Popped into the Connah's Quay for an hour over lunch. Like my hair, the tide was receding slowly and the freshly replenished mudflats were brimming with Dunlin.
It's not often that you get large number of Dunnies down at Connah's Quay - there were circa fifteen hundred today - and a quick scan through the ranks revealed most of them to be the larger Alpina race - some still sporting their summer gear.
It was hard to work my way through them as the entire flock - plus a similar number of Redshank - were very unsettled and kept moving around in large groups as if they were battalions of troops being marshaled by an indecisive General.
Nevertheless, I did mange to pick out a couple of juvenile Curlew Sandpipers and a young Bar-tailed Godwit, but the hoped for Little Stint remained elusive.
Strangely, apart from a small handful feeding near the west hide, I could not locate the Black-tailed Godwits that should be numbering in the thousands now!
A brief visit to the bunded pools was also drew a blank, with three Spotted Redshanks the only birds of note.
Until later.
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Hi Paul
ReplyDeleteTry Ffynnongroyw for the Black Tailed Godwits,there were Circa 5000 of them there the other day,and there were also Circa 10000 Oystercatchers,and good numbers of Curlew and Redshank as well.
The Pools at Ffynnongroyw that you found at the west end of the beach,how do you get to them,because they look very promising indeed.
Cheers Denzil
Hola Denzil,
ReplyDeleteSo that's where they are! I had seen small groups of the birds at Bagillt, Greenfield and CQ, but I couldn't find the 'main group.'
It's probably nothing, but I wonder if it has anything to do with food; I think that they would normally be around Oakenholt until later on in the year...
The best way to get to the pools is from the Point of Ayr - just keep walking on from the old hide, over a small bridge and then follow the seawall for a few minutes and you will see tyhe first one.
Great habitat - probably good for a Merlin or a Shortie soon. I imagine most of the butterflies you see at the Point of Ayr eminate from this area too - looks great for Lepidoptera.
Cheers,
Paul.
Hi Paul
ReplyDeleteI went to Ffynnongroyw a couple of days ago,and there was literally 20000 birds on the beach at 6.45am in the morning.
These were made up of around 10000 Oysties,5000 Black Tailed Godwits,around 3000 Gulls,and the rest were Curlew,Redshank,Canada Geese,Greylag Geese,and Ringed Plover.
At about 7.30am a Dog Walker put all the birds up,and the noise that the birds made as they all took off together,was like a roll of thunder,it was truly memorable.
The reason that I'm interested in the whereabouts of the Pools is because I want to adopt Ffynnongroyw as my 'Patch' because I think it's fair to say that they're taking Shotton in the wrong direction at the moment.
My line of thinking is a potent mix of Pools,Shoreline,and Coed Y Garth woodland to give an all year round interest,similar to Llanfairfechan,but much nearer.
Cheers Denzil