Llandudno

The Little Orme from the Great Orme

I've been intending to visit Llandudno and the Great Orme all year but just haven't got round to it. I usually aim for early Summer when there's a good chance of choughs on the summit and auks out in the bay. Anyway, I've left it late so there's no trams and the bus from the station only takes you to the bottom of the hill at Tyn-y-Coed. The lure was a Lapland bunting that's been on the summit for the past few days, with a chance of snow bunting as well as a couple have been reported over the past week. [Spoiler: I didn't see either.]

I had to change at Llandudno Junction on the way in. Seeing as there was a thirty minute wait for the Llandudno train I wandered over to the bridge over the river to see what was about. Lowish tide so nothing was very close. A lot of redshanks on the mud, with oystercatchers further out with mallards and shelduck. A pair of red-breasted mergansers worked their way along one of the channels. Conwy RSPB reserve's a short walk upstream but I didn't have time for a look round today.

A bracing walk up the steep first stretch of the road from the bus stop gave me my first couple of pairs of stonechats and a small flock of meadow pipits. There were small numbers of goldfinches, blackbirds and mistle thrushes in the trees. A large flock of jackdaws were making a racket about the escarpment just before the Halfway tram station.

Up top crows, herring gulls and jackdaws were the most obvious birds, with small flocks of meadow pipits, linnets and goldfinches working the scrub. Also a few more stonechats and a couple of robins.

An unfamiliar call attracted my attention, something like a reed bunting but softer, deeper and a little sadder. Whatever was calling worked its way down one of the grassy slopes and then decided to shut up as it approached some gorse bushes. Try as I might I couldn't pick it up. Referring to Xeno-canto I found the call was very likely to be a Lapland bunting. So I've probably heard one but that's not good enough for me to claim it as a lifer. Ah well.

Back down on the promenade I spent a while doing a bit of seawatching. The beach was full of jackdaws rummaging through the seaweed brought in on the tide. Far out I could see herring gulls, cormorants and shags shuttling between the wind farm and the Little Orme. Closer in the only birds on the water were two great black-backs and a great crested grebe.

And a straight trip back home. For the second time this week all the trains ran more or less on time, too!