Black Guillemot in breeding plumage
Following our amazing Birdwatching Trips tour in Thailand where we recorded a staggering 449 species in just two weeks, we are now based on the island of Anglesey in North Wales for a week. The birding here has been wonderful already. Just a few of the highlights have included: a beautiful drake Smew, a real rarity in North Wales seen at Llyn Alaw; Cattle Egret near the Inland Sea; 17 Purple Sandpipers at Trearddur Bay; Great Northern Diver, Long-tailed Duck and Slavonian Grebes all at Beddmanarch Bay; 3 Ruff at RSPB Cors Ddyga.
The following day we ventured over the Menai Strait to the mainland to enjoy wonderful views of a rare wintering Yellow-browed Warbler at Llanfairfechan. Even though this species was literally a daily bird in Thailand, it was a real thrill to see one here in North Wales. News then broke of a drake Bufflehead, a mega rare bird here in the UK back on Anglesey at Llyn Coron. This was presumably the bird that we had seen in late December 2025 and early January 2026 at Foryd Bay near Caernarfon, now relocated on Anglesey. Arriving at the lake, we were very fortunate to spot this diminutive black and white duck very close to our viewpoint where we enjoyed super views. However, while we were watching it, the duck flew fast and low towards the south end of the lake and was lost to view from our position. It was great to catch up with other local birders here including Marc, Tony, Derek, another Tony, Martin, John. While chatting with Derek and Tony, we watched two Great White Egrets roosting with Grey Herons in the sand dunes near the lake, a strange sight indeed. As we were about to leave, we heard from our great friend Ken Croft that he was on route to look for the Bufflehead as he had only just collected his car from the garage, bad timing. We decided to wait for Ken’s arrival to try and help him see the bird. We walked to a different vantage point and scanned the lake in vain. Ken arrived and set off on foot towards the south end of the lake while we continued to scan. Eventually we spotted the Bufflehead in the distance keeping close to the far shore of the lake. There then followed a rather crazy series of mobile phone calls between us and Ken as we tried to talk him in from our position to where the bird was repeatedly diving close to the southern shore. It soon became apparent that Ken’s viewing angle was very different to ours. Thankfully we could all see a fallen tree on the southern shoreline close to where the bird was feeding, and once we had established we were all looking at the same tree, Ken got on to the bird and was very grateful for the help as he was worried he might miss this mega, a first for the island.
Today we concentrated on the east coast of Anglesey, visiting several sites and adding a good haul of new species for our Anglesey trip list. These included Common Scoter, Common Eider, Northern Fulmar, Northern Gannet, Black-legged Kittiwake, and Common Greenshank. We then moved north to Cemaes Bay where we relocated the wintering Common Sandpiper that had been reported here some two weeks ago and enjoyed great views of this out-of-season wader. From here we headed west to Beddmanarch Bay where two Slavonian Grebes were the highlight. On again to Holyhead Harbour where after quite a lot of scanning we found our target bird: a breeding plumaged Black Guillemot along with a Great Northern Diver, Common Guillemot and Razorbill. Sadly soon after this torrential rain set in and we decided to head back to our base at Beaumaris.
We also encountered one of Anglesey’s iconic red squirrels