Gallery – birds of Wales

I have already written about our trip to Wales in articles Puffins at Skomer Island and Gallery - United Kingdom; now I finally processed all the pictures of birds from Wales. Besides some other pictures of Auks from Skomer Island I also added some more pictures of gulls into the gallery and some Passerines too (e.g. Dunnock, Stonechat or Sedge Warbler) and also a few Waders (Purple Sandpiper, Ruddy Turnstone and Little Stint). All the pictures of birds from Wales can be seen in the gallery HERE.

This picture of Stonechat (Saxicola torquata) was taken in the late afternoon before our trip to Skomer Island next day. After finding place ion the campsite in Marloes we took a short walk towards the coast. The cliffs were covered with dense fresh grass with violet and red flowers and just within reach we could see the Skomer Island – the place of great expectations. A quick look down to the cliffs revealed small colony of Fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis), located right below us – we would not even notice it if there were not few Fulmars flying over and over against the wall in the attempts to find a good spot on the steep cliff. Besides few gulls and roaring Oystercatchers down on the rocks, we met several Stonechats (Saxicola torquata) along the trail – these birds were obviously very busy with getting some food for their chicks and that was how this picture was made – Stonechat male with its prey stopped for a while on the bush tree and let me to get a bit closer – I made few pictures with quite bad cloudy evening light and then the bird disappeared. Although I was hopping to have some more chances to observe Stonechats later, this was the best picture I have taken during our Wales trip…

This picture of Sedge Warbler (Acrocephalus schoenobaenus) was made in the harbour Martin´s Haven close to Marloes in SW edge of Wales – this is the palce where the boats with visitour to nearby Skomer Island put out. The Sedge Warbler was sitting on the bush tree only about 6 meters from the trail where tens of people were passing to the boats or were returning from the Skomer Island. The bird was not very excited about it and it was quite easy to make pictures of it. It welcomed us both days we visited the harbour and Skomer Island. Just a stone-cast was the wooden pole where Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica) were resting and allowed me to take this picture.

After we returned from Skomer Island birdwatching (the last boats are putting out at about 15.00 to 16.00) we took a small trip to the nearby cliff coast south of Marloes. The highlights were not only the great landscape there but also a few Stonechats hiding in the dense underbrush – I was chasing them for a while but without any success. The trip was in fact not birding but having nice stroll along the pebble beach below the cliffs. During the walk I frightened away one very inconspicuous bird…so I returned to pick my camera with telelens and tried to spot the bird again – I found him sitting few tens meters farther and to my surprise it was not very shy – after very slow approaching I got quite close to it – some 7 meters or so and took series of pictures. It was a Little Stint (Calidris temminckii), perfectly blending with the pebbles on the beach - if I had not scared it away during the stroll I would probably not have noticed it at all!

After few days, already in Bangor, we made an afternoon trip to the Anglesey Island (NW Wales) and it was pretty good regarding birds although it was not meant as a birding trip. As a matter of course I took with me the tele-lens just because you never know what might happen – I have an experience that one of the best pictures are made by coincidence. And that was also the case with this picture of Dunnock (Prunella modularis) – it was taken in the Newborough Warren National Nature Reserve at Llanddwyn Island. First I noticed the typical Dunnock call and then saw it sitting on the bush some 8 – 10 meters from us. I took swiftly the camera from my bag and wished the Dunnock did not fly away – Dunnocks are pretty shy birds and before this I have seen it only once in Norway, from a great distance and just for a moment before the bird dived down into the bush. This time I was lucky enough – Dunnock was sitting calmly on the twiggy and sang its song. I made few record shots and then tried to get closer. I could even put on the teleconverter and make few pictures with great close-up.

The destination of this trip was the peninsula with lighthouse on the Llanddwyn Island. Besides few (Meadow?) Pipits hiding in the sandy dunes we saw only few gulls and some Oystercatchers (Haematopus ostralegus) wading through the low waters on the beach; the place was quite busy with many people strolling along the shoreline. We had a rest at the lighthouse while watching Oystercatchers down on the sandy beach; several tens of Shags (Phalacrocorax aristotelis) occupied small rocks nearby the peninsula but it was too far for making satisfactory picture. On the small beach between rocks I found Ringed Plover (Charadrius hiaticula) sitting on the nest with four eggs – unfortunately the pictures I made were not good. But what scared me more was the proximity of the path close to the nest – it was only few meters from the trail where the people were passing quite often and sometimes even turning to the beach and thus endangering the nest on the ground. I also found the Plover by accident when I scared him away from the nest when got too close to him unwittingly! That is the bad side of the birdwatching – sometimes, instead of helping the birds you rather threaten them… Right next to the beach there was a small flock of Ruddy Turnstones (Arenaria interpres) together with at least one Purple Sandpiper (Calidris maritima) moving around the rocks. These birds are not very shy but they are of course not very happy when you approach them with half-meter tube – so I played with them for about an hour, chasing them and crawling on the wet sliding rocks while wishing not to be splashed down to the sea by waves. I managed that and also made some good pictures, hope you will like it…