Having loaded 800 metric tonnes of boxes, bags and butties into the car, we shimmied down the huge slopes to the coast road. Then we zoomed along the fairly new "expressway" which is a monstrosity hated by all, it's only cheerful thing being a giant Puffin mounted on the roof of a petrol station .. I was tempted to tick it too. We headed for The Great Orme .. That's is down there.... and it is a hotspot for choughs. We paid a trifling sum to drive right round it, constantly worrying that some nit at the other end has not realised it is a one-way road and will smash us to tiny pieces on one of the numerous blind corners. Or even worse, nudge us through the "barrier" and down the 150m ? cliff and into the sea .... ouch...... ... but we survived all the dangers ..the gormless goats, rolling rocks on the road, precipitous views ... and three ( 3) choughs !! Hey-ho !! And then, you'll never guess, we went to another Beach Cafe .... it's got an elevated platform overlooking, er, everything. If you go 6 tenths of the way up the middle of the picture, when you get to the sandy bit, there it is. Various ticks were ticked, skylarks, a mipit, oiks, swifts, 3 House Martins, and, surprisingly, no swallows etc etc. A Buzzard drifted over as well. Our final target was an actual bird reserve !! Conwy RSPB reserve, which for many years was v. hard to find, lots of confusing roundabouts with no signs and lots of the wrong roads that looked tempting. But recently, they seem to have realised that a bit of proper signing on the numerous aforementioned roundabouts might be a good idea. The OS map thingy is 796778 We were greeted by a whole conglomeration of Cardboard Children and Plywood Parents. They look a bit too swotty to me. We/I got a rush of new stuff ... several Great White Egrets ...which nowadays seem to have become rather common ...... it is truly amazing how many once-rare birds have stopped being rare. Sand Martins appeared, an untickable plywood kingfisher was nailed to a post, some new waders, wily warblers in the reeds, but then it was time to go ....... Flintshire beckoned ! Here's a few more snaps of various things we encountered en route pour la joie ! As my loyal readers know, we bring him everywhere with us, he travels in "kit" form, and is re-assembled on arrival...... For some unknown reason this object appeared in the hedge behind the caravan. There's were several pictures in the caravan, and this was by far the oddest..... This magnificent and popular edifice was the only toilet on the site ...... it brought the community together and created many new friendships .... (Meantime, here's the music ... from one of the finest Welsh bands, The Joy Formidable ...... full-on stuff !) But what you really want to know is...what was my list .... ..... and so do I !!
if you really want to know, it was 71
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AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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