On Sunday a local birdwatcher at Cemlyn Bay had recommended the Porth Wen brickworks for Choughs, so we headed there. We parked on a narrow lane between Bull Bay and Cemaes and walked down a footpath and track to Porth Llanlleiana where the were some reed beds with Sedge Warblers and some ruined buildings.
We climbed up a steep path to the clifftop. Gannets and Guillemots were nesting on an inshore island. We watched Gannets doing flypasts for a while, and a pair of Kestrels hovering on the updraft.
The next cove along the cliff path was called Hell’s Mouth. We sat there for a while and watched a pair of Choughs feeding on the cliffside.
There were Whitethroats calling from every bush
Over the next rise we found a dead mole.
Then down into Porth Wen and we had a look around the ruined brickworks.
A seal was bobbing in the bay.
We went up a track and back along the lane to the car.
We drove to Amwlch for a coffee and then went to Parys Mountain. We spent an hour or so walking the trail around what was once the largest copper mine in the world. There were slag heaps and ruined mine workings and old settling ponds and a windmill that assisted a steam engine.
In one of the mine buildings there were some big nests.
Back to the hotel for a change of clothes and then we drove to Beaumaris. On the way we stopped at the ancient settlement of Din Lligwy, near Moelfre, and had a look around the ruins and then at a Neolithic burial chamber down the road a bit.
At Beaumaris we had a wander around. There was a castle and a pier. Some children were crabbing off the sides of the pier. A gull stole a man’s ice cream out of his hands. We had dinner in a tapas bar.
After dinner we stopped at the Spar for some Welsh cheese and oatcakes and a bottle of Penderyn whisky and some chocolate.