Anglesey - June 2004

by Bill Nicoll

4th - 6th June 2004

If you look back over past ROC programme cards you will find that the club included trips to Anglesey in the program 1993, 1994, 1998 and 2002 (and also in 2001 when the trip was abandoned due to the foot and mouth outbreak). You might conclude from this that the various organisers over the years lacked imagination, but the fact is that it is a first class place to spend a weekend, and very much enjoyed by the members who come on the trips.

This year the weekend was organised by Colin Wilson. I know, having done it several times, that putting these weekend trips together does require a bit of effort, to achieve a balance that allows all the participant to get what they want from the walks. This year we had a particularly wide range of interests and I think that most of the people did what they wanted to do for most of the time. I certainly enjoyed the weekend, although if I had been on my own I would have done more walking in such fine countryside.

We maintained the well established precedent of meeting up in mid Wales in the late morning at the Elan Valley Visitor Centre. The Elan Valley has provided most of the water for the city of Birmingham since 1904, the area is today owned by Welsh Water and is largely open to the public as a nature reserve. Several higher valleys, which were occupied only by sheep, were dammed in 1946 to increase the capacity. Since my first visit there (with an ROC trip in the early 80s) the place has changed considerably. Back then, there was nothing there but a small un-surfaced space for 8 or 10 cars, today there is a partly paved car park with a capacity for perhaps 40 cars, a centre with all the accessories, proper toilets, souvenir shop and a decent café. While this has its advantages, it means that the place is not quite as tranquil as it was, but fortunately one of the fundamental laws of human nature is on our side - most people never walk more than 400 yards from their car. The reserve itself has hardly changed at all in the 20 years that I have known it.

The south side of the valley, opposite the centre, is entirely covered with sessile oak woods, accessed across a bridge and a zigzag path where Pied and Spotted Flycatcher, Redstart, Wood and other warblers, Tawny Owls and most of the common woodland birds are to be found, many species in abundance.

The north side is short grass with crags higher up, the haunt of Wheatears, Meadow Pipits, Ravens, Peregrines and Ring Ouzels, but you need to be exceptionally lucky to find one of the latter. Red Kites pass overhead regularly. We found all of these species this year, except for the Tawny Owl, where the box was empty, and the ouzel, though not all of these birds were seen in the valley. I was impressed by the abundance of Pied Flycatchers this year. Though they are never scarce here, this year there seemed to be dozens, and at least one was in view for 90% of the time we were there. Wood Warblers were also easy to find this year with at least four in song, the best one singing from an open branch over the path despite our presence only feet away.

In the afternoon we continued on the long, winding road north through mid Wales to Snowdonia and on to Anglesey, stopping for half an hour at an attractive and reliable Dipper spot near Capel Curig, where the river rushes through a pretty gorge right beside the road. We quickly found three dippers there, an adult and two well grown juveniles (I had never seen a juvenile before and I didn't realise that they are grey not brown).

On Saturday, we spent all day on Anglesey, starting with an early morning visit to the RSPB reserve near the village of Valley (where we were staying at the Bull Inn). We found a good selection of relatively common scrub and water birds, including Ruddy Duck here. Cetti's Warbler was a surprise, Lesser Whitethroat was also found and a Grasshopper Warbler was briefly heard. After breakfast, we spent the rest of the morning ambling around the cliff-tops at South Stack not going far but simply enjoying the tranquillity and the views, until the fog rolled in. Here we found all the birds we had hoped to including 6 or 8 Puffins (sadly they seem to be fewer each year), plenty of Choughs, a single Raven, a Hooded Crow, a brief view of a Peregrine and a few very distant Manx Shearwaters. Guillemots, Razorbills and Kittiwakes were everywhere.

In the afternoon we went to the north end of the island, to Cemlyn Bay. Our time of arrival coincided with the ebbing of the tide and we were unable to get to the shingle bank to view the tern colony immediately, so we walked the short distance to the seaward shore. Looking offshore from the point, we watched a grey seal climb out of the water on to a skerrie where it fell asleep, we heard and eventually saw two late Whimbrels and got better views of passing Shearwaters than we had in the morning. Eventually the tide went down enough to permit us to cross the foot ford to the east side, where we found double figure numbers of Common and Arctic Terns among much larger numbers of Sandwich Terns and Black Headed Gulls. Roseate Terns have bred here and are regular on the nearby skerries and just across the Irish Sea, but we saw none on our visit. In mid afternoon we moved on to Penmon Point (where we should ideally spend longer) and quickly found no less than 5 black guillemots (a record for ROC trips to Anglesey I think) one of them very close to shore, further Puffins and Rock Pipit. Again Grasshopper Warbler was heard but not seen.

After a good value meal in a pub in Beaumaris, we finished a long and tiring day with a dusk walk beside Cors Gogh, a fascinating area of lowland bog with an unusual flora. Reputed to have some uncommon birds such as Nightjar and Grasshopper Warbler, we failed to find them but enjoyed the sunset in an atmospheric place with Redpolls for company.

Our final day, on route home, was spent in the Berwyn mountains of mid Wales. We paused near the highest part of the Berwyns hoping to spot a Red Grouse, but 'dipped' on this experiment. We drove on to the picturesque Rhaeadr Valley (15 miles east of Bala). A spectacular waterfall marks the top of the valley where the road ends at a pleasant café, and various paths, some steep and difficult, others gentle, lead off into the hills. We enjoyed fine weather as we strolled a short distance northwards along one of the flatter routes as far as a dry-stone walled sheep pen before retracing our path back to the road. The geography of the area is classic mid Wales uplands, being steep grassy hillsides with areas of bracken, a few stunted trees and several small crags. We spotted several Wheatears among the rocks and drystone walls, found at least two Whinchats in the bracken, but failed to locate any Ring Ouzels in the gullies or on the crags, though the habitat looked perfect for them. Peregrines were sighted and a Kestrel and one highlight was a Mistle Thrush nest in a rock just yards from a well used track where the parent fed young with complete disinterest in the public passing by.

This was a good weekend, as it always is, and this year it benefited from mostly good weather, a complete contrast to the monsoon weekend of 2002. We listed over 100 species including all the 'target' birds and provided one long-time club member with two lifetime 'firsts'. I look forward to this fixture appearing again in the club calendar, which it surely will.