Photos:
Snow Buntings, Kimnel Bay
2nd winter Kumlien's or Iceland Gull, Pontllyfni
I headed off with Bill into N Wales this morning. My primary destination was Pontllyfni - I was hoping to see the Kumlien's Gull that had been spotted there the day before. Anyway I rolled up and parked the car in a nearby lane and headed off towards the beach only to find it was a large stretch of peeble beach which I had difficulty walking on, never mind Bill. I also found out from a kind local that the Kumlien's was hanging around yesterday about half a mile away and on the other side of a small river. The local guy let me walk back through his garden to avoid the pebble stretch. I relocated and walked back on the far side of the river.
I found just one other birder already there - he had not seen much on the gull front so I joined him to see if the gull would turn up. Plenty of large gulls were out on the water but nothing interesting. I started scanning the sea and soon found a close in Great Northern Diver plus at least 15 Red-throated Divers. There were also plenty of Shags and Red-breasted Mergansers and a couple of Choughs flew over, calling. A large Peregrine flew over the bay and spooked everything and then two Ravens appeared and started to feed on the beach, as did a male Stonechat. It was looking good for birding generally but not for gulls.
Looking up the coast we could see a sort of shingle bank which jutted out into the bay and behind this were clearly some gulls - the odd head kept poppoing up. Eventually a gull flew over which was either the Kumlien's or an Iceland - typically it then went to ground and hid for a while. Eventually it did show and quite well at times and was clearly the bird designated as a Kumlien's Gull. Cracking bird, but little did I know that an almost identical bird which had been pegged as a second winter Iceland had also been seen here the day before. On reflection now I'm not sure I would have been able to distinguish between the two that well if I had seen both.
Watching this bird was confusing - it seemed to be either a second winter Iceland or a Kulien's depending on the viewing angle and the lighting conditions. When backlit it was so bright it appeared to be a stndard second winter Iceland but, to give you an idea of how the lighting changed its appearance, several birders who turned up after we put the word out couldn't pick it from a group of first winter Herring Gulls!
There are some interesting discussions on this bird at the links below:
After watching this fascinating gull for a while I then headed back towards Llanddulas. Had a quick look for the Surf Scoters, however all of the Common Scoters were just distant blobs. There were plenty of Red-throated Divers and Red-breasted Mergansers showing though. I bumped into Ian Woosey who had seen the Surf Scoters earlier - he described the white neck patches as like a speck of dust on his lens. I decided I wasn't that bothered about hanging around to see them and headed off to Kimnel.
A birder/photographer there raced past me to photograph the Snow Buntings and was so eager, he raced well past the flock too! Interesting how the flock numbers seem to differ each day. I first counted ten Snow Buntings and later 12. When the flock finally spooked from some more birders, 13 birds flew off. A max if 12 and frequently 9, 10 or 11 have been reported. Was the 13th bird another Snow Bunting or something else?
The light was failing now so I nipped down the road to have a look at the Great Northern Diver on the Marine Lake (it showed well) and whilst there I found a flock of 75+ Greenfinches in the bushes by the car park. Then it was time to go home. Very, very nice day and all in glorious sunshine!
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