Western Reef Heron in North Wales

I'm sure all birders with any kind of knowledge of national birding news are all aware of the recent discovery of a Western Reef Heron in North Wales. It was found on Sunday on a river estuary in Wales just west of Caernarfon and proceeded to delight  all comers for the whole week before disappearing on Saturday for a few days. At the time of writing, it has now just been rediscovered a bit further east near Llandudno. As a first for Britain its discovery of course got hardcore twitchers slavering at the lips and many dropped everything on the news and raced over to Wales to see it that day. Myself, I was a bit more ambivalent about it. Sure it would be nice to see but it was four hours away and I didn't really fancy such a long drive on the off chance. It generally takes me a few days to work up my twitching juices and I like to see if it establishes a pattern of some kind and can generally be considered to be "reliable". So I made no immediate plans. However, as I mentioned in my previous post, my son and I finally agreed a date for fetching his stuff back from York Uni with him going up by train in order to pack and then me coming to pick all his stuff up. So it seemed not too much of a stretch to go up to York "via" North Wales and also the Yorkshire Dales. I've already blogged about the Yorkshire Dales part of the trip in my previous post so here is the North Wales part. 

Going all that way, I wanted to give myself plenty of time to see the Heron in case it went missing for a while. It had two places it generally liked to hang out: either the Y Foryd estuary or the river mouth by Caernarfon castle although sometimes it would go AWOL for a while. So, to give myself a good chance of seeing it, I decided to stay overnight in Wales and then to head onto the Dales the next day at some point depending on how things went with the Heron. I left the house on Thursday morning at around 8am in torrential rain which persisted the entire length of the journey. The M6 is not a nice motorway to drive on at the best of times and it was not fun at all in all that rain. The Heron had been reported up until 11am on Bird Guides as still being present on the estuary but there was no news after that. About twenty minutes away from the estuary, I put out a request on the Twitchers WhatsApp asking for news to be told that there had been nothing since the 11am report. Nevertheless, I was reasonably optimistic - it had been hanging out all week and was still around that day. What's more I had done my research and knew of all the locations where it had been seen so I should be OK. I pressed on with some excitement now that I was so close to my destination. The final stretch was along a single track country road past a village called Saron down some windy roads to the estuary. Finally I came within sight of one of the regular viewing spots, a few hundred metres north of the bird hide by a couple of houses where a side river joined the main one. There I was met with the encouraging sight of some twitchers' cars and also some half a dozen twitchers with their scopes trained on the estuary. That certainly looked promising! Just to be sure, I raced up to them and had a peek through the scope "for the tick". There was the Western Reef Heron, rather distant but quite unmistakable. Then it was back to the car to get my own gear and to set up for watching the bird. 

My first views were rather distant of it working its way along the estuary shoreline

There were remarkably few people there, no more than 10 people. While it was no longer raining, it had been all morning there so I guess people hadn't lingered after seeing it earlier on. To be honest, I far preferred it this way. Huge twitching crowds are no fun at all and just detract from the experience so this was much better. The bird was about 100 metres away feeding actively along the estuary shoreline. Constantly on the move, it seemed to be getting plenty to eat. Also present were a couple of Little Egrets, a Goosander, various Curlew and some loafing gulls. Right in the distance at the mouth of the estuary were a few drake Eider - still recognisable despite the distance.

Just a handful of twitchers

The Western Reef Heron (Egretta gularis), also called the Western Reef Egret, is a medium-sized heron found in southern Europe, Africa and parts of Asia. It has a mainly coastal distribution and occurs in several plumage forms: a slaty-grey plumage; a white form which can look very similar to the little egret; and a black form with a white throat, E. g. gularis, found in West Africa. Our bird was the latter subspecies which was, in my opinion, the most attractive of the three. Certainly with its striking dark feathers contrasting with the white throat patch it made for a handsome bird.

I settled down to watch the star bird while munching on my packed lunch. I tried taking some digiscoped video though in the end settled for some phone-scoped shots though without a proper adaptor it was a rather hit and miss process. I got chatting to the birder next to me who was from Norfolk and who had been down here for a few days already. Our conversation turned to the evolution of birding equipment away from scopes and towards cameras. He was very much in the camera camp and spent some time trying to persuade me that it was the way to go. To be fair, I can see how things are moving that way. What can be done with cameras these days with their built in AI auto-focus is pretty amazing and many IDs these days only come about because of photographs - the recent Black Kite at Otmoor was very much a case in point. Still, so far I have resisted getting a camera though who knows how long this might last.

My best phonescoped efforts of the day

After a while I decided to go for a little walk along the estuary, partly to walk off the four hours driving in the pouring rain and partly just to enjoy the scenery. I am more and more finding that I am enjoying the scenery of the places that I go to as much as the bird I've come for. The Black Stork in Suffolk was a case in point, again tidal salt marsh habitat - I just love the vast emptiness of it! With the place to myself I enjoyed ambling along the shoreline, listening to the calls of the Curlew and doing a bit of botanising.

Sea Beet

 

Lovely tidal landscape

After a while I headed back to the Heron and spent some more time watching it as it worked its way around different parts of the estuary. Some birders left and others arrived but there were never many around. At one point the bird got quite close along the shoreline but an over enthusiastic mother of a young twitcher got too close while waving a picnic blanket around and the bird flew off to a safer distance. My Norfolk birder friend was not at all amused! He'd waited all day for the bird to come closer so he could get his frame-filling shot only to have it flushed so quickly and carelessly. This is, incidentally, one reason why I hesitate about getting a good camera: it's very easy to see how one can become obsessed with getting a better picture all the time. With my crappy photographic gear, I'm pleased if I can just get any photo of the bird at all. Still, each to their own.

Another birder turned up, asking if there bird was here. Apparently he'd been waiting all day (!!!) further up the estuary without any luck. I was somewhat bemused by this as the bird news services had all been very clear with their pin drops as to exactly where the bird was. I wondered if perhaps he was just going on free headline-only news from the front page of Bird Guides and only had "Y Foryd" to go on - it was a big estuary if you didn't know where to look. Anyway, I let him look through my scope so at least he got to see it in the end.

Gradually the tide crept in and the light started to fade. Eventually the bird hopped onto a little grass island and settle down, largely hidden behind a large tuft of grass. It was about 6pm by this stage and I decided that it was time to head off to my AirBnB for the night. 

The scenic side river near the houses

So I went back to the car and headed first off to Caernafon to Tescos to by some food for the night before heading off to the village of Waunfawr, in the foothills of Snowdonia. My accommodation turned out to be a nice little house tucked away in a small village amidst rolling hills by the start of the Nantle Ridge. My hostess was out for the evening so I rustled up some dinner before retiring to my room for the evening. I was very tired after a long day and soon fell asleep, dreaming of exotic herons  and empty tidal landscapes. 

The next morning I actually met my hostess and in the end we had quite a long chat over breakfast. It was good to learn about her passion for the local landscape and also her love of poetry and the Welsh language. The Heron had already come through on the news services as still present at the same place but having spent so long watching it I was in no particular hurry. Eventually I headed off back along the windy Welsh roads towards the same place as yesterday. 

Navelwort growing on the stone walls along the lane from my AirBnB
- I know this plant well from Cornwall but I don't think I've seen it in flower before

There were many more cars along the road this morning so I parked up and headed towards a much larger crowd to ask about the Heron. They said that it was down the other end hidden in a gully. I soon noticed just how windy it was - it was blowing a real gale down the length of the estuary and not at all pleasant. Still I was here so I thought I'd go and at least try to see the bird again. I walked the few hundred yards back down the estuary to another twitching crowd at the other end of the section of road that tracked the estuary shore. 

Crowds of twitchers, looking for a Heron in the strong wind

Here I was told more precisely where the bird was hiding and after a little while it did a little fly up and down into a neighbouring gully so I got to see it again. Still, the crowds, the wind and the difficulty in seeing the bird all rather detracted from the experience and I wasn't really feeling it. Eventually, as the tide started to fall, the bird did move further north back to where I'd been watching it the day before and, with it at least being much sunnier today, I was able to take some more phonescoped pictures. But I didn't linger too long and soon wandered back to my car. 

In the brighter light I was able to get some acceptable phonescoped shots

 

More tidal inlet porn

I decided to take a little drive along the northern half of the estuary to see what it was like. This was where the bird spent some of its time on the day of its discovery. However, this area was far less scenic than the spot I had been and the wind was very troublesome so in the end I gave it up as a bad job. 

I did have one more activity planned in Wales before I headed off to the Yorkshire Dales for the evening and that was to do some hill walking up to an old stone circle called Cefn Coch Circle (literally red ridge circle if I can remember my smattering of welsh correctly), known locally as the Druid's Circle. This was located at Penmaenmawr some half an hour away in the direction I was heading anyway so it all fitted in nicely. After turning off the main road, I found myself driving up a tiny narrow road that rose steeply up towards the hillside. There was a parking area half way up where I stopped and got ready for my walk. 

The view from the parking spot. It was incredibly windy here

 

The walk itself was a fairly gentle affair up some rolling hills along a rough track. In a little more than half an hour I arrived at the stone circle which was a rather sad and neglected affair compared to the ones at e.g. Cornwall. Still I spent some time marvelling at the ancient history of it and found a convenient spot for my lunch out of the wind with a nice view. It was all very pleasant. 

Above and below, all that remains of Cefn Coch Circle

Then it was back down to the car and off towards the Yorkshire Dales which I have already blogged about in my previous post. The Welsh part of my trip had been very successful and enjoyable. I had a shiny new tick to my name and had spent a very enjoyable time in the ancient landscape of north Wales. I couldn't ask for more!

 

 

 

To the Yorkshire Dales for Lady Slipper Orchid & Small White Orchid

Introduction 

I'd been wanting to see both Lady Slipper Orchid and Small White Orchid for quite some time now. These are the last two UK orchids that I need for my list (apart from Ghost and some of the Tongue Orchid species) but for several years now I'd never been at the right place at the right time. So this year I was absolutely determined not to miss them. For the Lady Slipper Orchid I was going to try to time the trip to coincide with going up to Yorkshire to fetch my son back from York University at the end of term. However, he was very non-forthcoming about when he wanted that to happen so in the end I decided just to go on my orchid trip anyway and wait for him to let me know when he wanted to be picked up. This blog post actually covers two trips with an intervening bird detour as well but for the sake of continuity I shall leave the latter for another post.

In preparation for my trip I did plenty of research. I started with Lady Slipper which was now only to be found at Kilnsey Park in the Yorkshire Dales having become extinct at the Gait Barrows site. The optimal time for visiting is usual at the end of May but I'd been caught out last year when they flowered two weeks early and I had missed my opportunity. Determined not to miss them this year I emailed at the start of May to find out what was going on. Having not had a reply I rang them in the middle of May only to be told that the plants had now already gone over and that I'd missed them. I couldn't believe it! That was extremely early for this species to have gone over and I was dismayed that despite all my preparation I'd once again missed my opportunity. Confusingly, the next day I finally got a reply to my email saying that Lady Slipper was now in flower along with an attachment showing one just coming into bud. Having had two conflicting reports, now I didn't know what to think so I asked SC ("Mr. Orchid") for advice. He said that he'd been sent pictures of them in flower from just yesterday so something weird was going on with what I was being told. So in the end I decided I would just have to go and see for myself. 

As for my second target, through Googling I had come across a few blog posts about some Small White Orchids to be found up in Yorkshire at Ingleborough National Nature Reserve. However, there was no proper information to be found anywhere beyond learning that the reserve was run by Natural England. So in the end I rang their number and, after waiting in a queue for a while, I told the operator that I was looking for information on the presence and flowering times for Small White Orchid at Ingleborough NNR. I gave them my contact details and was told they "would be in touch". To be honest I wasn't holding my breath but a couple of days later I got an email reply from someone at the reserve saying that they did indeed have Small White Orchid and telling me where precisely to go to see them. Result! What's more Ingleborough turned out to be not too far from Kilnsey Park in the Dales so it seemed like a no brainer to try to combine the two in some way. The only trouble was the timing of the flowerings. SWO would really only be getting into its prime in the middle of June which was too late for the Lady Slipper. Still it should at least be in bud at the time I was there and given the proximity of the two sites it was surely worth a look.

Part I 

So it was that on the 29th May I sallied forth for the Yorkshire Dales, some four hour's drive from Oxford. Having stopped off for a cup of tea en route, I arrived at Kilnsey Park at some time after midday. After tooling up, I checked in at the green hut where tickets were to be purchased. I held my breath. Now was the moment of truth: was I going to be told "you're too late, they're all gone and you've had a wasted journey" or were they still to be seen? The guy didn't say anything in particular and carefully explained where to go and marked on a map two locations where the flowers were. Then, looking at all the equipment I was carrying, he diplomatically said 

"If these two aren't what you are looking for then feel free to duck under the roped off area and walk over to here where you can find some more". 

Puzzled but somewhat reassured I headed up the hill the short distance to the Wildflower Trail. This turned out to be a rather short trail with a few stopoffs for various flowers with helpful signs next to them. This did include a couple of Lady Slipper Orchid plants that had clearly gone over with their flowers completely gone. That at least explained what I'd been told over the phone.

Disappointing first views - not what I came for!

I now understood what his coded message meant and ducked under the rope into a nice boggy bit of rough meadowland towards some trees as I had been instructed. At this point someone came over to intercept me and asked me what I was doing there. I explained that the chap at the ticket desk has said I could go off piste and that I was looking for the Lady Slipper Orchids. Again, all the equipment I was carrying clearly marked me out as an enthusiast and he soon realised what I was there for. He turned out to be Jamie, the person who had emailed me a few days ago, and, once he realised I was harmless and keen, we soon got talking. He explained all about how the Lady Slippers had been reintroduced here and what sort of habitat they preferred. He also took me round to show me where all the best ones were and lifted the cages for me so I could take my photographs. Thus I ended up getting a personal guided tour to the Lady Slipper Orchids and some expert knowledge on what they liked and didn't like in order to thrive.

This was what I came for. Pristine Lady's Slipper Orchids

After a while he had to go but told me I was free to have a look around at the various other orchid species in the "off piste" area of the Meadow. I needed no second invitation and was soon rummaging around looking at all the orchids. There were plenty of Early Marsh, Northern Marsh, Early Purple, Common Spotted and quite a few Pugsley's Marsh Orchid which I hadn't been expecting. I even found a single Common Twayblades. By now I was feeling hungry so I found a little rock to sit on and contentedly ate my packed lunch, surrounded by all these lovely orchids.

 

Above & below, Early Marsh Orchid

  

Early Purple Orchid

Northern Marsh Orchid

Above & below, Pugsley's Marsh Orchid

Common Twayblades

There were some other interesting plants around as well apart from the orchids, which were helpfully labelled.

Pyrenean Scurvygrass 

Bird's-eye Primrose

 

I next had a little walk up to the top off the park area where there was a fresh water spring. On the way back down I met a couple of other people working in the orchid area and we got chatting orchids again. They showed me another clump of Lady's Slippers that I'd not seen before. 

More pristine Lady's Slipper Orchids

After a while I felt I had done the orchids there properly so went back down the hill to the tea room for a welcome cup of tea and a flapjack. Then it was back to the car for my second Yorkshire Dales target, the Small White Orchid. It was now mid afternoon as I set off for Ingleborough which was a bit less than an hour away. The Sat Nav took me through some stunning Dales scenery with miles and miles of rolling hills, stone walls, sheep and nothing else. Truly balm for the soul! 

The vast emptiness of the Dales

Eventually I arrived at the little road that lead up to the reserve. There was no formal parking so I parked carefully so as to not block the single track road and set off on the walk up to the reserve. I'd been given instructions as to where to go but was a bit worried about how easy these might be actually to follow. I walked up through some lovely scenery with stony outcrops, scattered trees and lots of singing Willow Warblers everywhere. There were some interesting flowers to be seen that I didn't recognise and a lovely little stream running alongside the track for a while. It was all very pretty.

Mossy Saxifrage

I followed the instructions up past the stone barn to one of the Meadows where the orchids were supposed to be located. In the distance I could immediately see the taped off area I'd been told about so it was all straight-forward in the end. I walked through the rough grass, filled with flowers that were just starting to come into bloom until eventually I came to the taped off area which surrounded a little mound, about 10 metres long by five metres wide. This was the moment of truth!

High Barn Meadow with the taped off area in the distance. Access is via the gate on the left

I wondered whether the orchids would be advanced enough for me to see them and started to look through the various grasses and plants in front of me. It was one of those things where until you know what you are looking for it can be really hard to spot. I'd been around the mound completely once without success and was starting to think that I might be too early. I turned to watch a distant Cuckoo being mobbed by a distressed Meadow Pipit. Then I turned back to the mound and voilá there was a small different looking plant a few inches tall with little while buds - I'd found a Small White Orchid! I took a few shots as best I could with my iPhone. 

My first Small White Orchid, very inconspicuous as it is very much still in bud

 

Now that I knew what I was looking for, I went around the mound again and found three more plants. The most advanced one had the first flower fully out at the bottom so I could get more of a sense of what they actually looked like. There it was, my last orchid that I "needed".

 

The most advanced one

By now it was getting late and I was getting tired and hungry so after a while I headed back to the car and drove off to my AirBnB for the night at Bentham, some half an hour away. This turned out to be a very characterful old vicarage right in the heart of the town. My room was comfortable and the location was quiet which was all I wanted really. I got a local takeaway a few minutes walk away and then settled in for the night to dream of orchids and endless wild rolling hills.

Having done my orchids the previous day, it seemed rude not to take advantage of the stunning scenery while I was up in the Dales. I've been wanting to get back into hill walking for a while now and my trip up to the Lake District earlier in the year with my children had whetted my appetite further. So I decided to walk up one of the three peaks in the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge. This Challenge comprises walking a circuit of about 24 miles up three peaks of around 700m elevation all in one day with the average walking taking between 10 and 12 hours. Now I wasn't going to attempt anything like that but I decided to do Ingleborough (723m in elevation) which was the nearest one to where I was staying. It was absolutely perfect weather as I set off with bright sunshine and just a hint of a breeze. To start with I pretty much had the whole place to myself as I was walking up a path that was less used by the hard core Challenge walkers. There were Meadow Pipits, Curlew, Wheatear and Merlin all to be seen as well as some amazing scenery. 

The summit in the distance

 

A remote hillside farm

Getting closer...

In the end it took me two hours to get up to the top where I found a couple of dozen people resting on the large flat plateau that made up the summit. Most of them had come up the other way and some were doing the Three Peaks as well. The visibility was amazing - I could see Morecambe Bay in the distance. I had my packed lunch and enjoyed the scenery along with my sense of achievement. 

At the summit!

 

The view from the top with Morecambe Bay in the distance

Eventually it was time to head down. Pleasingly, my knees, which can be a bit temperamental going down hills, held out OK. In the past, it had been this knee pain which had stopped me doing hill walking but using knee supports and hiking poles had made a huge difference in this respect. Finally back down at the car, I got ready for the long drive back home. I arrived back at Casa Gnome late afternoon, very pleased with my sortie up to the Yorkshire Dale and my last two orchid ticks.

 

Part II

As I mentioned earlier, my son was supposed to be coming back down from Uni at some point. He had in fact come down by train while I was up in the Dales but hadn't sorted out any of his packing so we would need to go back to fetch all his stuff. A couple of weeks later we finally agreed a date for this to happen with him going up there first to pack and then myself coming to pick him and all his stuff up. As usual I looked around for other things to see as part of this trip. First of all there was a certain rare bird up near Anglesey which was on my radar but that write-up is for a separate post. But, while I was going to be up in Yorkshire again, it seemed rude not to make a return visit to Ingleborough to see the Small White Orchids which should now be in full bloom. So after my Welsh birding, having stayed over in an AirBnB and spent the morning in Wales, I headed back up the M6 to Bentham to stay at the same AirBnB as last time. The traffic was a bit stop and start which I guess is fairly typical for the M6 on a Friday afternoon but eventually I made it to Bentham. I scored a takeaway and soon settled in for the night. 

The next morning I took my time heading off as I had a whole day set aside. Not only was I going to revisit the orchid but I thought I would do another of the Three Yorkshire Peaks. However, it turned out to be incredibly windy, blowing an absolute gale and didn't really fancy being up on the peak in that wind. Not that it would have been dangerous but just unpleasant. What's more I woke up feeling a bit under the weather anyway so, rather than exerting myself, I thought I would do something more low key. Anyway, first stop was definitely Ingleborough NNR for the Small White Orchids again.

At Ingleborough, it was amazing what a difference a couple of weeks had made to the flower meadow. Everything was now in full bloom with loads of orchids everywhere. To start with were several dozen Common Spotted and further on was a slope with getting on for one hundred Heath Spotted Orchids - I'd never seen that many HSO in one place before. 

One of hundreds of Heath Spotted Orchids

The Common Spotted Orchids were all this same rich pink colour

Eventually I made it over to the taped-off mound and low and behold the Small White Orchids were indeed all in full flower. I spent some time photographing them as best I could and even found a fifth (rather stunted) flower that I had missed last time round. I'd rather felt that seeing my last orchid species just in bud was a bit of an underwhelming way to finish my orchid list so seeing it again in full bloom was a much more satisfactory way to complete the set.

Small White Orchid - this was the largest one...

 

...the others were smaller

Having had my fill I ambled back to the car, stopping first to visit Salt Lake Quarry NR which was just by the side of the track. Here were some more lovely flowers, though only a few Common Spotted Orchids along with a few Twayblades. I'd seen some Early Purples here when I nipped in on my previous visit to Ingleborough but they had now gone over. I had a little rest and snack on a grassy bank, enjoying the sunshine in a sheltered spot out of the wind. Then it was back to the car to decide what to do next.

Wood Cranes-bill

Water Avens, actually in flower

Common Twayblades

Common Bistort

 

As I said, I didn't feel up to a proper peak. What's more, as I'd been driving to Ingleborough I had passed hundreds of walkers route marching along the road on The Challenge. One particularly enjoyable aspect of my peak walk last time had been more or less having the place to myself and I didn't fancy jostling with the crowds up a wind-blasted hill. So with a Peak off the menu, I decided to head over to Malham Cover which I had visited once many years ago. The drive there took me through more lovely scenery and with a stop off for some tea en route it was all very pleasant. Malham Cove itself, was rather touristy with lots of other visitors but still very pretty scenery. With very limited car parking, in the end I opted for the village official parking field at an eye watering £8 for all day parking. Then it was a very pleasant walk through the village (with a Spotted Flycatcher in one cottage garden) and along a nice stream up to the Cove. This is a large limestone escarpment, looking like a sheer cliff. House Martins were nesting on the cliff face and I heard a Redstart singing somewhere off to one side. I spent some time just sitting by the stream taking it all in.

 

Malham Cove

 

The stream through the village

Janet's Foss Waterfall

Back in the village I sat around taking in the vibes while eating my packed lunch. Then it was into a tea room for a welcome pot of tea. Finally back to the car where I headed off to my AirBnB for the evening near Harrogate. This involved more driving through some very pleasant scenery. There were miles and miles of small windy roads through the rolling hills of the Nidderdale National Landscape with the occasional Curlew standing on stone walls or flying about. What's not to like? Eventually I arrived at the AirBnB which was very pleasant and quiet and, after rustling up something to eat in the kitchen, I soon settled in for the night.

The next morning I was up reasonably early as I had a rendezvous with my son at 9:30am in York, about an hour away. As it was Sunday morning the traffic was light and I made good time. He already had all his stuff piled up ready by the parking bay so it was a very quick turnaround and the car was soon loaded up. With a quick pit stop for refreshments en route we made good time going back to Oxford, arriving early afternoon. As I drove I reflected on my two trips. It had been a great couple of visits to the Yorkshire Dales with some cracking orchids and some great scenery. I also felt a sense of quiet accomplishment at having completed my orchid list at last. It had been quite a journey, taking me to some wonderful places over the years.  It had also been great getting to know the Yorkshire Dales a bit better - having now been I could see what all the fuss was about. With one more year ahead for my son at Uni , I was sure I'd be back to the area sometime soon.