Steve's Birding,Wildlife & Walking Blog: Beautiful North Wales.......Saturday 11th to Friday 17th September 2021.

In 2019 Tracey and myself had booked a luxery cottage at Natures Point at Pistyll on the stunning Llyn Peninsula,then along came Covid and that was that!...fast forward 2 years and at last the time had come to go and enjoy our stay..The following is an account of our trip and what we did day to day and what fantastic birds and wildlife we had encountered.

Day One

We were up bright and early,packed the car and off we set on the motorway heading across country.

A first port of call,was the impressive Conwy Falls near Betwys Y Coed.These falls are situated on the Afon Conwy and are situated in a lovely,rocky valley.Birds here included a couple of lovely Grey wagtail.

After our visit to the falls,we made our final leg of the journey to Pistyll and to our lovely accomodation for the week.

After unpacking we walked from the cottage past St.Beunos church and down to the sea,seeing several Wild Goats,Chough,Raven and finding a colour-ringed Shag with BANA on a darvic ring,which was resting on Llech Lydan with several other birds.I'm waiting on details of this bird and presume it is from Bardsey Island.

Day Two

After a very peacefull nights sleep,we decided to go over to Porth Dinllaen and walk around to Borth Wen,before heading over to Braich Y Pwll near Aberdaron for the remainder of the day.

The weather wasn't too bad today,just a tad cloudy at times,but still great to be back in this absolutely beautiful area again.

Bird highlights from Porth Dinllaen and Borth Wen included 3 Med. Gulls,2 adults and a 2nd winter and a lovely flock of foraging Turnstones.

At Braich Y Pwll,those beautiful red billed Corvids were encountered,with at least 14 birds observed which included 3 colour-ringed birds,all of which i have recieved details on and will write a post on,in the near future.

Also here were 2 Arctic Skua harrying Gulls offshore,Red-throated Diver and a couple of Raven.

Day Three

A pretty wet day on and off today,saw us heading to Betwys Y Coed and mooching around the shops and going for a walk along the River Llugwy,some nice views of 2 Goosander were enjoyed as we walked here.

Day Four

A lovely day's weather today,with warm sunshine and cloudless skies,saw us heading to Aberdaron first,then up to Braich Y Pwll again and then finishing the day at Porth Dinllaen.

Bird highlights at Aberdaron included a 1st winter Med.Gull,Wheatear,Stonechat and the tamest Grey Heron i've ever seen,who according to the girls who work in the Y Gegin Fawr cafe comes for his breakfast every morning.

Braich Y Pwll was just amazing today,with a cloud of Choughs on show on our visit,with a minimum of 58 birds in the air together.This is by far the most i have ever seen together and was just great to witness.

Also in the area were 4 Raven cronking around the area,11 Wheatear,3 Stonechat and 3 Harbour Porpoise offshore.

Final port of call was the lovely Porth Dinllaen,were we enjoyed some lovely views of the local Grey Seals and a couple of Med.Gulls again.

Day Five

Today we planned to walk from Beddgelert,around Moel Dyniewyd and back along the stunning Aber Glaslyn Valley.

We arrived in some cool and slightly misty conditions making for some impressive scenery,but the mist soon burnt off to leave a beautiful sunny day.

This area really is stunning and we have completed this walk on one occasion previously.It does have some challenging sections to complete if you are not the fittest,but the scenery is absolutely stunning.

We did manage to see a few birds today,which included 5 Dipper,several Grey Wags,5 Stonechat,2 Raven and a couple of Common Buzzard.

After arriving back at the cottage after an amazing day,i watched a Short-eared Owl hunting the hillside near the cottage being mobbed by 3 Chough!.

Day Six

Today we were going to visit a place i have been wanting and planning to visit for some time it has to be said,Yns Llanddwyn on the beautiful island of Anglesey.

After travelling over early-ish to get to our destination before the hoards arrived we parked up at Newborough Warren and then walked the short distance along the beach to Yns Llanddwyn.

This place is just beautiful and was all i hoped it would be,with its Abbey ruins,neat little lighthouse and spectacular views.

An unexpected bonus here was a pod of 7 Bottle-nosed Dolphins which put on a show,breaching and generally being Dolphins,what a great bonus,but still not the hoped for Risso's Dolphins.

Also seen around the island were 3 Stonechat and a couple of Grey seals,one of which was taking a great interest in a guy snorkelling,being just feet away from him.

After enjoying Llanddwyn,we drove over to Beumaris for lunch and a wander.While here,i saw a message on the local Whatsapp group that there was a pod of Risso's Dolphins off Almwch and after some local advice i headed to Point Lynas,which i knew from my buddy Matt,was a great place for the species.

It was a bit windy here on arrival,but i soon settled to scan the sea and after about 30 minutes five dorsal fins surfaced together,'oh my god' i said to myself and there they were,at last,my first Risso's Dolphins....get in!.

I watched as the group slowly passed by and past Point Lynas,giving some cracking scope views as they tail slapped,spy hopped,breached and played..to me they looked like a family group,with a couple of younger animals in amongst this eight strong pod.

What a way to end the trip seeing a most wanted species and my fourth species of Dolphin and also the first time i have seen more than one species of Dolphin in a day.

Day Seven

Sadly it was time to travel home after what has been an amazing holiday in the most beautiful part of the world and we both look forward to returning again next year.