A flock of 50+ Twite had been reported all week, and were showing brilliantly around the West Hide this morning.
They are part of a mixed flock of Finches also comprising about 200 Linnet and a handful of Goldfinch.
The Linnet and Twite were feeding on the Oakenhalt Marsh and coming to wash in a puddle in the West Hide car park, and then sitting on the fence to preen. (Pictures below).

2 Rock Pipit were showing well on the rocks below the hide, along with a Robin (seemed weird seeing a Robin there)
650 Lapwing was the largest count I’ve had for a few years, but Black-tailed Godwit and Oystercatcher numbers were low, with only about 500 of each probably down to the high tide not being particularly high.
Common Redshank, Curlew, a handful of Dunlin and Knot, and plenty of Teal boosted numbers.

The Bunded Pools were particularly quiet, with a brace of Greenshank and a Single Spotted Redshank the only real birds of note out of the 30 or so there.
A Peregrine sat on a Pylon and a sizable flock of Starling added a bit of interest around the Ash pool, as did a Great-spotted Woodpecker down the Nature Trail, which eventually ended up on the bird feeders, with a healthy count of 17 Greenfinch, the largest I’ve had a while.

Linnet

Twite

How do you do it?  Buy Photomatix, take 3 pictures of different exposure (Exposure Bracketing on a Canon DSLR) and let Photomatix do the rest

Plenty more here -> My Flickr

Including Peregrine, Greenshank, Spotted Redshank, Yellow-Legged Gull and plenty more.

Oakenhalt marsh held an impressive
400+ Canada Goose
380 Shelduck
500+ Teal
1500+ Black-tailed Godwit
1 Bar-tailed Godwit
300 Knot
120 Curlew (my largest count here for a while)
12 Wigeon (early, and great to see)
200 Black-Headed Gull
a single Yellow-legged Gull in with a mixed flock of about 100 large gulls including Herring, Lesser and Greater Black-backed.
A Female Peregrine had a good go at the Godwits, but they all managed to survive and Mrs P headed off over Burton Marsh at full throttle, eventually to be lost in one of the many gutters.
Kestrel, Sparrowhawk and Buzzard made it a 4 raptor day, just a little too early in the winter for a Merlin.

The Bunded Pools had a few hundred Common Redshank, with 9 Spotted Redshank and 19 Greenshank creating the usual mix of ‘Shanks.
A handful of Knot were mixed in the 95 Black-tailed Godwit.
Starling, Lapwing, Little Egret, Cormorant and another Yellow Legged Gull were also on the pools.

What a beauty, although a bit too far away for a decent photo.  Here is a record dot.

Also around were 2x Spotted Redshank, 1x Greenshank, 3x Red-breasted Merganser, 2x Black-tailed Godwit, 1x Curlew Sandpiper and 2x Ruff

It rained. . . and the air show didn’t start until 14:00 although the website and fliers said 12:00.  Apart from that, not a bad day.

RAF Falcons

Piper Cub

I wasn’t expecting much from this display, but it was fantastic.  Brilliant little plane, amazing pilot.

Yes, it’s going sideways

Battle Of Britain memorial Flight – Hurricane and Spitfire

On the Sunday, the Red arrows put on another brilliant show

The Breitling Wing Walkers also put on an another excellent show

Steve Carver put on an excellent display in his Extra 300(?), unbelievably hard to photograph.

Plane of the day for me however was the Jet provost T5, I missed the display on the Saturday as I was sheltering from the rain.

Sunday’s display didn’t disappoint.

The gates open to the public at 13:00 and at first glance there are very few Kites around, but by the time feeding starts at 14:00 there are Kites everywhere.

After 1 Hour 45 and 700 pictures later, here are a few of my favorites.  Completely average by most photographers standards, I’m still pleased with them.

More images here -> Red Kites

No Lesser-Spotted Woodpecker, but I did pick up the other 2 Peckers, including both Green and Great-Spotted having a disagreement over the same perch, not something you see every day.

Willow Tit, Nuthatch, Treecreeper and Goldcrest were additions to the Year list, as was Chiff-Chaff.

Not many pictures, although I did manage to find this Treecreeper toing and froing from a nest site with nesting material.

oh, and a Chaffinch.

It was mainly made up of Chaffinch

Brambling

and a fair few Goldfinch

Also around the feeder area were 4 or 5  Robin, 1 Wren, 2 Dunnock, a hand full of Blue, Great and Long-tailed Tit and a Great Spotted Woodpecker.

Out on Oakenhalt marsh were 3000 Dunlin and a pair of Merlin, the female coming in fairly close.

More here -> Waxwing gallery

I know it’s on feeders, I know it’s not the best quality ever, but I like it.

Anyway, here’s a collection of some of the images I’ve managed.  Probably not the best, but I think they all have their own qualities.

This Great-crested grebe was at CQNR over the October High tides, coming close  enough to the hides for a picture.

The high tides also meant  a large concentration of Black-tailed Godwits close to the hides

and here are a few other pics

Aperture was f8 with an 8 second exposure.  Anything less than 8 seconds and the car didn’t move through the shot far enough.

Black tern x3

Common Redshank

Greenshank x7

Snipe

Black-tailed Godwit x2

Dunlin x2

Kingfisher x1

Coot

Moorhen

Shoveler

Mallard

Pochard x23

Tufted Duck

Black-Headed gull

Grey Heron

Little Egret x3

Marsh Tit x1

Treecreeper x2

Here are some pictures

Rhyl Air Show 2010

Red Arrows

Dragon Spitfire

Team Breitling

Skyraider

Also at CQ today, an Adult Mediterranean Gull, 1 Bar-Tailed Godwit, 600 Black-Tailed Godwit, 2 Peregrine Falcon and a few ChiffChaff

Also a  few Buzzard, 1 even low enough for a photo, kind of messed up the exposure a little though

Word was that a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker was hanging around the trees near the car park early mornings, and it ceraintly was.  Calling and drumming for the 30 minutes we watched.  It was still there on the same tree when we got back to the car park 30 minutes later.  What a bird!!

We waited for about 5 hours for the Bittern to show in the East Reedbed, which it didn’t

I passed the time taking pictures of the other birds on show, including this Robin that would take biscuit crumbs out of your hand.

Gadwall

Mute Swan

and Coot

Also managed this Jay at the feeding station

Highlights on 1st were a Firecrest at Conwy RSPB in exactly the same place I saw 1 last year (same bird perhaps???)

Purple Sandpipers at Rhos Point and a couple of Sparrowhawks

Today’s highlights were a Shag at West Kirby Marine Lake,

and these beautiful Dunlin.