North Wales

Herring gull, Rhyl Harbour

Woolston Eyes is having a purple patch with the penduline tit still playing hide and seek, the arrival of bittern and black-necked grebes and first thing a report of a ferruginous duck. I decided to head the other way so's not to spoil anyone's birdwatching. I've been having dreams about seawatching and felt the need for an excursion after a week's feeling ropey so I headed out to Colwyn Bay.

Colwyn Bay Pier 

It was a splendid, sunny Spring day. The wind had an edge but not unpleasantly so. Arriving at Colwyn Bay I ducked through the underpass and straight onto the pier. I have to say, whoever chose the colour scheme for the pier is a genius, the contrast between the ice cream buff and pink against the blues and greys of the Irish Sea is spot on. It was high tide, just right for seawatching.

Cormorant

Herring gulls and handfuls of black-headed gulls wheeled about. Cormorants sat on buoys. I quickly got my eye in on the seawatching. The high tide had done its work, hundreds of common scoters were small black shapes on the water instead of tiny black shapes on the water. There was a lot of preening and bathing going on out there and every so often a bird would rise on the water and flap its wings. It was too much to hope that one would conveniently have the white wing patch of a velvet scorer but it didn't stop me looking. A few groups drifted slightly closer, just close enough to be able to pick out the pale cheeks and brown plumage of the ducks, always outnumbered by black drakes. Every so often there'd be the white of a black-headed gull or a great crested grebe, one of which was in full breeding regalia.

The common scoters were small black shapes on the water instead of tiny black shapes on the water.

There was a huge congregation of rafts of scoters, a thousand or more birds, out opposite Old Colwyn so I walked along the beachfront thataway, scanning the rafts as I went. Most were very distant but I was getting good views of the birds about a quarter mile out. The distances involved in seawatching always amazes me. There was a bit of a kerfuffle with birds scuttling off the water and flying in slightly inshore as a couple of great black-backs passed by half a mile out. 

The further I walked the more I came to realise there were thousands of scoters out there.  I was very puzzled by a white and grey shape amongst the closest group of scoters until I'd taken a few steps further along and changed the angle of view and the bird became very obviously a black-headed gull. The occasional white flash was the wing panel on a great crested grebe as it flew low over the waves. A red-throated diver stood out as it flew by because of its pale underparts and plain wings.

I was about halfway between piers when a touch of white in a raft of scoters caught my eye. I expected it would turn out to be another grebe or gull, or the splash of a scoter coming in to land. The raft was pretty far out and was riding a swell in the wave so I wasn't getting a steady clear view of the birds. The white caught the corner of my eye again, it wasn't a whole bird it was part of a bird and I knew whereabouts to look now. The raft dipped out of view then rose again and I spotted the coot-like white splash on the forehead and the impression of something reddish orange about the beak of a surf scooter. At that distance with binoculars that's as much detail I was getting but it was enough to identify it.

Common scoters

I'd walked perhaps a hundred yards when most of the scoters took flight, heading East and leaving hundreds of birds behind in relatively small rafts of a score or so birds each.

I'd already seen a couple of pied wagtails along the promenade and assumed there was another with the pair of rock pipits flying by the Arches Viaduct until it flew back and I saw it was a grey wagtail. Robins sang under the viaduct as I had one last scan of the sea then headed inland for the bus to Rhyl.

Horton's Nose 

I caught the 12 to Rhyl, got off in Kimmel Bay and walked along the harbour onto Horton's Nose. The tide was still high but was showing hints of the ebb and the turnstones on the jetties were starting to fidget. I was hoping for a sighting of the black redstart that's been here for a while so I had a slow meander about. The only small birds I could find were three stonechats, a pair and a male that wasn't for being chased off far. Every so often they'd fly up onto a fence post, the males would tussle then they'd disappear into the grass. By my second circuit round the interloper had finally taken the hint and was feeding in the open ground away from the fence.

The tide began to ebb, I had to duck as a flock of turnstones flew out to shore and redshanks and curlews started feeding on the exposed mud on the river. I took this as a hint to head for my train home past the marine lake with the black swan amongst the herd of mute swans and the noisy flock of oystercatchers on the island.

Rhyl Harbour 

I didn't have long to wait for the train and struck lucky with the bus home. The cat assumed I'd been to Pennington Flash.

Rhyl Marine Lake