NORTH WALES

Our NORTH WALES tour from 5th - 10th May 2009 produced some excellent birding depsite the often very difficult conditions that often resembled December rather than May. We were delighted to welcome back Alan Davies who led the tour for the first time in a few years following other committments and as ever, he did us proud. The weather throughout was dominated by howling gales, but was mainly dry, but did this stop us from finding the target birds - not a bit of it as we recorded 128 species! Nineteen Pomarine Skua were a superb find at Criccieth, while other interesting seabirds included Manx Shearwater, Northern Gannet, Black Guillemot, Atlantic Puffin and Little Gull, while Whooper Swan, Red-breasted Merganserand Common Eider were also noted at coastal locations. Amazingly eight Black Grouse braved the elements to lek and Red Grouse, Hen Harrier, Red Kite, Twite, Pied Flycatcher, Red-billed Chough, Northern Goshawk, Ring Ouzel, Osprey, Dipper, Wood Warbler and Common Redstart were among the many breeding highlights. As expected in those conditions few migrants were noted, but Tree Pipit, Whinchat, Whimbrel, Black and Bar-tailed Godwits and Lesser Whitethroat were among those that were noted to round off a superb effort by all concerned. We will of course be running this very popular tour again from 3rd - 8th May 2010.