A rare moment of sunshine and 20 degrees on forecast, too good an opportunity to miss so it was off to Gronant in North Wales as a birder friend had told me about the Little Terns and one of the most important breeding colonies. We arrived at 9am walking from Shore Road car park down to the coastal area which has a protected, fenced off area with monitoring by volunteers. A lovely walk along easy pathways bordered by tall coastal grasses, reeds and sand dunes with a small hut where we found the volunteers and little bird hide overlooking the nesting areas (now mostly empty as many chicks are now fledged). We walked along the beach being mindful not to disturb any of the tern chicks which would still be being fed by their parents; although some photos look close, we were quite some distance from the chicks and used the 500mm reach lens cropping each photo very hard but maintaining reasonable detail (something I love when using CRAW ! )
Without further ado, meet the Little Terns and their chicks along with a few other species.
large expanse of sand and shingle which the birds use; fenced off dedicated nesting areas were closer to the mainland on the right, just out of view
The little bird hide ..... only one opening window so was pretty warm inside on a 20 degree day !
Little Terns like other long distance migrant birds are pretty nippy in flight so it took me a while to get any photos of them. !!
This one had found a sand eel .......
and here are the very cute looking chicks ........... according to my expert pal, they are the fastest fledging species in the world. !! young are able to fly at just 14 days old.
Only downside is that they leave the protected area at just 9 or 10 days old and can become vulnerable to predation by Kestrels, Foxes, Stoats, etc.,
you might be able to detect that these chicks have been ringed, important as data which can be collected from their west African wintering grounds can provide vital information
a little group of three which have left the safe compounds and now out on the exposed beach area; not great photo as still taken from distance so as not to spook the chicks into flight or their parents monitoring them from above
Right, that's about enough photos for you to be going on with. I will return later with photos of other species we saw of Ringed Plover, Stonechat, Gatekeeper butterfly, Common Darter dragonfly and what I think is a Skylark ?
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Regards, Hazel
Great shots Hazy. It looks like you are getting the hang of the new camera. Probably a little too much blue sky ... , but good for you, The Little Tern chicks are adorable ...
Thanks aitch for that insight into the protected LittleTern project at Gronant, some very good captures there!
2013 photos & vids here
eff37 on Flickr
Great photo's Hazy, nice to see those Little Tern chicks.
Oh wow and what a fabulous day you picked to visit Hazel..chicks are such cuties. Thanks for sharing ️
(Pardon the Scottish Accent)
Rather than start a new thread for Gronant, I will add the rest of the photos here. First bird we saw was a hunting female Kestrel but too distant for photos and we heard a "Gropper" reeling sound but failed to see the Grasshopper Warbler. The Ringed Plover was begging me to take its photo LOL and the male Stonechat was trying to show me the correct way to the beach. !
Starting with what I think is a female Common Darter ?
and a Gatekeeper butterfly; not seen many butterflies this year due to the constant wet weather
Mr Stonechat indicating the correct path to take !
and this very bold Ringed Plover who was posing beautifully !
When I went to walk away he shouted "Hey..... you haven't taken my best side yet "
"You listening Mrs ? " take more photos of me ;.
"This is my cute LQQk " see, I knew you would like to photograph me "
and what I think is Sea Holly
Meadow Pipit - thanks to Rob for correct ID
Two super sets Hazel. Am only on my phone (in supermarket car park whilst Mrs PB hunts and gathers) so have none of my books to help with IDs, I'm afraid
Oh just noticed you added more fabulous pics Hazel RPs are just so cute...keep them coming .Super pics as always
Fabulous photos Hazy, and what looked a superb day. One of the many North Wales Coast reserves, of which there are quite a few from there out to Bangor.
The boardwalk looks good and well laid out, ideal for easy access, many thanks for sharing the info and super photos. I'm guessing you've settled nicely with the R5.
Mike
Flickr: Peak Rambler
Mike B said:The boardwalk looks good and well laid out, ideal for easy access, many thanks for sharing the info and super photos. I'm guessing you've settled nicely with the R5.
It takes about 20 minutes from Shore Road (free) car park to walk to the beach but it's pretty level until the slight slope of the sand dunes; boardwalk is very good which starts after a bit of a sandy flat path after leaving Shore Road. As for the R5, the light was so bright that day I find the viewfinder hard to read and took me half an hour to capture a Tern in flight LOL. Still a learning curve but I do love the R5 as distant shots can be cropped down severely and you still get detail; I could have added the extender to get the chicks but prefer not to add any extra glass because of the huge cropping ability.
Here's the same photo taken with 500mm reach and then heavily cropped in post editing ........
HAZY said:Here's the same photo taken with 500mm reach and then heavily cropped in post editing ........
I've just been reading up on Gronant. It could be a go to when Mrs PR visits her friend just down the road on the Rhyl/Prestatyn border.....
Mrs PR has gone all gooey over the little tern chick.....
I think you'll be very pleasantly surprised at the cropping ability of photos taken with the R5 and extender. The only thing I've noticed is, and it was to be expected, fast shutter speeds do exhibit more noise on the image, particularly when heavily cropped, and I'm still using the EF100-400 and the 2x EF extender.