Desert Wheatear

 Desert Wheatear

 Desert Wheatear

 ................... and one more for good measure 

 Oystercatcher

 Herring Gull 

Moon Rise the Short-eared Owl sight, Rhuddllan 

With the disappointment of us having to postpone the Norfolk trip hanging in the air, two of the lads who had booked on the trip were keen for us to take them to see the Desert Wheatear in Rhyl.

As North Wales is only just over an hour away from me, and the weather forecast was not too bad, I picked Alex and Richard up at the arranged venue and off we went.  The weather forecast was actually right for a change, it was bright and breezy as we arrived at the coast.  Within 5 minutes we had located the bird and got some good shots of the little beauty a lifer for both Alex and Richard.

Llandullas was the next stop where we had Common Scoter, Redshank, Curlew, Sanderling, Oystercatcher, Turnstone all in really good numbers.  Nothing of great interest but good birding all the same.
Leaving Llandullas we headed to nearby Rhuddlan to round the day off with a good view of the Short-eared Owl.  Although it was too difficult to photograph the owl, we did get a good shot of a very low bright Moon rising.

What! No Norfolk

 Starling 

 Pied Wagtail 

 Goosander

 Waxwings

 Mistle Thrush

 Mute Swan 

Common Buzzard

Because of the really bad weather forecast for the east coast, we decided to postpone our weekend to Norfolk until the 12th January 2013.  It was definitely the right decision ! The torrential rain and winds would have made birding very difficult and very wet !  Anybody wanting to join us in the New Year to get a good start for their year list, can contact us via the website at www.aquilabirdtours.com.

Despite the rain here we tried to get a bit of local birding in rather than stay indoors.  These pictures were all taken on the Cholmondeley Estate over the weekend. We are fortunate enough to have regular access to both meres and the woods here and try to visit at least twice a week.  As I am sure you are all aware we seem to have been invaded by the beautiful Waxwings and Cheshire is no exception.  They have been reported at several different local sights and we were lucky enough to get some good views yesterday.

Waxwings Hit Cheshire

Well, with the amount of Waxwings in the country at the moment it was only a matter of time before some were seen close to home.  Ashley had 12 in Nantwich last friday but by the time he had picked the camera up from home the small flock had gone. Another phone call yesterday off Ashley to inform me of a flock of 30+ at Tesco in Northwich was frustrating as I had other commitments and couldn't get over to see them. So third time lucky today as Ash managed to see 22 again, so a quick dash across with the camera and we managed some photos in poor light.