Peregrinations

Being on the dole – despite the obvious drawbacks – does have its advantages. Especially if one enjoys a pastime that is to all intents and purposes ‘free’ to engage in, such as the noble art of birding.

True, my life is so much poorer for not being able to charge around North Wales in pursuit of obscure races of gulls, but I guess I’ll just have to live with it and be content with walking down to one of Europe’s finest wildlife estuaries, the Dee. What a bugger.

So, with the forecast downpour not materialising I set off after breakfast on a circular walk from my village, Lloc taking in Mostyn and Greenfield Valley.

When I moved here a year and a half ago my initial impression of the local countryside was fairly negative. On par with most of Britain’s rural areas, it has largely been destroyed by modern agriculture; a once rich and diverse area replaced by a patchwork of green desert-like fields separated by piss-poorly managed hedgerows.

Still, if you look hard enough there are still small pockets of quality habitat. The area between Whitford and Maes Pennant has a couple of good areas of woodland and a largish area of rough grassland too.

A couple of weeks ago I heard a Willow Tit calling in one of the woods, and today an adjacent section of trees produced its close relative the Marsh Tit. Fortunately it wasn’t as bashful as the Willow Tit and stood in full view atop of a Rhododendron.

The tide was well in when I reached Mostyn Docks and many of the waders had opted to roost on the farmers’ fields behind the seawall. They were extremely jittery and it was not long before their tormentor-in-chief revealed herself - an adult female Peregrine I picked up bombing after a flock of feral pigeons.

Things were generally a little quiet until I reached Greenfield Dock, where hundreds of Starlings thronged the sewage works pools.

The area of marsh behind the Kingspan factory was a little more interesting with a good mixture of waders roosting over the high water. A scan with the ‘scope revealed another Peregrine, this time an adult male doing a decent job of impersonating a Merlin by perching on a clod.

I enjoyed fantastic views of the bird as it momentarily enjoyed a brief burst of sunlight. When seen at this proximity they are unquestionably absolutely beautiful.

It was one of those moments that brings John Buxton’s quote to mind:

“…lived wholly and enviably to themselves unconcerned in our fatuous politics, without the limitations imposed all about us by our knowledge of Azorean Yellow-legged Gull, Kumlien's Gull, Thayer's Gull and feckin' Argentatus Herring Gulls..."

Until later.