Never tire of watching 'crests

One of two Firecrests on the Great Orme today (Marc Hughes)

In Holyhead’s Breakwater Country Park last week, I scoured the trees and bushes for migrants. Realistic enough not to expect a lost waif from North America, although Veery, Mourning Dove and Northern Parula are all exotic names to feature from other parts of western Britain and Ireland recently; I hoped for a Yellow-browed Warbler or Firecrest fresh from a North Sea crossing. A copse full of squeaking calls from Goldcrests renewed my flagging hopes: five-gramme balls of fizzing energy are worthy of a second look in their own right.

Head on, their tiny eyes are just a centimetre apart and their black “moustache”, formed by a dark line that runs from the base of the bill, give them a look of grumpiness. Anthropomorphism aside, these Goldcrests may have arrived from Scandinavia earlier that day and are in search of tiny insects in the Sycamores and brambles. If they can’t replace body fat and protein lost during their migratory exertion, they may not survive the night. Weighing less than 20 pence barely causes the tiniest twigs to bend.

I found no scarce visitors, although a Firecrest was at nearby Soldier’s Point and others were at Groeslon, Caerhun and Porth Eilian last week, with two on the Great Orme on Monday. Also evident everywhere on Anglesey were Skylarks in groups of up to 30, passing overhead to the southwest. Some were beyond my eyesight, their migration given away only by dry, rolling contact calls to keep the group on track.

Bardsey Bird Observatory saw the pick of the rarity action, with Radde’s Warbler, Red-breasted Flycatcher and Siberian Lesser Whitethroat arriving from the east into their ringing nets. Lapland and Snow Buntings, Ring Ouzels, Fieldfares and Redwings were on the Great Orme on Monday after the airflow turned to the east.
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North Wales Wildlife Trust confirmed last week that 2400 pairs of Sandwich Tern fledged more than 1900 chicks at Cemlyn in the summer. The site had accounted for 60% of all the Sandwich Terns breeding around the Irish Sea in 2024, after the species was hit badly by bird flu. Cemlyn also held 300 pairs of Arctic and Common Terns, two pairs of Roseate Terns and two pairs of Mediterranean Gull. You can catch up on the season's news from Chris Wynne and Nick Richards in this recording.