An early morning excursion to the River Clwyd was the order of the day and despite the trying conditions, a handful of decent birds were rinsed out of the gloom.
It could have been worse had the forecast rain materialised – I say ‘forecast’ here in the loosest sense of the word given the recent BBC meteorological soothsayers have been about as reliable as a dodgy Lancia (or 02 plate Vauxhall Astra for that matter).
Anyway, the strong wind (again, not forecast) made things a little tough, especially for somebody as nesh as me. I’ll shut up about the weather soon, but being British it’s in my blood.
The assembled waders were also a little skittish, probably due to the bone-chilling autumnal gusts driving across the estuary. (There I go again, I just can’t help it).
However, brave soldiers that Tony, Mark and I are (not that there are many cowardly ones - I think they tended to be shot by a firing squad), we battled on and located a couple of Greenshanks and a lonesome juvenile Knot.
The main shorebird shenanigans were further up opposite the mouth of the Gele though, so after losing Tony hors de combat, a quick yomp further up the river was the order of the day.
And it paid dividends too – the waders were within a stone’s throw from the cycle path. After hunkering down on an old tree stump it wasn’t long before a juvenile Little Stint was winkled out from the Dunlin and Ringed Plover.
It darted about like a toddler on e-numbers, hence the lovely image above. It was the first one I had seen for over two years too and the closest I have ever seen one. Grand.
And did I tell you about the weather…
River Clwyd 3.9.11
1 Little Stint (juv)
3 Greenshank
1 Bar-tailed Godwit
50+ Dunlin
50+ Ringed Plover
1 Bar-tailed Godwit
1 Knot
1 Snipe
3 Goosander
1 Sparrowhawk
1 Wheatear
14 Turnstone
Until later
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