Wales Break Day 2 : Cemlyn Bay : 12th May 2011
Cemlyn Bay
We met a chap at South Stack who told us that we had to go to Cemlyn Bay to see the Terns that breed there. This was on our list of places to go but with a strong recommendation we decided we would head there from South Stack. Cemlyn Bay is a small bay with a shingle beach. The beach rises up to a ridge that runs the length of the bay and behind this is a freshwater lagoon with two islands. On these islands Arctic, Common and Sandwich Terns all nest. There are lots of other birds there as well (sometimes Roseate Terns) but these are the main attraction. There is parking at either end of the bay and you have to walk along the shingle below the horizon so as not to disturb the birds (it is marked out to help you keep clear)
On the way there we saw a field with around 25 or so of what we initially took to be Curlew but we spoke to the local warden and he said (after looking at some rather distant pictures I had taken) that they were actually Whimbrel – a large flock of which had been in the area on their migration north. At the lagoon itself you can see lots of terns coming and going with food while others stay on the nests’ You can see them go out to sea and come back in over your head with sand eels etc. -presumably to feed their mates since there didn’t seem to be any hatched yet. There are also other birds around the lagoon.
Bird List
(including birds seen around the environs of the site as well as the site itself.)
| Species | Count |
|---|---|
| Arctic Tern | 200 |
| Black-headed Gull | 100 |
| Common Tern | 200 |
| Cormorant | 1 |
| Gannet | 4 |
| Oystercatcher | 4 |
| Rock Dove / Feral Pigeon | 1 |
| Sandwich Tern | 200 |
| Shelduck | 2 |
| Whimbrel | 25 |
Map of the Site : Cemlyn Bay