The Juvenile Birder

Dragonfly Hunt! We arrived at 10:30am to meet the kind Eddie Urbanski in order for him to tour us round his patch. Once we arrived had arrived at his patch, which was Cors Geirch NNR, the first thing I spotted was a Painted Lady , followed by a moth which Kevin (Eddie's friend) identified as a Straw Dot . We then started wading through a marshy bit of the site and almost immediately, Eddie pointed out a male Keeled Skimmer . Unfortunately, it flew away instead of landing for a record shot, but little did I know, that this would be one of many to be seen that day. We continued walking through the marsh when Kevin said he had a Bog Hoverfly. I searched the area he saw it in and spotted a male Keeled Skimmer sitting right in front of me, waiting to be photographed. We then walked through a dryer area of the wetland where Kevin pointed out a Bog Hoverfly ( Sericomyia Silentis )   nectaring right besides us, allowing for a perfect record shot. We then started searching the pony dung in ...

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...

 From Despair to Delight! Image from Levi Gravett (same bird, but take n on different date) We arrived at Llanddulas Beach car park at 8.00am and started scanning towards the left of the car park. We started scanning for over an hour scanning through hundreds of Common Scoters which   were moving about everywhere. There were no other birders to help and I started doubting any success.  Suddenly, a Velvet Scoter came into view, flying low and eventually landing. Knowing that the Surf Scoters had been hanging around with Velvet Scoters, I scanned the scoters nearby and saw a smaller scoter with a funny shaped bill. I tried to keep on the bird but it was difficult with the choppy water and the distance they were at. Then, as it was preening, I saw some white on the back of its head. It was a Surf Scoter ! I stayed on it for a good few minutes before all four Velvet Scoters flew off; as well as the two Surf Scoters. There were also a few drake Red-breasted Mergansers and Gr...