Heatwave & Tweeters

Having spent the first week in my new home in North Wales on the Llyn peninsular this week its been a real eye opener for birds and wildlife in general.

First morning on the beach we had a pair of Peregrines scaring the crap out of various waders with mock attacks. Same beach has dozens of Sand Martin nests in the cliff face. We spotted loads of Choughs at various sites on our cycle tours of the area. Buzzards are around in large numbers with the best count of 14 seen whilst out cycling on Friday. We have a wrens nest less than 6 feet from our static caravan door and watched the parent birds shuttling back and forth from around 5 am till dark at 10pm. The birds seem completely unfazed by our close proximity and even perch on the bikes near the nest before entering the nest. The hedgerows are packed with various finch species and its years since I saw so many house sparrows. I have never seen such an abundance of birds and range species in my entire life, it really is a superb area for wildlife

To cap it all we have had a heat wave from Thursday to Sunday and the first rain we encountered since Tuesday was on our way home when we hit the outskirts of Manchester this morning. If you want some nice pleasant birding with plenty of sunshine drop in on Sue and I over summer. We should have plenty of lager and wine in the fridge with fresh mackerel and bass caught by ourselves to go on the BBQ and if we have been snorkeling we can cook up a few spider crabs for starters. Rather a depressing return to Calderdale today to discover arctic temperatures have returned :-((