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When? Started: 1993 Who? Started with staff and friends from U H S, Chester. Organiser: Martyn Harris We walk every Wednesday and Saturdays, New Years day and May Day. How many walk? Walks take place as long as there are at least 2 wanting to walk on that day. More walk on a Wednesday than on a Saturday. Most ever: 29. Current group size walking: 2-7 in mid-week and 2-4 on Saturday. Where do we walk? Saturday: Anywhere in North and Mid-Wales, Peak District, Shropshire and the Long Mynd and as far North as the Trough of Bowland. Thursday: Anywhere within about 40 miles of Chester. Type of walk: Distance: 6 – 14 miles (but usually under 10 miles). Climb: up to 4000’ (but usually very much less!). People involved on walks in 2024:- Martyn Harris, Fran Murphy, Sue and Michel Pelissier, Mike Dodd, David Savage,, Ed Meads, Nigel and Elaine Taylor, Winston Feather.

Saturday, 12 January 2013

A Walk From Llanfairfechan 12th January 2013

The good shepherd.
Some sheep got left behind.
One of the Brent geese seen in the bay.
How many different species of bird are in this picture?
A few more birds to include.
A better picture of the Eurasian curlew.
Walk stats: Distance: 8.0 miles. Climb: 200' at a guess, the GPS'a wind assisted 1300' was a little out!
Time:  4 hours 8 minutes. On the move walking average: 2.5 m.p.h. Overall walk average: 1.9 m.p.h.
Group: Martyn, Mike, Celia and Carole H.
A dry, but cold day was forecast, and that was just what we got. It was a little colder than we expected at times and the cold wind was much stronger than anticipated, but at least we manged to get some shelter from it at times. even if it did mean taking lunch in a hide!
As expected the tide was at its highest as we set off from Llanfairfechan, which meant that we had superb views of lots of birds quite close up. There were impressive flocks of Oystercatcher, Eurasian curlew, Common redshank, Lapwing and Eurasian wigeon, but the bird of the day was undoubtedly the Brent goose.
The sunlight at times made the views towards the sea and the birds near the shore stand out brilliantly.
We didn't quite make it to the Spinnies Nature Reserve as the tide was too high and crossing the stones above the beach was thought to be a bit dodgy! we retraced our steps and took an early lunch before taking a detour along the road to Pentre-du to avoid the flooded area east of the mouth of the Afan Aber, that resulted in at least one member of the group getting a wet foot on the outward journey.
We arrived back at the car having had a good walk, sufficient to blow any cobwebs out of the hair, and just long enough to make it an acceptable distance for us to call it a day and head for an early pint at the Britannia Inn.
Birds seen or heard today included: House sparrow, Jackdaw, Mute swan, Black-headed gull, Herring gull, Mallard, Feral pigeon. Common starling, Song thrush, Oytercatcher, Pintail, Eurasian wigeon, Common teal, Eurasian curlew, Shoveler, Shelduck, Brent goose, Lapwing, Common blackbird,, Carrion crow, Common redshank, Meadow pipit, Winter wren, Black-billed magpie, Black-tailed godwit and Common snipe.



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