A well earned rest - A trip down to Wales on a winters day PT 1 of 2

Last week I managed to get a few days booked off for my birthday and as I had arranged a day tip to Llandudno with my brother and a friend from work for Friday I had a couple of things planned before then but I thought I would post about the day trip to North Wales.

Luckily the weather was not to bad even with the cold breeze coming in from the sea and as we arrived at the pier the sun managed to break through the clouds and give some good light for a few photos of the wading birds that seemed to be very closer to the pier than in the summer which was a great opportunity to get some close-ups of Redshanks. I only normally see in ones or twos usually flying in the opposite direction as they are known to be the ones that alert other wading birds to danger but today they were not bothered by our presence as well as the Redshanks, Oystercatchers and my favourite wading bird the Turnstone were also feeding as the tide pushed them closer to the pier.

Most of the images below are taken from footage I filmed as I let my mate use my DSLR and as hes new to the wildlife photography field most were from a distance but he will get there.

Time for a nap

Redshanks as sunrise

This Redshank was checking all the empty shells for food

 As we were hoping to walk around the Great orme I wanted to get going but as we reached the first bench on the path up to the Orme I spotted a fin come out of the water then disappear and as we had seen Porpoises here during the summer and Autumn I was sure It was them in a group of 5-6 individuals young and adults and I got a full view of them right below me I wonder if they are now breeding and living in Llandudno bay as it seems very strange to them so many times in the same place and same time of day.

I managed to get a small piece of footage of a Porpoise breaking the surface and that was tricky like trying to film a needle in a haystack due to them diving back down so quick.

 As we walked further round the Great orme it got too windy and alot colder so we turned back and watched the Porpoises while we had our dinner then it was off to the Little Orme and Angel bay to see if there was any Grey/Harbour seals with young on the beach and also have a look for the coastal Fox den which I should post about tomorrow.

Thanks for reading

Mike