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Snowdonia
Posted by Graeme Lyons , Saturday, 24 April 2010 10:25
OK, so the first post is not even from Sussex. Jo and I just got back from three days in North Wales, on Wednesday we climbed Snowdon and we are still aching now. The sun is shining in Brighton as I write but I can hardly move my legs so it looks like I won't be doing any natural history today. Anyways, back to the monutain. Not only was the cafe at the top closed but an annoying hippy was hogging the summit so he could beat his drum. His native American Indian drum that was utterly irrelvenat and quite frankly the last thing I wanted to hear after a three hour climb! Grrrr. We ate our pittance of a lunch (we were relying on the cafe) and were soon surrounded by 1084m high Herring Gulls begging for food. Just as I was thinking that I could have seen the same avian fauna from my Brighton flat window I saw two passerines a few metres away which turned out to be a pair of Snow Buntings. The bird photographed looks like a male just passing into summer plumage. They were feeding quite actively on the edge of patches of snow. As I was creeping closer to get a better shot (they were quite tame) a woman shouted 'don't turn around' behind me. I turned around of course. There was a woman having a piss. The birds flew off. I wouldn't have even known she was there if she hadn't shouted and scared the birds off! Grrrr. Anyway, first time I have seen Snow Buntings anywhere near the breeding season. There were hardly any flowering plants out, did see Alpine and Fir Club-moss. Small Tortoiseshell at 830m was looking as bit lost.
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