The Juvenile Birder

Welsh Mountaineering! We arrived at the Great Orme at around 7:30am with Zak Spaull in hopes of seeing some rare butterflies. Firstly, we walked along Marine Drive, being guided by Zak, to try and find a rare orchid. As soon as we reached the spot, we noticed many of them marked by red flags. They were Dark Red Helleborines . Since it was a bit early for them, none of them were fully flowering, except for this one plant. We then walked further up Marine Drive to see a plant endemic to the Orme. It was the  Wild Cotoneaster . There were six individual plants located on the Orme, and this was one of them. They were special, but not beautiful. Zak then pointed out another plant next to the Wild Cotoneaster. We both took a photo of it and Zak later told us it was a Welsh Hawkweed , one of the many rare hawkweeds found on the Orme. Whilst looking at the plants, we noticed many Choughs , including four that landed right next to us! We also found our target butterfly, the Silver-stud...

Tern Fest! We set off at 2:00am and arrived at Long Nanny at around 6:30am in hopes of seeing a rare, American tern Just from the car park, we heard a Whitethroat  and spotted a large, pale falcon hunting over a ploughed field, which was either an escaped, hybrid falcon or an aberrant Peregrine . We then walked over to Beadnell Bay Tern Reserve, spotting many Skylarks  and Reed Buntings  in amongst the dunes along the way. As soon as we arrived at Beadnell Bay Tern Reserve, we were struck by the copious amounts of noisy Arctic Terns , and it was great to see them nesting up close from the viewpoint We also spotted a brief Sandwich Tern  in amongst the terns. We then got great views of our target, the American Black Tern , as it flew around us, however it was too quick for me to be able to get a record shot. While we were waiting for the tern to re-appear, we met one of the rangers who pointed out the distant Little Tern  and Ringed Plover  nests, which were...

Duel at Dawn! We arrived at a moorland site in North Wales at around 5:30am. Our target was Black Grouse, and we were hoping to see them lek. We parked in a layby at dawn, and waited for it to get lighter. We could just make out their white tails in the dark. After around 20 minutes, we were finally able to see the lekking Black Grouse clearly. Their blood red "eyes" stood out at first, as well as their iconic shape created by their fan tail as they lek front-on.  While the  Black Grouse  were lekking, they made an amazing and iconic bubbling sound. They would also occasionally call. We could also hear a singing  Cuckoo  distantly, but we were unable to locate it. We then continued along the moorland, spotting multiple Red Grouse  as they flew across the road and landed right besides our car. Happy with our morning, we set off to try and find my bogey bird, and a bird I've wanted for 3+ years! We arrived at Pensychnant Conservation Centre at around 8:30am i...