Cottage with a wood burner and Marine watch

At the beginning of November, I had a last-minute trip for 2019 to spend some time back on Anglesey as this year I have really fallen in love with the island and next year I hope to explore more of Wales as well as revisit Anglesey as the wild camping this year gave some beautiful moments in Nature. Rather than wild camp, we decided to book 2 Airbnbs one at Amlwch for 3 nights and one at Newborough for 2 nights. At our Almwch cottage which was located right next to the coastal path and one of my possible living locations with some amazing views and close to some really good marine mammal spotting locations at high tide the creatures are pushed a few meters from viewing areas thanks to the deep water. We were up before the sun rose to get as much light watching the sea especially as the wind was fresh and the days are shorter.

 The paths were quite muddy but as always with these trips, I prepare for everything and thanks to our new walking boots our feet were well protected. While laying against a rock and watching the sea the seals caught fish and kept us entertained for many hours.

Seals and Porpoises were great things to see but the one time a mother and calve popped up my lens blurred and I just missed my best shot of a Porpoise.

On our second part of the holiday, we decided to get the bus from Amlwch to Menai bridge for a cup of tea I made before leaving the cottage for the last time and some chocolate digestives we sat by the straits near the Britannia bridge and watched the sunrise higher in the sky let the 9am rush pass by before getting our next bus to Llangefni where we bought some.  breakfast and supplies for the day.
We ended up walking from Llangefni to Maltraeth to Newborough via one of the Red Squirrel forest areas, one thing I had not noticed before was a rope over the road from the larger Newborough forest to the smaller area of forest opposite allowing squirrels and maybe pine martens a safe route across avoiding the road.
View of the hills/mountains of North Wales

On our only full day at Newborough we headed through the forest along the sun-soaked yet empty beach to the Island and I ended up getting impatient waiting for the tide to go out I walked through the shallow water soaking my shoes through but it proved to be worth it. We walked to the further point with the highest unused lighthouse and less than a half a mile away we spotted a large pod of Dolphins I was hoping Rissos but they ended up being Bottlenoses and the closest I have seen through my camera for a while. One had a very unique cut in its fin but seemed very straight and long unlike the other members of the pod but as you can see below they were very active.

A great week and the last week away till April 2020 as I have got lots of things to do over the winter.
A lovely Autumn kayak was a lovely first trip out once I returned home this year I hope to kayak in the snow which would be amazing on this river.

Enjoy the beginning of Winter and hopefully plenty of frost and snow to come....

Regards

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

A week by the sea

Last month I spent my time on the coast of North Wales at Llandudno to relax, film and photograph wildlife. I also wanted to do some swimming and snorkeling with my Easy breath mask and fins.

Unfortunately the sea never settled or cleared at the spot I have found where I can hopefully swim with a seal. We went to check on the area and there was Seal there waiting for me to enter the water into the under water forest of sea weed and kelp in the shallow meter deep waters of the Irish sea. I'm heading back there in June for a few weeks so I was not to disapointed with not getting in the water.

One of my favorite views

It was an amazing week as usual with some beautiful views and sightings which I'll go into over the next few weeks.

Thanks for reading my blog

Stay wild, be happy and be safe

Mike

While the Seals are away it's time to check Angel bay

While the Seals are not on Angel bay as there at there Summer feeding areas I decided to have a proper explore of the caves and rocks in the bay while the tide was low. We found a few caves where Seals give birth and feed there pups plus we had a good luck at the underwater caves where the pups play and pop up where we photographed them at there breathing holes earlier in the year just before they leave the bay to start there lives at sea.

 

It's fine to visit the bay in the Late Spring/Summer months as the Seals leave there moulting/breeding beach at Angel bay but in Months from October to Late March the bay is a no go area as 30-40 Seals use the beach to moult there skins, mate, give birth and to suckle there pups until there old enough to leave the beach in early Spring. On the climb back up we heard the gentleman on the right say there won't be any Seals down there now and he's correct but not because we had been down to the beach which I think he was hinting at but because they only need the beach for the reasons I explained above.

There is a sign saying stay off the beach but there's not alot of information about the Seals, 
 what the Seals are doing in the bay and what damage can be caused by disturbing them and that got me thinking. 

The current sign does not keep everybody from going down when the Seals are on the beach in the Winter months so I thought about maybe trying to get a information board put in place of the current sign with photographs and more information. For example who to report injured seals to and to who/how to report sightings of Dolphins and other marine mammals to (sea watch). I will be looking more into this over the next few months to see how to go about putting my idea into reality so if your in North Wales and would like to help getting a Nature information board to help protect the Seals then comment below and I will get back to you asap on what I've come up with and what we need to do.

 Thanks for visiting 

Mike