2 Weeks in North Wales Pt 2 of 6 Oystercatcher filming and Stonechats

  On the way back from filming and photographing the Lizards at Horton's nose near Rhyl we spotted 2 Oyster catchers on a car park that had the barrier down and we noticed one was sitting across the far side of the car park and the other close to the entrance acting like a distraction. Not wanting to disturb them we decided to go and investigate from the fence around them and as we got closer the birds backed off and we noticed a nest and a lady with a dog walked straight past the nest and they did not react so i walked up to the nest and got a shot on my iPhone.

 As I had 2 camcorders with me I decided to set them up on the nest and see if the parents were bothered by them and after setting up I backed off about 30-40metres away and within 4-5mins they came back to the nest from the sea wall across the road and chased gulls away from the area before settling on the nest and the footage was amazing to see such a skittish bird accept my cameras so close after 5 minutes of setting them up.
 

As the nest was in such an active area which can be seen in the video below for people and dogs but with the nest being so close to 2 main roads with heavy traffic I hoped they would accept the strange new objects but I am glad I trusted my gut and took an opportunity to get some fantastic footage of one of my favorite Wading birds without causing a disturbance.

 I was very sad to leave the Oystercatchers because we left we picked up chicks calling from inside the eggs to the parent on the nest but hopefully the chicks may still be around when I return in 2 weeks but its a long shot. But although we were leaving the area to go further down the coast of North Wales to do some filming on the Great and Little ormes at Llandudno.
On the next post as we still had one more day in the Rhyl area to photograph and film dippers at Dyserth falls as well as track the Stonechats down on an area of scrub land near the sea where I filmed them in early spring.
 
Thanks for reading


Mike