One hell of a morning..

Lesser whitethroat

Studying at Bangor university was a very good choice of mine and I would recommend it to anyone if thinking of somewhere to study.. I have settled in extremely well.. Been lucky enough to meet all the birders in North wales and am now great friends with all.. Met some life-long friends like Alex, conquered my once 'fear of trains'' and now know the best sites in North wales for most species.. Most of all, I am now in-undated with texts if a rarity turns up somewhere, or any scarcities that are around.. What I am about to tell you is just what I am talking about..

Many of you have probably visited the Great orme in Llandudno for various reasons.. In a birder's eye, it is a fantastic place for birding, especially in the spring.. So, on Thursday 22nd April a Corncrake was found on the orme by the limestone pavement by Marc buzzard - cracking birder! I couldn't believe it when I got at least 5 texts from several people telling me that there was a Corncrake on the bluddy orme.. I was still in bed at this point.. Unfortunately I was unable to twitch this bird as I had 3 lectures and a field trip in the afternoon that was essential.. Funnily enough the bird was only seen during a few hours of the morning.. I am pretty sure that I would have connected with the bird if I had have twitched it in the morning, oh well.. The Isle of Mull for me in June...

After realising that there could be anything up there, whether it be grounded migrants or 'vis-mig', this was too much to miss..

Early the next day on the morning of Friday 23rd, I was up at 4:45am and on the 5:40am train from Bangor to Llandudno junction, a quick change of trains and I arrived at Llandudno at 6:20am.. A brisk powerwalk through Llandudno, onto the promenade, up the side of the orme and I was on top near the cemetery for 6:50am.. Now, what have we here.... There were birds more or less in every direction....

Lesser whitethroat

Birds encountered during the morning - 6:50am - 9:00am..

10 Fulmar {on the cliffs}
1 Buzzard {over high north}
5 Sandwich terns {offshore}
1 Swift {heading towards Cowny}
3 Sand martin {high over}
15+ Swallow {high over}
5 House martin {high over}
60+ Meadow pipit {passing through all the time}
1 Tree pipit {over}
40+ Wheatear {grounded migrants}
1 Chiffchaff {grounded migrant}
1 Chough {flew through}
20+ Lesser redpoll {high over}
5 Siskin {high over}
1 Golden plover {passing through on limestone pavement}

During the 2 hours and 10 minutes that I was up on the Orme I had 2 yearticks which were Swift and Tree pipit.. A fantastic morning's birding if you ask me.. Oh, and no Corncrake by the way... Must have moved on overnight...

Seeing as though I had had a great morning's birding on the Great orme, I headed on down and called in at Conwy RSPB...

Lesser whitethroat

Birds seen here included:

2 Common sandpipers,
30+ White wagtail,
1 Yellow wagtail, {yeartick}
2 Lesser whitethroat, {yeartick}
1 Common whitethroat, {yeartick}
5 Sedge warbler, {yeartick}
3 Reed warbler, {yeartick}

Sedge warbler

2 yearticks on the Great orme and 5 yearticks at Conwy RSPB, that was enough for me as at this point I was flagging as I had been up since 4:45am.. Yearlist total - 189!!

The essential field trip that I mentioned was a walk around Newborough forest on Anglesey, which revealed another yeartick. A Grasshopper warbler was reeling it's head off near a dune slack... Brief views... Yearlist 190!!! What a day!!!!