Ocean-going waders arrive on stormy seas

Grey Phalarope at Morfa Dinlle (Steve Culley)

Phalaropes are amazing creatures: small, slender and tough, habituated to some of the Earth’s most extreme conditions. Like curlews and sandpipers, phalaropes are waders; there are only three species on the planet. Two of the three appeared in North Wales last week, passing between Arctic Circle breeding grounds, and the equatorial and southern oceans where they’ll winter. Few other birds live with Polar Bears and albatrosses in the space of a few months.

A Red-necked Phalarope dropped in for an afternoon at RSPB Cors Ddyga, feeding on insects in one of the few wet pools left in a Cefni Valley parched after summer’s drought. At just 18cm from bill-tip to tail, it’s the diddiest of the three, smaller than a Starling. It was dwarfed by Teal, Europe’s smallest duck, with which it swam.

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A Red-necked Phalarope is tiny compared to nearby Teal (Michael Thackeray)

Gales pushed more than 50 Grey Phalaropes to the Welsh coast, at least 16 around Anglesey and Pen Llŷn. Most were fly-bys, but those on pools beside Holy Island’s Stanley embankment and at RSPB Morfa Dinlle stayed long enough to be admired. I found one on foamy seas in Porth Cwyfan. It would pick a tiny morsel from the surf, lift briefly off the surface and dip back into the waves. Against the rollers, it looked like spindrift, but this is how it spends its autumn days. It looked exhausting!

Storms also yielded all four skua species, Sooty and Balearic Shearwaters, Leach’s Petrel and Black Terns from various watchpoints, and several Sabine’s Gulls that included an exhausted one taken into care in Pwllheli.
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Curlew Sandpipers were scattered on estuaries and pools across the region, the highest counts being 12 on the Alaw estuary and 11 at Glan y Môr Elias, near Llanfairfechan. A Pectoral Sandpiper was on the Clwyd estuary, Glossy Ibis on the Dee estuary and a Black Redstart remained on the Great Orme. Bardsey hosted Wryneck, Common Rosefinch and Hoopoe, and other Hoopoes were at Llwyngwril and Tal-y-cafn.