Woodies (16th July)

Yet another late morning start with the family.  This time, we crammed ourselves, including Theo, into the Mini and drove a couple miles down the road to visit the nearby ruins of Cymer Abbey near Dolgellau.  I was hoping to locate some Hawfinches here but on arriving it was clearly not the right habitat so I resorted to wandering along the river bank were I was fortune enough to stumble on a family of 3 WOOD WARBLERS, a welcome year tick!

Wood Warbler

Moving on, my brother and I located 2 SPOTTED FLYCATCHERS (also an overdue year tick for the both of us) and on reaching the outskirts of the town we came across a juvenile Magpie sat in the middle of the road.  As we encouraged it onto the roadside verge, the characteristic loud "tskk" call of Hawfinches came overhead.  Unfortunately, I picked them up rather late and I only caught a brief glimpse so it's best to pass them off as 2 probable Hawfinches.

juv. Magpie