Ducks and Ducks - North Wales

With the long-staying Surf Scoter still present at Benllech, Anglesey yesterday, me and Carl thought it would be worth the trip to try and connect with this Nearctic duck. With the bird usually being first reported around 11am, we thought it would be a good idea to first try for the nearby female Ring-Necked Duck at Cefni Reservoir.

After some dodgy google directions, we arrived at the car park and made our way down to a viewing point along an abandoned railway. The bird had already been reported less than an hour earlier, so our hopes were high. Unfortunately, after an hour of scanning every duck on the reservoir, we couldn't locate it! There were plenty of birds to look through - lots of Mallard, Gadwall, Teal, Shoveler, Tufted Duck, Pochard, Goldeneye, Coot, Little Grebe, Great-Crested Grebe, Snipe and a few gulls. It's possible that the bird was tucked away in an obscure corner, but it's a species I've missed a few times and wasn't particularly disappointed (or surprised!). We walked back to the car, noting Buzzard, Sparrowhawk and a few Raven.

We were soon at Benllech, a really picturesque bay made even better by the great weather and impressive Snowdonia backdrop! We started scanning the bay, but it was soon apparent that the birds were really distant, and a guy leaving who had spotted it earlier in the day said it was not easy to find. There were perhaps 100 Common Scoter within doable viewing, but the Surf Scoter wasn't in with these. We did find an awesome drake Long-Tailed Duck, only my second of this species. There were plenty of other interesting birds around too - a Razorbill on the sea, several Shag, Red-Throated Divers, a Red-Breasted Merganser, Great-Crested Grebes, 15 Brent Geese (Light-Bellied?), Oystercatchers and Rock Pipits.

Brent Geese showed well, even landing on the beach at one point!

Slightly disappointed having missed our two target species, we then noticed a report of 2 more Surf Scoters down the coast, conveniently on our way home! We decided to take a gamble and head in that direction, even ignoring a nearby report of Baikal Teal, though we did see the female in Nottinghamshire a few weeks ago.

Arriving at the car park at Llanddulas, our optimism wasn't high, having been to this exact same spot a few months ago and failing to spot a Surf Scoter! However, a local quickly pointed us in the most likely direction, and the first birds Carl got his scope on were 2 Surf Scoters! They were distant but so obvious in the scope, with their orange beaks sticking out surprisingly well given the distance. Thankfully, they were in a small flock of scoter, which allowed us to have good views as they crested shallow waves and dived a few times. Upon a later viewing, I noticed another bird in the flock which didn't look quite right, and as it flapped its wings white bars were striking - a Velvet Scoter! This bird had been reported with the Surf Scoters earlier, but I'd pretty much forgotten that in the excitement of finding them. I've technically seen Velvets a few times but the views were never great, so to find one showing well, if distantly, was great.

A great day in the end and thankfully our gamble to leave Benllech paid off! Surf Scoter brought me up to 260 species in the UK. 

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