I'm afraid not Brandon although I have a feeling who you did speak to. I was on the Little Orme only but managed to get onto 4 Little Terns which came my way from the point, as i'd had a tip-off from a birder at the point!
In terms of seawatching the point is good as you can sit in a nice warm car with scope on the window, music on the radio etc but it is only just above sea-level. The orme just puts you that little bit further into the sea and with a little bit of altitude making the distant birds easier to see as they don't disappear behind too many troughs in the rolling waves.
Cheers. Henry.

we heard about the balearic shears from a chap on the point on saturday that wasn't you by any chance was it! We never got to see them though! We were trying to count the sandwich terns that had collected on the rocks nearby.

Hi Brandon, you need to be about a month earlier for auks still at nest sites

Oh,and for anyone needing the loo at South Stack, at least in Summer, there are public ones half way up the road between the carparks. May be closed in winter

Hi Brandon,

Note that there are no toilets at South Stack apart from the ones in the privately owned cafe up the hill.

Also no toilets at Cemlyn Lagoon. Useful leaflet on the reserve at:-

Cemlyn Reserve

The Western car park is nearer to the best viewpoint.

PS check the tide times as there is no access from this car park one hour either side of high tide.

Best of luck.

Gary

-- Edited by Gary Marland on Saturday 8th of August 2009 04:51:52 PM

Hi Brandon

Henry is correct with his viewing location for the BGs but without a doubt the best place to view them is from the Holyhead Millenium footbridge - indeed up to a couple of years ago the AA used to have a sign pointing up Market St to the car park for the "Black Guillemots". There are two ways to access the bridge either drive up Market St (first on left past the war memorial) and park there free for an hour or park on Victoria Street itself if you are early and walk to the bridge where you will see some steps going up to the walkway. Once you are on the bridge you have excellent views on both sides of the water in the harbour. You sometimes have to be patient as there are lots of nooks and cranies but you won't fail to see the birds. At the end of the A55 get in the left hand lane for the town centre - right hand lane takes you to the ferry terminal.

You should also have a look at the the Range which is just down the road from the end of the South Stack road towards Trearddor - it's an RSPB controlled area and the guys at South Stack will point you in the right direction - Good luck


-- Edited by sid ashton on Saturday 8th of August 2009 09:54:32 PM

We would love a little advice from anyone with experience of this area as to what we need for access and where we should go, in and around Anglesey. Area of main interest will be south stack, this is rspb site and we would love to know what kind of access is there for non rspb members as 3 of our group are non members (will we have to split up?) Also would love to see the 2 Black Guillemots where ever they are! Any help would be appreciated, we will be in Wales for a week from 16th aug onward.

called in at Conway on the way back from a weekend on the Llyn peninsula.

Pretty quiet - 1 Dunlin, 3 Common Sand, 30+ Black-tailed Godwit
Missed the 2 Greenshank which were hiding somewhere.

Long weekend staying near Lligwy beach Fri 25th - Mon 28th July

Main things of note:

Sun 27th - wet am, cool,windy,dry pm
Point Lynas (pm):
2 Black Guillemots in cove - didn't realise they got this far round the coast
30+ diving Gannets close inshore with lots of Porpoises and a few Common Dolphins harrassing presumably a large shoal of fish - great spectacle !
3 Manx Shearwaters
3 Guillemots

Lligwy Beach:
2 Whimbrel flew west
Grey Seal

Mon 28th - warm, sunny
Moelfre:
a few Kittiwakes, Shags, and Cormorants with Herring Gulls on island

Sandwich Terns all round coast

Spent the afternoon between the Little Orme and Rhos-on-Sea and of note had 5 Whimbrel over Penrhyn beach, a Rock Pipit feeding a single chick, Kittiwake on the Little Orme cliffs, lots of House Martins around the houses on the LO. There were several Gannet out past the new wind farm and many Cormorant in and around the bay. With the receding tide there were 5 Turnstone on the rocky beach at Rhos, 3 in striking summer plumage plus the usual Curlew, Redshanks and Oystercatchers.

Given that a 10m tide was predicted a little disappointed not to find Manxies at any stage during the afternoon.

Spent 5 days in Wales, stayed in Dollgellau. Went to Conwy in the pouring rain, didn't really see much of note (probably because I couldn't see through the rain!!).

Ynis-Hir - spent a sunny morning walking round all the hides. Had good views of a Spotted Flycather fledgling sitting on a barbed wire fence, still being fed by a parent. The bird I really wanted to see here was the Redstart as I'd never seen one before. About 5 minutes into our walk to the first hide, one came and sat on a tree trunk next to the path as if to say "Here I am" and then flew a bit further away and sat ina small sapling for 10 minutes allowing me to get a good view with the bins and a couple of photos. Lovely to see Swallows nesting in nearly all if the hides, not bothered by all the birders traipsing in and out all day. Other birds of note were an Osprey and a Red Kite passing over, Siskin, Coal Tit, Nuthatch, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Reed & Sedge Warblers, loads of Reed Bunting, and an Egret on the estuary. Plenty of grey squirrels too including one sat up in a tree making funny grunting & squeaking noises which I had never heard before.

Visited the Dyfi Osprey Project just south of Machynlleth - got wonderful views of Willow Warbler which was nesting just below the newly buit hide - lots of trips in with food and out with faecal sacs and they kindly sat on the fence too for a closer look. Also saw a Bank Vole (my first which I was very excited about!!!) and the Osprey itself appeared just before we moved on. Also heard a Cuckoo.

Last place I wanted to mention was the forestry commission reserve of Nant Yr Arian. I initially wanted to visit Gigrin Farm to see the Red Kites being fed but it was too far from where we were staying. I was then told about this place where they also feed kites. What an incredible site!!! The feeding is at 3pm bt the birds began to gather in the sky some 40 mintues before, the numbers building until feeding time when there must have been 150 birds. All were Red Kites apart from one Buzzard. It's a beautiful setting with the food being put out on a grassy bank on the side of a small lake surrounded by beautiful pine trees. Unfortunately we didn't have time to walk round the rest of the site to investigate further.

I was wonderfully surprised by how many Red Kites there are in that area. I had hoped to see one at least (aside from the feeding site) but we must have seen 20 or so, everytime we drove somewhere we would look up in the sky and see another kite! One actually dived down to the side of the road about 20 metres in front of my car which was somewhat disconcerting (I didn't hit it by the way - not sure what it was doing dropping down so close to moving vehicles but it emerged unscathed!!!!).

A little trip up to Anglesey gave us excellent views of Puffins, Razorbills, Guillimots, Kittewakes and Fulmar, plus the usual Gulls and a few Chough at South Stack.

Quite a few good views of chicks being fed.

Off to Cemlyn Bay for Sandwich, Common and Artic Terns before rain stopped play.
Again, quite a few good views of chicks being fed.

No time and too much rain to go and have a look at Fedr Fawr but a good time anyway.

On the way home we stopped off at Cors Dyfi to see the Ospreys.

Excellent day!

Hi Sid,

You may well be right - I wasn't sure when they stop churring, hence the question mark. I normally look/listen for them late May/early June. Yesterday wasn't a particularly good night as there was some rain and mist. A better night might produce more birds.

Cheers
Jonathan

Me and warfy are currently sunbathing on black rocks beach. No sign of royal tern by 1140hrs.

Royal Tern at Black Rock Sands tonight, previosly at Abersoch, and before that Eire....

Had an excellent trip to North Wales and Angelsey - thanks for all the pointers:

Little Terns on the way down at Gronant and a chat with the friendly wardens.

Black Guillemot, Ringed Plover and Raven at the old fish quay in Holyhead - at least four in total and excellent views at 7.15am...

Then work intervened for a few hours until my half days leave kicked in - next quick look at Inland Sea at 4 mile bridge - nothing much to report other than the Red Arrows doing a fly by into Valley and lots of blue trainer hawks.

South Stack was next with Puffins, Choughs and the normal stuff [didn't spot a Kittiwake though]

Then Rhoscolyn saw Shag offshore, Rock Pipits, Ravens and Choughs [at least another two pairs]. Also a Grey Seal dozing and two Stoats which flashed across the path then stuck their heads up for a look out of an old stone wall - and no I wasn't quick enough with the bloomin camera!

Quick 30 mins at Conway before they shut for excellent views of Sedge and Reed Warblers, buzzards, egrets, oystercatchers etc

Also had a flying visit to Cemlyn last week - really good views of Common, Artic, Sandwich and a solitary Roseate Tern along with Merganser off the beach

Like you Henry I have never been aware of a Tern colony at MM. From what I have seen at Cemlyn and Gronant the Terns tend to go for shingle beaches.

-- Edited by sid ashton on Monday 15th of June 2009 10:17:37 AM

First stop was Conwy rspb more than 300 canada geese here and 4 greylags,great crested grebes and tufted duck. herons and egrets just across the estuary and 6 buzzard .Lots of tit families about and several goldfinch and chaffinch.Reed and sedge warblers showing well, along with willow warbler ,whitethrote and chiffchaff. Curlew , oystercatcher,blacktailed godwit and lapwing also scattered around the reserve and a single knot.

Next stop was at morfa madryn where we were dissappointed to see the first hide had been vandlelised with loads of empty beer bottles left there(pitty they werent full) could have murdered a pint as the weather was hot. Very quiet at the reserve pied wags,3 little egret,swan,lapwings, warblers included sedge, willow,whitethrote.Biggest dissappointment was no tern collony maybe theyve found somewhere else with less predation from the herons.Also a good roost of oystercatchers at llanfairfechan.

Best till last was a walk up to aber falls for the redtarts and we wasnt dissappointed we saw 4 male and females which all showed very well .Also a few buzzards soaring on the thermals.

Late record:

Had a Red Kite circling low over a small patch of woodland next to the main road about 3 miles before you reach Bala on Monday 25th May

-- Edited by Steven Nelson on Sunday 7th of June 2009 11:02:49 AM

Pete

Without a doubt the best place to view the Black Guillemots is from the Millenium footbridge - indeed up to a couple of years ago the AA used to have a sign pointing up Market St to the car park for the "Black Guillemots". There are two ways to access the bridge either drive up Market St (first on left past the war memorial) and park there free for an hour or park on Victoria Street itself if you are early and walk to the bridge where you will see some steps going up to the walkway. Once you are on the bridge you have excellent views on both sides of the water in the harbour. You somestimes have to be patient as there are lots of nooks and cranies but you won't fail to see the birds. At the end of the A55 get in the left hand lane for the town centre - right hand lane takes you to the ferry terminal. Good luck.

Sid and Phil, is the best spot for the guillemots at the end of Turkey Shore Road to the east of the main harbour? I'll be there in just over a weeks time and am planning just about the same spots plus maybe the Inland Sea from 4 mile bridge - last time I was there there were interesting looking water birds out of visual range [no bins] and a sprawk that did a high speed flypast about twenty feet from me. Cheers, Peter

Early start this a.m. saw me arrive at Holyhead Harbour at 7.30ish - looked but couldn't find the Black Guillemots so moved onto South Stack.

The Stack was great, 4 Chough before I'd left the carpark, masses of M'pipits, Linnets and Stonechats, a Wheatear aswell along the cliff top path.

At Ellin's Tower good views of the usual stuff Guillemots, Razerbill, Kittiwakes and so on. Only the odd puffin though. The weather was calm and still, the sun shinning so sat down for a good long watch. Noted there was several Gannets, on the sea diving for fish, so got the scope on them. They put on a good show, but then the star birds for me turned up upto 35 Manx Shearwater joined in - some of the best views I've ever had, sitting on the sea, diving down and flying best all just beyond the light house. A brilliant start all before 9.00am.

Next back to Holyhead Harbour to try again for Black Guillemot, within minutes of parking the car same place as before two Black Guillemot were on the water.

Moved onto Cemlyn Bay next for Sandwich, Common, Arctic Terns, in amongst them was a Brent Goose! Good show by the terns feeding. Also on the bay was another single Balck Guillemot.

Then the bad news the wife phoned daughter poorly, home I was bound, not before a peak at Parkgate on the Dee, to pick up two Spoonbill and the usual Little Egrets - in the distant heat haze.

Home for 2.45 ready for the Doctors, she's fine, 'Slap Faced' virus would you believe. Great morning and relief the kids okay.

Another quick run through World end valley/moors - stunning Whinchats - first of the year for me plus lesser white throat, mippits - too windy for much else though!

Trip to Worlds End With Wigan RSPB Group
No sign of Black Grouse heard 1 calling distantly
Cracking views of a Male Hen Harrier also brief views of female in the distant
Red Kite passed through
also 2 Peregrines
4-6 Ravens
6+Buzzards
2 pr Stonechats with 1 Male singing which for me is a first
4 Kestrels


Cheers Jimmy:

Just got back from Worlds End or should that be the "end of the world" it was freezing for the first day of spring - arrived there at 06.45 and had to wait until 10.00 to see three Black Grouse heads and one full bird

Then over to Clocaenog forest - had to climb a whopping big hill to get to the Great Grey Shrike spot at Craig Bron Bonag - found that ok but alas no Goshawks. Three Ravens down the valley later. Nice to meet Mr Spencer and thanks for the push David.