prey in the North Wales area.
After the farm we done some more geocaching along the Llandudno prom, and I found my first one !! I'm now signed up on the Geocaching website. However whether or not I keep it up remains to be seen lol. What was important though, was that we all had a good day, even the boys.
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| James and Jack |
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Harri
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So a really lovely four days spent with friends and family. I'm going back mid May so will hopefully get some more photos of all of them, and possibly squeeze in a day visit to RSPB Conwy too.
Back at David and Joes, I had to take a photo of their pup, Buster. The last time I saw him was in January, and well, see for yourself how much he has grown........
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| Buster. Jan 2013 |
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| Buster. April 2013 |
The can of Fosters was obviously just for measuring purposes.............hic
Lastly, a big thanks to all my family and friends up there. You all make it so much harder for me to leave every time I visit. So a quick name check for you all.......David, Joe, Aimee, Jack, Karen, Dave, Melissa, Michael, Harrison, Brandon, Richard, Rachel, Katie, Steve, James, Harri, Paula, Chris, Rhi, Kieron, and to the two that I didn't see on this visit, Jen and Sharlotte, and the two puppys,
Buster and Keith................Big thanks and see you all next month X
I've written a little article on our website called Bird Spotting Locations in North Wales. It would be great if more knowledgeable people, like yourself or your readers on here, could comment and perhaps add more locations in the Guest Book bit at the bottom. Thanks in advance.
ReplyDelete(P.S. Love the Buster Pics)