Gannets at Llandudno

After recovering from my 24 hour cold we were up and out relaxing in the warm late Summer sunshine. It felt like it was June not September as the weather was beautiful and even the sea was warm enough to take a dip in. 

While there I checked out a few areas where I could possibly live when it comes to move there in a few years depending on my financial situation. The main reason I want to live there is the stunning natural beauty in the area and the amount of first time encounters I have had there has just been amazing. The other good thing is the thought of a view over the sea and as North Wales is only an hour so away it would be quite easy to visit my current wildlife patch every now and then.
While walking down from the Great Orme one afternoon the tide was reaching its peak and while walking down we noticed lots of Gulls and 4-5 Gannets coming in close and diving a few meters away from the sea wall.

A Gannet just hits the water below the marine drive on the west shore side

My favorite photograph from the encounter

A lovely portrait shot I managed to get from the landscape shot above

Thanks for reading my blog
Stay wild, be happy and be safe

Mike

A Mermaids purse found on Llandudno beach

While on our late summers break on the coast of Wales we ended up having cooled down in the sea after a long coastal path walk you would have thought it was June by all the sun worshipers on the beach. As the tide came in my brother noticed a Mermaids purse or a shark/Ray egg case in the shallower water. Usually, we find them hatched or predated but the special thing about this one was that inside there was a small embryo growing inside with a small amount of liquid and it's food sack I think.

After a quick photograph we placed it back in the same place we found it and added some extra seaweed to give this precious creature a chance.
 In 2014 I found 3 Nurse sharks caught by the fisherman and thrown behind a kiosk on Llandudno pier and to see them so small and fragile in there see through protective cases just makes the killing of these sharks more sickening. Every time I visit I always check to see there are none there.

2014 BLOG POST

I have sent my photograph to some Shark experts to see if they can identify the species as I have tried but I'm not sure. See what you think here - http://www.sharktrust.org/en/eggcase_species

Thanks for reading my blog
Stay wild, be happy and be safe

Mike

A short week by the sea

Last week I spent Monday to Friday in a caravan on the North Wales coast and as I usually spend my weeks in a cottage but as it takes to long to clean a larger property I felt like a smaller rented property would be better.

Our heavy 100 Litre back packs full of much needed gear

On the way there I developed a 24hr cold and by the time we got there and had a quick walk and did some shopping I was worn out. By 6pm I was ready to go to sleep and rest up for the next day of walking on the coast and it was lucky I did as the next few days were very interesting.

More on that soon....

Thanks for reading my blog
Stay wild, be happy and be safe

Mike

Picking up the Shag skull and a chance encounter

A few years ago I found a sea bird skull on a secluded beach, I think the skull is from a Shag and I left the skull as it still had feathers on it so I placed it under a rock so it could decompose more. I had to climb down a rocky hill using a narrow path down to a very rocky beach with no sand, I use this same area to swim with my Easybreath mask on as there is some great sea life here which I am yet to fully film due to setbacks. I am hoping to go back for a few days in July to see if I can get one more chance this summer to film underwater if the weather is warm enough.

As I already have a Cormorant skull which is a similar bird that often get confused when Identifying them. The Cormorant is slightly larger that the Shag but the beaks and skull designs are pretty much the same.

  One of the views available from my swimming spot

This Kestrel turned up to hunt for Voles in a grassy area just above my secret bay

A Shag with a view

Some photographs from different angles

One of the sunset panoramas I took on my Iphone on the top of the Little Orme

 I visited the spot again before we left North Wales as I got the opportunity to try and film underwater but I could not fully submerge myself due to some late summer visitors to the Irish sea.

Thanks for reading my blog

Stay wild, be happy and be safe
 

Mike

Sea birds at Llandudno

One thing I love about my June holidays at Llandudno is the opportunity to checkout the Sea bird cliffs off the Ormes headlands.

ABOVE VIDEO TO SHOW SOUND FROM THE COLONY
There are a few things I like to make note of 1.How many birds there are 2.How far into the breeding season are the birds 3.How many birds per species and how mixed in they are. This year the Cormorants, Kittiwakes, Razorbills and Razor bill all seemed to have some birds of each species at different stages of breeding. One thing I witnessed was due to the strong winds the Guillemots were struggling to get up to there higher nesting areas so some days they had to land on a lower rock shelf till the wind calmed. I saw a Guillemot land in a Kittiwakes nest accidentally and once the bird returned to it's nest the fighting began. The kittiwake grabbed the Razorbill and pulled it off the ledge and made sure it flew off.

I think the bird on the left is a Kittiwake either in Winter plumage or a Juvenile

Some mating was going on in the colony

 I just hope all the birds have finished nesting before they reopen the climbing here as I believe that there may be a few birds still on nests with chicks and any disturbance could disrupt there success this year.

Some of the areas of rocky shelving where the Birds used to nest have worn away meaning they have to either move on to some where new or they integrate with other species on other nesting shelves.

The Kittiwakes were bringing in large amounts of sea weed while cormorants collected sticks above

One thing I love about visiting the cliffs is to have all the sea birds coming back and forwards to there nests. Having all this over your head with them giving calls as they return to there mates with food for them or there chicks.
2 Guillemots flying out to sea to catch Sand eels

One Guillemot loops around to try and land as the sunrises which lights up the cliffs waking up the sea birds which begins an epic chorus that is one of my favorite natural sounds.

Thanks for reading my blog

Stay wild, be happy and be safe
 

Mike

Tawny Owlets at Nant y gama

Near the cottage we rent while on the North Wales coast there is large woodland about 5 minutes away and recently we heard that there was an Eagle Owl in one of the areas of the woodland. Unfortunately we never spotted this beast of a bird even though we looked about 8 times over the 2 weeks we spent there. While searching the Woodland we heard Blackbirds alarm calling off one of the woodland paths and this could mean one thing at this time of the year and that is Tawny Owls of coarse. We spotted 2 quite developed Owlets flying from one tree to another. They were quite high up when one moved the other would follow by the time we left the pair went from the middle of the woodland to the edge.

From photographing Tawny Owls down by my local canal I have learn't the adult birds usually roost close by and thanks to my brothers eagle eyes he spotted one of them in the tree next to the Owlets.

While watching the Tawny's I heard the call of a Woodpecker chick nearby. After searching a few trees I found the hole with a young Great Spotted Woodpecker sticking it's head out waiting for a feed but what we saw feed the chick was very usual.

Thanks for reading my blog

Stay wild, be happy and be safe
 

Mike

Dragonfly rescue and my first Redstart

While we were up Conwy mountain enjoying the lovely sunny Welsh weather I spotted quite alot of birds with great views in the Background. I spotted a bird that I had never seen before but I have been looking for in the area for a few years.
Here you can see Conwy Castle and Rspb Conwy

Below is a Stonechat I photographed with Conwy castle in the background

 I also got this shot abit closer to a Male Stonechat which I was quite pleased with due to how sharp the image was due to the position of the sun.

While enjoying a break half way up the mountain I noticed a Meadow Pipit with food in it's mouth so there must have been a nest close to where we were picnicking, we quickly moved away so the bird could feed its young.

 One bird I was quite pleased to see was a Redstart on a stone wall around a sheep field. It was quite flighty and as I have never spotted one before a record shot rather than a artistic photograph was better than nothing. Now I know there in this area I can keep going back to get a better photograph in the future.

 It flew into an area of Gorse in the middle of a field so I could not get any closer

One of the beautiful views from Conwy mountain

Up the top of the mountain close to Pensychant there are a few shallow pools. There was one larger shallow clear pool full of a tadpoles which was nice to cool down my feet in after walking so many miles along the coast and up the mountain. Just before a dog was about to jump in the pond I spotted a 4 spotted chaser struggling to get out of the water. Luckily I manged to grab the Dragonfly before the dog landed on it and for the next 30 mins the Dragonfly dried out on my hand while walking down the hill to a more secluded pool I then placed the Dragonfly on my brothers hand to get a photograph before it flew away and onto a reed on the pond.
Drying out on my hand taken on my Iphone

On my brothers finger before it was released

Thanks for reading my blog

Stay wild, be happy and be safe
 

Mike

Tit adoption service

In my previous post I mentioned an usual encounter of a woodpecker being fed by a different bird species. The birds I filmed feeding the Woodpecker was a pair of Great tits and they came back again and again. I have never seen this or heard of this before with these species, I have a theory which I will try and explain below using some photographs of the tree that the birds were nesting in.

Here's a short video I filmed on my DSLR of the Great tit feeding the young GSW.
 
My theory's are explained using the photo below:
There were 2 holes on this tree, the top hole looks like a GSW marked with a red circle and below is the Great tits hole in blue. I am thinking that either the Woodpecker got confused and laid it's eggs in the wrong nest. Another theory is the GSW nest cavity collapsed and the egg fell down into the Great tits nest. The GSW nest was not active at all but you can tell the top is a woodpeckers due to the damage around the hole and the Great tits entrance is smaller and more like the size on Tit box.

The next day we visited the tree again so I am guessing the chick had fledged thanks to it's adopted parents the Great tits.

Thanks for reading my blog

Stay wild, be happy and be safe
 

Mike

Spring on the coast

As I was in Wales at this time last year it was interesting to compare my sightings and to see if Spring had begun on the coast. This time last year the Cormorants and Kittiwakes were collecting nesting material for there cliff edge nests. This year the cliffs are pretty bare especially for the numbers of Razorbills, Guillemots plus there were a few Winter birds still around such as Grebes which I only usually see on the coast over the winter.

The weather was very mixed with hot sunny days, and cold, wet and windy ones but I don't think it was the weather holding back the nesting season. Another noticeable change from last year was the lack of vegetation growing from nettles and ferns to the Bluebells that grow on the Little Orme. It seems Spring is very different this year and returning to months where Spring belongs.

A Fox sunbathes above a busy road and I could watch this from my bedroom at the cottage we rented

Lots of Lambs were bounding around the fields

There were plenty of Ants active under the pieces of corrugated Iron on the Great Orme

While on the Great Orme I tested a few new wildlife watching products including a Timelapse camera

 Lichen growing on the Hawthorn trees shows how fresh the air is there

The most interesting thing I photographed was a pair of Fulmars mating on there cliff nest above the Marine drive. They mated a couple of times before having a loving round of squawking and beak tapping. It was great seeing something I've never witnessed before as usually they have laid or there eggs have already hatched so we were very lucky to see them mating.

Thanks for reading my blog

Stay wild, be happy and be safe

Mike