Field Trip to South Stack

Today I went on a local field trip to South Stack RSPB Centre. To Begin with we stopped at Holyhead Harbour to observe Black Guillemot in the fine rain that soaks you through. But it was lovely. Even saw a few Oystercatcher too!

We then went on to South Stack where we stood at the top of a cliff that had a 100 metre drop looking over the sea and the bird colonies. We then went into RSPB's Ellin Tower where we had a brief talking about the birds that normally nest there and there can be up to 6000 birds! And just look at that view! 

We then had lunch of course! So decided to treat myself a slice of chocolate cake something I cannot resist ever! And it was delicious! Soon burned it off with all of the walking up and down stairs though didn't do all of the 400 steps that followed but it was worth it.

Some of the species that I saw were about 10 Great Black-backed Gull and oh my goodness they are huge birds when they are flying! Their wingspan is incredible it's amazing when they fly above you and you just see a wingspan of about 3 metres above you. Saw a few Lesser Black-backed Gull not quite as big as their relative. We saw a lot of Herring Gull but it was surprising to find out that their numbers have been declining though we see them everywhere almost! We were lucky enough to see quite a few Puffin on the water which was very exciting as I haven't seen any of these in years and I think they are one of the cutest birds ever! So of course whenever my friend Ellie saw when all you could here was awww I love puffins! Even our lecturer Nigel asked why do you go aww when you see a Puffin and I couldn't put my finger on an answer but I just love them. We saw a fair few Razorbill in little groups in the sea aswell. We were lucky enough to see two maybe 3 Chough which is really amazing as these birds are quite rare but South Stack has 6 pairs in one area which is really good. The odd Cormorant would appear on the water before diving. 

These two pictures were where we saw most of the species and we stood for ages just looking through the binoculars or telescope scanning the water and cliffs to see what we could see and we'd just shout PUFFIN, COMORANT, RAZORBILL, PUFFINS then the trick was telling people where there were and guessing where they were from when other people shouted aha was most exciting.

It was in the area of water in the middle of this picture ^ that we spotted a Grey Seal bobbing it's head just above water so that you could see it. We got really excited as it was only me Ellie and Becky who were in the best spot but then the seal dived and disappeared but we waited for 20 minutes or so before we gave up hoping that the seal would reappear. I have a feeling it waited for us to turn our backs and head back up the steps before reappearing, mean seal!

After climbing back up around 300 steps to get back to the RSPB's Ellin Tower the sun had come out and it was glorious, I even managed to catch some colour on cheek albeit it is red but still colour nonetheless! After walking back this was how the view looked with a bit of sunshine, gloriously beautiful!

It was a wonderful day out and I would recommend it to anyone who visits North Wales especially around now and May/June because you may be looking at around 6000 birds on one cliff edge and may even be lucky enough to see some chicks! How excited would that be! Would recommend taking waterproof trousers and wearing walking boots just in case the weather isn't too brilliant in the morning like it was for us. But it is a rewarding visit, with cliffs, sea birds and some Irish sea to look at which all make for a good 4+ hours out (if you're really into birds, like we were today.) Definitely somewhere I shall be visiting more!