Spotting seabirds on Anglesey

Who are you looking at?

 On the very western tip  of Anglesey a  series of  steep cliffs rise  dramatically from the  Irish Sea. These cliffs  are homes to vast  numbers of seabirds  including puffins,  razorbills, kittiwakes  and guillemots. An  overnight visit to the  lovely seaside village of  Trearddur Bay allowed  us to zip a few miles up  the coast to the RSPB  South Stack bird  sanctuary to view some  of these in their glory.  The puffins had gone off for a wander somewhere else unfortunately but there were thousands of guillemots chattering away on the cliffside. Here is a group of three old birds in discussion, the one with a white ring around her eyes is a bridled guillemot, the reasons are unknown but about one in twenty of them has this distinctive feature. Apart from gossiping on the cliffs they spend more time diving than they do flying and have been known to reach depths of almost 600 feet! There were a few razorbills around but they have very similar colouring to guillemots and from a distance we couldn't tell which was which. A little further away on the island that houses the lighthouse we spotted a large colony of kittiwakes which are a type of noisy seagull with a short neck.

Come and put a nickel in.....

Our evening meal at Trearddur Bay's swish Ocean's Edge restaurant was rounded off with a Kelly's ice cream at the Sea Shanty where we spotted an orchestrion in the foyer of the cafe. Prior to the advent of juke boxes companies such as Wurlitzer, and in this case Seeburg, devised coin operated music machines. This one, made around 100 years ago, has a piano inside together with pipes and percussion instruments. We're talking here about the golden age of pre-electronic music making and well before the advent of the Hammond organ. From steam powered fairground organs to the mighty Wurlitzer a huge variety of inventive contraptions were produced to entertain the masses. Sadly few examples of these still exist. (The Great Dorset Steam Fair would be the place to see fairground organs - apparently they have the biggest gathering of them in the world, forty at least. Maybe a treat for 2024?)

Flying Bishops and Geese

 

St James in the Evening

On a fine early summer evening we found ourselves in the north  of Buckinghamshire at the village of Hanslope. We'd been invited to attend a confirmation service being delivered by the Bishop of Oswestry at the church of St James the Great, another of the magnificent churches of England and Wales that we've visited recently. (If you're into Norman chancel arches this is the place to come!) The tower is especially impressive and can be seen for miles around - it was 200 feet tall but a bit fell off a couple of hundred years ago when it was struck by lightning and it's now a mere 187 ft. Quite why the Bishop of Oswestry is responsible for diocesan visits this far away became clear when it was explained to me (by another bishop) that he's a 'flying bishop', well it seemed clear at the time!

Heading back northwards the following day we found our route blocked by a gaggle of geese. Calling in at the RSPB reserve at Middleton Lakes near Tamworth we spent a pleasant and peaceful couple of hours tootling round the trails through what used to be a huge system of gravel pits in the middle of the industrial West Midlands. These somewhat assertive wildfowl are Greylag geese which in the 20th century had all but disappeared from the UK due to destruction of their breeding sites, but they're back (and doing a bit of breeding here as you can see, well you can see the results of the breeding!) We carefully skirted round to the left closely monitored by the protective parent birds.

Offa, King of the Midlands

And thence to Lichfield for an overnight stay followed by a parkrun round Beacon Park in the middle of town. We were very close to the city centre and a stone's throw away from the imposing cathedral. Thinking that we could have a gander (!) inside the cathedral we approached  to hear the unmistakeable sounds of Hotel California and to see barriers across the west door. An Eagles tribute band were tuning up for a concert by candlelight later that evening and we could already see one or two aged rock fans trundling around the side streets. And why not if it raises some funds for upkeep of the building, but did St Chad turn in his grave? Before we left we looked up at the cathedral frontage to see an assembly of carvings of various royal figures which have been added over the centuries, there's even one of Queen Victoria which was carved by her daughter Princess Louise. I didn't spot that one but I did manage to get a snap of one of our favourites - Offa, King of Mercia.