Chough!

 

Back in the middle of June, Dad and I took the long journey to north Wales for the Western Reef Heron, only to miss it (though thankfully I caught up with it last week in south Wales…). It would have been rude of us not to visit the site of our very first long distance twitch together, back in 2003, when we visited South Stack RSPB on Anglesey.

Back then we were rather more fortunate, seeing what was considered at the time to be Britain's first Black Lark — on its very last day. We were taken along by my mentor at the time, Trevor Williams, and his son Dan. It was an incredible day that I will never forget, and I believe I also ticked Chough for the first time that day too.

It was of course great to revisit South Stack in June, though it has changed a lot since then. There were plenty of breeding seabirds on the cliffs, including the odd Puffin and scores of Manx Shearwaters offshore. The highlight though was the magnificent Choughs, shining in the sun against a stunning blue sea backdrop.