TRAVEL TO WREXHAM – VISITS TO WORLDS END MOOR & GRESFORD FLASH
WEATHER; patchy sunshine with a chilly wind, top temp 19C
It was an early start for Dawn and myself this morning (yes Dawn is with me on this trip, watch out), we left the house at 6am and drove up to Wrexham arriving just before 10am. We collected a minibus for the group to travel in, but before we met the group we took a ride up to the moorland at Worlds Ends.
A view of the Moor at Worlds End
The weather was lovely a sunny bright day with a chilly wind, but dry!! We had seen many birds along the way including Red Kite, Common Buzzard, Jay and lots of common species.
A Skylark
Meadow Pipit
Our trip to the moor produced some nice sightings of Red Grouse, Skylark, Meadow Pipit, Northern Wheatear, Common Stonechat, Mistle Thrush, Song Thrush, Common Kestrel. We made recce trips to various lookout points for Black Grouse in preparation for our planned early morning visit with the group tomorrow.
Red Grouse
One lovely sighting on the way back was that of a Red Grouse with three tiny chicks walking along the road in front of the bus.
a Red Grouse close to the bus, look right of Dawn's sun glasses
We checked in at 3pm where we met Pauline, one of the group and later at 5pm we met up with Richard, Susan and Ian, the rest of the group. At 5:30pm we went for a quick visit to The Flash at Gresford. This circular lake has no public access but you view it from the lane. We saw about 20 species there, mostly common water birds such as Canada and Greylag Geese, Mallard, Tufted Duck, Coot & Great crested Grebe.
Great crested Grebe chick given a massive fish to eat
going
going
gone!
It was nice to see several Stock Doves fly over and to watch the grebes feeding their half-grown chicks. Lots of Sand Martins buzzed over the water with a few Barn Swallows and in a ploughed field on the hill behind the water we saw a large group of Herring & Lesser BB Gulls loafing around.
We got back to the hotel in time for dinner at 7pm.