Snow Buntings and North Wales : 23rd February 2016

Snow Buntings and North Wales : 23rd February 2016

A slot in the birding group schedule for this week merely said “north Wales” so it was a bit of a “decide on the hoof” day out. We started, though, at Pensarn where we at least got some Common Scoters but no Divers which was a bit of a disappointment. There were some Great Crested Grebes on the water and lotsof gulls but we never could quite find a definite Diver. The water was quite rough even though it was a mild and sunny day. A few of the group walked down the beach looking for Snow Buntings but with no luck. We next decided to go back down the road a bit to Kinmel Bay where we had more luck.

We drove back along the coastal road to Kinmel Bay and found the public parking on the promenade just behind the Asda car park that is famous for being the most likely place to find Snow Buntings in winter. We scanned the sea first for all those birds we hoped to see but with no greater luck that at Pensarn; again Common Scoter were there in smallish numbers. Looking along the beach we found Reed Bunting, Meadow Pipit and Skylark but all attempts to locate Snow Buntings were in vain until whilst talking about that very topic one flew right by us and was spotted by the most eagle-eyed of our group. It settled on the base of one of the little sand dunes between the pebble beach and the concrete retaining wall where the coastal walking path is (see below). It showed so well that we probably stood there watching it for about twenty minutes. This was a life tick and, given that there are only supposed to be a couple on the beach there, quite a bit of luck.

The group split up a bit after this and a couple of people went on to Little Orme where they got Black Redstart, Fulmar, Shag and other good birds . We, on the other hand went for a recce to Rhos Point and Penrhyn Bay. We didn’t see anything remarkable though I am not sure if we were entirely in the right spots. However, it was an interesting recce and did look to be worth going to again – if only for a change. By the time we got to Penrhyn Bay, though, most people wanted to return to Manchester so that is what we did.