Oh what a Circus!

After two weeks of inactivity on the blog front, theres no stopping us now. Another crisp, clear day had Steffi up out early to try and get some dipper shots on the Dulas, whilst I stayed tucked up cosy in a big warm bed. She managed good views of the local pair, and was pleased to hear the males liquid trilling song, before the cold forced her to come back home. After breakfast we decided to head up to the impressive broadwater at Tywyn and see what we could find. First thing we saw was the pictured buzzard, watching intently as the chap from the environment agency was busy clearing the built up sludge from the fieldside ditches.

Plenty of lapwing and golden plover kept us entertained on the walk to the water, along with some showy stonechats, song thrush, red kite and wren.

At broadwater itself a little grebe and 3 male goldeneye, looking resplendent in the sunshine, gave us something to look at other than herring and bh gulls. Whilst setting up the scope to check out the goldeneye, a cracking ringtail hen harrier drifted up over the gorse and preceeded to lazily flap its way along the hedgerow, finally drifting out of sight east of the lagoon.

We continued along the waters edge towards the beach, adding dunlin, curlew, wigeon, teal, ringed plover, redshank, snipe, shelduck, grey heron and mute swans to the list. We headed back towards Tywyn along the deserted beach, where the only new addition to the day was oystercatcher and cormorant. Other sightings during the day included kestrel and chough.
Back home an impressive flock of 50 plus redwings were going back and forth from the ash tree to the flood field up until dusk fell, much to the consternation of the local mistle thrush who doesnt seem to like any intruders in the vicinity of his berry rich holly tree.