Friday 24 February 2017

Grey Seals, Bullfinches, Fulmars and Stonechats - my first visit to Angel Bay in north Wales

I'm currently visiting my family in north Wales and as we didn't manage to get out yesterday thanks to Storm Doris, today we went to a beautiful place called Angel Bay at the Little Orme, which is also on the Wales Coastal Path.
 
There were some beautiful views.......
 

 
We were incredibly lucky with the weather and we all enjoyed the fresh air....
 



 
The inlet that is Angel Bay is a base for Grey Seals. We were very lucky to find several females with their growing pups. These pups would have been born at the end of last year. The mothers only feed the pups for the first three weeks of their life, and after that the youngsters fend for themselves but still come ashore to doze with the mother, who by this time are probably already pregnant again.
 














 
I was also lucky enough to spot my 'bogey' bird - the Bullfinch ! I rarely see one where I live, and when I have seen them, I can never get a decent photo. So I was pretty chuffed to spot a stunning male in the scrub today. Not so chuffed with the only few pictures I managed to grab, but that's nothing new.......
 




 
The tall cliffs of the Little Orme are home to many seabirds and the most prolific that we could see today were the Fulmars.
If weather conditions are good these birds will start nesting as early as January.
Today we spotted several birds on cliff ledges.
 





My cousin Dave managed to walk to the top of the cliffs and grabbed a phone photo.....obviously taking great care not to disturb the birds....and I got to practise taking photos of flying birds.......
 

photo by Dave Marks




 
Obviously with all the scrub there were plenty of Stonechats to observe topping on their favoured perches.
 





 
All in all it was a great day out.
Even young Jack enjoyed seeing the seals and posing for photos
 
 
Beautiful place to visit and one that I would definitely visit again.
 
 
 
 
 

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