RSPB Conwy, then Pintails at Malltraeth

It was quite late in the afternoon when I parked up on the bridge at Malltraeth and set up the scope to look out over the estuary mouth. Plenty of Redshank and Eurasian Wigeon.  The whistles of the Wigeon are one of the most delightful sounds of winter imagineable. I remember so clearly hearing the sound for the first time at Aldenham Reservoir, when I would have been about 13 or 14. And in the backgrougnd this afternoon there was also the bubbling soundtrack of Curlews, and the piping of Redshanks.

I put the telescope back in the car and got Monty ready for a walk along towards Newborough Forest. As I walked along the path on top of The Cob, I was absolutely entranced to see the Pintails roosting on the Malltraeth Cob pool, just as when C.F. Tunnicliffe painted them. There were Little Grebes and Teal as well. More detail below the photo!

By the time I got back to the car, the sun had set, leaving this wonderful sunset to view on my mobile phone.

I got right along the path as far as the first Forestry Commission car-park at Newborough Forest, and then on to the second on the other side of the road and the wildlife pond mapped there. On the way back to the road I got to target, and still over a mile to go, so definitely a better effort than yesterday!

I am in two minds about Newborough Forest. Firstly it really was a criminal act to plant over such a fantastic sand dune system. On the other hand it has really benefited the red squirrels and the ravens. At least I saw the ravens, at least four, "kronking" as they fly over! In the woods there were Blackbirds, and on the wildlife pond there were Mallards and/or Wigeon, Coots and Teal.

Pintails, Anas acuta, are beautifully graceful ducks, particularly the males with their "Audrey Hepburn" necks and poised heads, accentuated by the chocolate and white neck patterns. How anyone could shoot them I do not know!

I wonder why dabbling ducks are such different shapes? Morphological differences, notably bill lamellar density and body length, may allow sympatric species to partition food and hence coexist. Pintails would seem to fit in between Mallards and Teal, and the size of food they eat parallels this (Brochet et al, 2011)!