Ospreys and Sea-duck lifer

As I don't see ospreys too often in the South East (mainly because I'm not looking up enough apparently!) my kind hosts offered to take us to the RSPB osprey viewing centre at Glaslyn.   We set off for the journey taking the scenic route which took us through some stunning Snowdonian landscapes, more than enhanced by the brilliant weather.  

Upper Glaslyn River

Glaslyn

We found the site easily, thanks to excellent navigation, and were greeted immediately by a very welcoming and knowledgeable member of staff.   There were three telescopes trained on the very distant nest, so the webcam helped us to put the sighting into perspective.   The male had arrived on 18th March (two days later than last year) and the female arrived on 20th March - the same date as last year.   They were cleaning up the nest and feeding up after their long journey.   The earliest date that an egg has appeared previously is 2nd April, and the team are hopeful that the pair may beat that this year.  

As we watched and waited there was excitement as the male came into the nest with a fish for the female.   She took the fish to a nearby tree to eat it, the male sorted out a few more sticks on the nest and then settled for a well-earned rest.

Aberdesach

Eventually we had to move on and had our picnic lunch along the way.   We took the coast road to just beyond Pwllheli then cut across to the north coast at Nefyn to see if we could add more birds to our trip list.    We made several stops along the northern Llyn Peninsular coast, starting at Morfa Nefyn.    Here the National Trust car park is right on the cliff top giving a great view out to sea.

Initially only a few gulls appeared but as we scanned with bins and scope, I was lucky enough to spot a dark duck well out, but in a flat-calm sea.    At first I was unsure, but Phil confimed that it was in fact a scoter, and indeed the surf scoter that we had come to find.   A new British bird for me, and with three scopes we all had chance to get great views and watch as this delightful sea duck feed, with its characteristic wing action as it dived being a particular joy to see.   A group of ladies came over to see what we were looking at and although they obviously had no idea of the significance, a couple of them enjoyed watching through the scope and wanted to talk.

The view inland

The final stop was at Aberdesach, where an Iceland gull had been spotted previously.   Here a school trip from Derbyshire were carrying out a geography field-trip.   We saw more gulls, but very little else.   Paul did get a very distant gannet in the scope but it was too far for me to catch up with.