14th February 2018 (North Wales & Gloucestershire)

With the week off work, I took the opportunity to head to North Wales for an overdue lifer. An early start was required to pick up Lewis from Cirencester and get up to World's End near Wrexham before sunrise (Always know its a proper twitch when you have to get up before midnight!).

The drive up was disrupted by a closure on the M5, and ice made the detour a bit perilous at times, but we had some decent nocturnal sightings on the way up including singles of Barn Owl and Red Fox, and a few Roe Deer in the road.

We ended up arriving only an hour before sunrise. Arriving at the site Elliot had directed me to, I was dismayed to find that the layby was the one spot of our journey so far that was completely covered in a sheet of solid ice! I parked tentatively and the wait began. I didn't expect the lek to come to much being only mid-February, but to my surprise another birder did pull up in front of us - a large 4x4 that dwarfed my car as it attempted to parallel park whilst skidding around on the ice!

About 30 minutes before sunrise, I noticed a dark blob outside the car, much closer that I thought we'd get the grouse. On closer inspection, there were several dark blobs moving around, and on opening the windows we could hear the lek in full swing! Once the sun came up, we counted at least 20 male Black Grouse! We had great views of the birds fighting just metres from the car! A big thanks to Elliot for the tip off, this spot was far more productive than I expected!

Black Grouse - World's End

Phonescoping through a car window wasn't the easiest, but I managed at least one passable shot.

After a long drive south to Ashleworth Ham in Gloucestershire, Lewis managed to pick out the Green-Winged Teal. Other than a decent variety of wildfowl, there wasn't much else of note here.

Green-Winged Teal - Ashleworth Ham

Our next target was Great Grey Shrike, so we tried for the Hawling bird on the way home. No sign, but we did have at least 20 Red-Legged Partridges. Next stop was Cotwold Water Park. First stop was pit 28 to search for smew. We eventually found a spot without a 'No Parking' sign, and climbed through a heavily overgrown public footpath to the lake. A few Goosanders were all of note, so we checked a few of the surrounding lakes producing a Red-Crested Pochard at best. Next stop was pit 16 to search through the gull roost for the Kumlien's Gull. We eventually found a residential street where we could get distant views of the roost producing 2 adult Yellow-Legged Gulls and a 1w Mediterranean Gull. Eventually the rain became a bit much and I gave up.

Red-Crested Pochard - Cotswold Water Park

A bit of a fustrating end to the day, but this mornings grouse lek was great to see!