Barmouth 21/03-28/03/2018

A week's holiday in North Wales produced plenty of birds. I went to Holyhead, and was planning to go to South Stack RSPB, but on the day there were 80mph gusts, so I decided not to go. Still, I toured the harbour at Holyhead, and found both Red and Black-throated Divers, the latter only seen in flight taking off and heading out of the harbour. Also, there was a single Shag and at least three Oystercatchers. From there, I visited Beddmanarch Bay. The one really exciting bird there was a Marsh Harrier that suddenly came from nowhere and went to nowhere, flying just over the water in front of the car park. Other birds included Curlew, Redshanks, and at least two Purple Sandpipers on the rocks. I was staying quite close to the Farchynys National Trust site, so I visited that several times, finding a very early Pied Flycatcher, and a Little Gull, plus a pair of Goldeneye on the estuary. On another day of the holiday I went down to Ynys-hir RSPB, where I got good views of hundreds of Teal and Pintail.