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Tag Archives: Conwy castle

Winter Waterbirds

03 Thursday Jan 2019

Posted by theresagreen in Birdwatching on North Wales coast, Coastal Snowdonia, Nature of Wales, RSPB Reserves, Wales Coast Path, Wildlife of the Wales Coast Path

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

Conwy castle, Conwy estuary, December, ducks and geese, estuary-side habitat, gadwall, goldeneye, Lapwing, little egret, RSPB Conwy, teal

31st December 2018-Conwy RSPB Reserve 

Location:  Llandudno Junction Postcode: LL31 9XZ
Grid ref:  SH797773

Located on the eastern side of the Estuary of the river Conwy, this reserve is a perfect example of how a once industrial site can be reclaimed by and for nature. The reserve  was created in the early 1990s from material dug out from the estuary during the construction of the A55 road tunnel that passes under the River Conwy to bypass the historic town of Conwy. The reserve also incorporates mudflats and saltmarsh, part of the Afon Conwy SSSI, important for migratory waders including curlew, oystercatcher and redshank.

Conwy Castle

I was meeting up with friends this morning and arrived a few minutes early, so I pulled into the parking area in front of the estuary to admire the views across and along the sands and mudflats of the estuary of the River Conwy. This is the eastern side of the estuary, so firstly looking north there are perfect views of Conwy Castle and town with Conwy Mountain behind it.

Most of the land on the opposite western side of the estuary is within Snowdonia National Park. To the south is the town of Glan Conwy.

 

 

A Pied Wagtail scuttling over a patch of lime chippings was my first bird of the day.

 

 

A flock of metal Lapwing adorn the entrance to the Reserve

As you enter the Reserve there is a man-made mound in front of you that acts as a vantage point from which to get an overview of the site. Circular walks have been created that pass through a variety of habitats such as reedbed, young woodland, grassland and scrub.

There are two lagoons, originally created to hold the sludge from the tunnel excavations; one holds shallow water while the other is much deeper, both of which attract waders and waterbirds, especially from August to March. The lagoons are filled with fresh, not tidal water and are dependant on winter rains to fill them. If they ever need to be topped up, water is taken directly from the nearby river, the Afon Ganol. Islands have been created within them providing havens for roosting and nesting birds. These are best for birds at high tide, when the river covers the mudflats pushing waders to roost and feed on the islands.

At low tide, as now, there are not as many birds to see as there may be when the tide floods back into the estuary, but our first sighting gave me another duck species to add to my list of ones I might recognise when I see them again. We worked out these were a pair of Gadwall, which are quite understated in their appearance, not colourful or flashy, but quite common so likely to be seen again.

Gadwall-Hwyaden Lwyd

11:19-The sun shining through a break in the clouds momentarily created a darkly dramatic, almost monochromatic view of the lagoon and the distant mountains.

We moved on and followed the boardwalk that wends through the reedbeds. Water Rail are resident here and sighted fairly frequently, so we were listening out for their distinctive calls, but all was quiet. We admired the surroundings instead; the dried reed stems glowing golden in the sunlight and reflected in the clear water of the well-filled pools are a beautiful sight.

11:19- A Coot cuts purposefully across the wind-rippled surface of the lagoon temporarily disrupting its pattern.

11:21- A pair of Mallard occupy on the end of a grassy island, the male standing watchfully over the resting female.

Mallard – Hywaden Wyllt

11:29 A Mute Swan glides across the water, wings raised.

11:30- A minute later the peace is shattered as another suddenly rears up in the water with a great deal of splashing and drama and sets off in pursuit of it.

The first Swan turned and travelled away as quickly as it could towards a narrow grassy island, the other in close pursuit and catching up just as it reached the edge of the spit of land.

The pursuer heaved himself from the water and on top of the other, which we now realised must be a female, his weight almost forcing her beneath the water as he positioned himself to mate. Mute Swans mate for life, so we couldn’t be sure if this was consensual or whether the female had been trying to escape or hoping to get onto the firmer ground of the island or just the shallower water at the edge of the island before she was caught. Either way it didn’t look like much fun for her.
Although it all took place in little more than a minute or so, the activity attracted the interest of another individual who sailed up close to the mating pair, its wings raised.

The mating male turned to face the intruder, rearing himself up with the poor female still pinned beneath him and the other mirroring the movement, stretching its neck up towards the other.

Was this a victory display?

Goldeneye (m)

Whilst all this had been going on a black and white duck had been unconcernedly carrying on with the business of searching for food nearby. It was tricky to follow as it spent much of its time below the surface, bobbing up only briefly before dipping down again. I managed only one quick snap of it, fortunately good enough to be identified later on by one of the staff volunteers as a male Goldeneye.

He also identified another mostly brown duck that had been behaving similarly in the water in front of the hide, as a female Tufted Duck.

Tufted Duck- Hywaden Gopog

Another Coot

11:38 – We got back out onto the path and turned off to head towards the eastern edge of the Reserve as indicated by the Magpie that landed on the signpost.

 

A short way up the path we spent a few minutes being completely charmed by a close encounter with an exceptionally confiding Robin. He, or she, sat on the tip of a bramble stem at the edge of the path, tilting its head to look at us. I think if we had been able to offer it food it may have come to a hand to be fed.

 

A grounded giant dragonfly

We reached the gate that gives access to the fenced area of wilder scrub vegetation.

This path leads to the Estuary edge.

To the left of the path in a dyke below us, a small party of Teal travelled slowly upstream, stopping frequently to feed.

The bright light and shadows weren’t helpful in showing off the real beauty of the little male, so you’ll have to trust me when I say he was looking splendid in his bright breeding colours.

The female may be brown, but she has her own subtle beauty in her brown-shaded plumage, with each of her feathers edged with white.   

A trail of freshly deposited poo on the path finally led us to the Carneddau mountain ponies that roam the southern section of the reserve where they graze down unwanted vegetation. They will happily munch on brambles, reeds and rushes as well as grass,  which they keep short creating the habitat needed by a wide variety of wildlife.

The sun came out again as we got to this spot, lighting up the Castle and Conwy Mountain behind it.

The bright sunlight also rendered birds feeding on the Estuary mud as silhouettes, most of their colour hidden in shadow. Shelduck are distinctive in size and shape though, and in the way they dip their heads to ‘hoover’ the ground in front of them.

181231-1205-RSPBCWY-50-Shelduck
181231-1208-RSPBCWY-52-Shelduck

The Shelducks were behind a large flock of foraging Redshank. The buildings in the background are in the village of Glan Conwy.

There were more along the edges of a channel of water

A few higher up on the bank made it possible to distinguish their diagnostic orange-red legs.

A solitary Little Egret stood stock still on the mud gazing intently out over the Estuary. Perhaps waiting for the tide to turn and bring in fresh food.

A surprise was this large patch of Sow-thistle in lush green leaf and in full bloom.

A view back into the reserve gave us Canada Geese, Mallard and a Goldeneye male, maybe the same one we saw earlier.

And on a narrow rock-strewn island in front of a hide, one of the iconic birds of the reserve, Lapwings.

They were too distant from where we stood to see them well, but just a few moments later as we continued to walk, something had disturbed them and the whole flock was up in the air.

There is another bird visible in the photograph, but it’s too small and distant to make out whether that could have caused the disturbance. Whatever the cause, a flock of Lapwing flying is always a lovely sight and particularly so today as the sunshine caught the white undersides of their wings turning them silver. Mesmerising.

Back down to earth and a much less glamorous sighting of a Dunnock gave us our final sighting. It had fluttered in front of us, giving the impression of something a bit more exotic – we’d been keeping an eye out for Brambling – but it was a nice sighting none the less and didn’t let us stopping to stare at it put it off having a little snooze in the sun.

181231-1228-RSPBCWY-73-Dunnock
181231-1228-RSPBCWY-72-Dunnock
181231-1228-RSPBCWY-71-Dunnock

The path leads back to the gate at the parking layby I mentioned at the beginning of the post that marks the boundary of the Reserve.

 

 

 

It too is embellished with Lapwing images.

The bars of the kissing gate resemble the wings of a Lapwing

I thought I’d finish as I started, with another view of the Castle, now lit by the sun before we headed to the café to thaw out with soup and a cup of tea.

Thanks to Jill, Pete and Christine for an enjoyable outing on which to end 2018 and a Happy New Year to everyone that reads this!

 

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Evening on the Estuary

12 Sunday Feb 2012

Posted by theresagreen in Nature, nature photography

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Tags

Conwy castle, Conwy estuary, Curlew, estuary at low tide, shelduck

An evening walk alongside the Conwy Estuary. The sun was low in a cloudy sky, it was very cold and the tide was fully out exposing the wonderful contours and textures of the river bottom.  A few pools of shallow water remained and the only birds to be seen were a very few Curlew and a pair of Shelduck.

Shelduck

Contours and textures at low tide

A stalking Curlew blends easily into the estuary landscape

View upriver

Looking down the estuary towards the castle

Click on any of the images to enlarge them.

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The Welsh Red Dragon

24 Tuesday Jan 2012

Posted by theresagreen in Welsh culture and mythology

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Conwy castle, mabinogion, mametz wood memorial, red dragon of Wales, welsh flag, Welsh Highland Railway

My blog is usually about real everyday nature, in real time, but today at the beginning of this Chinese New Year of the Dragon, I am writing instead about the significance of this mythological creature here in Wales.

The Welsh Dragon, in Welsh Y Ddraig Goch, (Red Dragon) is the indisputable and most highly prominent icon of the country. It is employed and proudly displayed in a myriad of ways and places, from  playful car bumper stickers and drinking mugs to more serious applications such as that as the symbol of  the Welsh Assembly Government, but its most significant role is as the centrepiece of  the nation’s flag.

welsh_flag

The Welsh Dragon appears on the national flag of Wales (the flag itself is also called “Y Ddraig Goch”). During the reigns of the Tudor monarchs, the red dragon was used as a supporter in the English crown’s coat of arms (one of two supporters, along with the traditional English lion).

Mythology of the red dragon

The mythology connecting the Red Dragon to Wales begins in the Mabinogion,  a collection of eleven prose stories collated from mediaeval Welsh manuscripts. The tales draw on pre-Christian Celtic mythology, international folktale motifs, and early mediaeval historical traditions.

Mabinogion

The fight between the Red and White Dragons

In the Mabinogion story of Lludd and Llefelys, the Red Dragon fights with an invading White Dragon. His awful pained shrieks bring about mayhem and disaster; women  miscarry, animals  perish and plants become barren. Lludd, the then king of Britain,seeks help from his wise brother Llefelys in France. Llefelys tells him to dig a pit in the centre of Britain, fill it with mead, and cover it with cloth. Lludd does this, and the dragons drink the mead and fall asleep. Lludd imprisons them, still wrapped in their cloth, in Dinas Emrys in Snowdonia (Welsh:Eryri).

Historia Brittonum
The tale is taken up by Nennius in the Historia Brittonum. The dragons remain at Dinas Emrys for centuries until King Vortigern tries to build a castle there. Every night the castle walls and foundations are demolished by unseen forces. Vortigern consults his advisers, who tell him to find a boy with no natural father, and sacrifice him. Vortigern finds such a boy (who is later, in some tellings, to become Merlin) who is supposed to be the wisest wizard to ever live. On hearing that he is to be put to death to solve the demolishing of the walls, the boy dismisses the knowledge of the advisors. The boy tells the king of the two dragons. Vortigern excavates the hill, freeing the dragons. They continue their fight and the red dragon finally defeats the white dragon. The boy tells Vortigern that the white dragon symbolises the Saxons and that the red dragon symbolises the people of Vortigern. If Vortigern is accepted to have lived in the fifth century, then these people are the British whom the Saxons failed to subdue and who became the Welsh.

The same story is repeated in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain, where the red dragon is also a prophecy of the coming of King Arthur. It is notable that Arthur’s father was Uther Pendragon (“chief dragon”, erroneously translated by Geoffrey as “dragon’s head”).

The dragon has always been a symbol of a people, not an individual. 

In 1400 Owain Glyndwr raised the dragon during his revolt against Henry IV, echoing its role in Welsh mythology as a symbol of struggle and resistance. However, this didn’t confer exclusivity to Wales: the dragon reappeared alongside Henry V at the battle of Agincourt (1415).

The dragon began to roar even louder after the Wars of the Roses in the 15th century. The House of Tudor was the Welsh dynasty who defeated the House of York at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485.

The Tudors’ livery was white and green. As he marched his troops through Wales to Bosworth, Henry Tudor – shortly to be Henry VII – flew the red dragon of Cadwallader, from whom he claimed ancestry, on the white and green Tudor colours. After the battle the flag was carried in state to St. Paul’s Cathedral to be blessed.

It was the beginning of the flag as we know it today.

Welsh flags on a tower of Conwy castle

splash_logo-e1327421675816

A dragon is displayed on the logo of the Welsh government

The dragon is featured on the welsh royal mail 1st class postage stamp

In the town of Newcastle Emlyn, a Heart of the Dragon Festival  is held every two years (the next one is in 2013).  Local legends say that the last dragon was slain there during a village festival.  The Heart of the Dragon Festival aims to resurrect the “spirit of the dragon,” in the form of a baby dragon egg, which ultimately “hatches,” to reveal a miniature dragon.  www.heartofthedragonwales.org

Dragon fire sculpture

The Mametz Wood Memorial

http://www.somme-1916.com/memorial003.htm

38th Division

The 38th (Welsh) Division was recruited from battalions of the Welsh Regiment, South Wales Borderers and Royal Welsh Fusiliers in 1914. Lloyd George had a heavy hand in the raising of the formation; one of his sons being an officer in the division. It crossed to France in late 1915, and came down to fight on the Somme in July 1916. The first attack on Mametz Wood was on 7th July, when the division lost heavily in ‘Death Valley’ during the advance on the ‘Hammer Head’. The next attack went in on the 10th, and by 14th July the wood was cleared – but at the cost of over 5,000 casualties in the 38th (Welsh) Division. A memorial was placed in Mametz Church in the 1920s, but this Red Dragon monument was placed here in the late 1980s on the wishes of a number of Mametz Wood veterans, former Sergeant Tom Price among them.

Not all welsh dragons take themselves seriously. My friends and I discovered this cleverly crafted one in a tree next to a path along the Nevern Estuary, Newport, Pembrokeshire

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Conwy castle, bridge and town wall walk

18 Sunday Sep 2011

Posted by theresagreen in Nature

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Tags

castle towers, Conwy castle, conwy town walls, medieval town, river conwy, suspension bridge, Thomas Telford bridge, Welsh Castles, World Heritage Sites

I hadn’t been inside Conwy castle until today and found it fascinating. It is very well preserved, particularly the towers which are well worth the effort of climbing via their spiral stone staircases to see the fantastic panoramic views.

29/8/11-Conwy castle & railway bridge

29/8/11-Castle wall, river and boats

29/8/11-View from castle wall of the harbour and river to estuary

29/8/11-View of harbour from castle wall

29/8/11-Castle walls and towers

29/8/11-Castle tower tops

29/8/11-Sea view

29/8/11-Views through windows

29/8/11-The harbour and downriver to the estuary

29/8/11-View of river and white boat

The suspension bridge

Conwy Suspension Bridge, was one of the first road suspension bridges in the world and is now in the care of the National Trust.

29/8/11-Conwy suspension bridge

Built by Thomas Telford, the bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the River Conwy; it was completed in 1826 and replaced the ferry that once operated from the same point. Telford matched the bridge’s supporting towers with the castle’s turrets. It is constructed in the same style as one of Telford’s other bridges, the Menai Suspension Bridge crossing the Menai Strait. The Conwy bridge runs parallel to the wrought iron tubular railway bridge built by Robert Stephenson.

Built into the rock on which the castle stands, the bridge is very close to the castle and very narrow (only about 2½ metres across). Part of the castle had to be demolished during construction in order for the suspension cables to be anchored into the rock. The new bridge is not the main route across the River Conwy — the crossing of the River Conwy has always been a problem and today the A55 road goes under the river by tunnel — but it is the major way across for local traffic.

The Town Walls

29/8/11-The town within its walls

There are just three access points to the town walls and we began our walk around them at the point near to the harbour, then finished behind the railway station. It is quite a long walk and as the walls follow the contours of the land they were built on, some lengths are steeply sloped, but again, it allows some fascinating views of the town, the castle and the surrounding countryside.

29/8/11-Castle, bridge, river and town from walls

29/8/11-The castle viewed across the town from the walls

29/8/11-The castle from the town walls

29/8/11-The castle and bridge viewed from Deganwy

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Conwy castle, harbour and gulls

27 Saturday Aug 2011

Posted by theresagreen in Nature of Wales, North Wales

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Black-headed Gull, Black-headed Gull in winter plumage, Conwy castle, Conwy estuary, herring gull, herring gull juvenile, smallest house in Great Britain, Welsh Castles

I love the town of Conwy and  have been intending to visit since I arrived here, partly to have a walk around the castle and is walls, but mainly to check up on how the Herring Gulls are behaving down in the harbour. Conwy has a large population of Herring Gulls and they can be seen and heard throughout the town at all times of the day and often much of the night too!

I arrived quite late on a variably grey, showery and sunny day, a good day for taking photographs as I think clouds add an interesting dimension and reflect the true character of Welsh summer weather. I walked around the castle and along a short section of the wall, then to the bridge and from there down to the harbour. I took just a few photographs of the castle and am adding a very brief account of it; there are plenty of really good sites on the internet for anyone interested in learning more about this fascinating place. (This is a very detailed one  http://www.castlewales.com)

Conwy is regarded as one Europe’s finest surviving medieval towns, a status that is attributed to the preservation of both its castle and the intact town walls. It is also beautifully situated on the Conwy estuary.

The history of the castle is very well documented, but words on a page and the best photographs cannot properly do justice to its grandeur and presence. The guidebook published by CADW, the Welsh Historic Trust, simply states: “Conwy is by any standards one of the great fortresses of medieval Europe.”

6/8/11- Two of the eight castle towers, as seen from the harbour

Conwy along with Harlech is probably the most impressive of all the Welsh castles. Both were designed by Edward I’s master castle builder James of St. George, and while Harlech has a more storied past, Conwy’s eight massive towers and high curtain wall are more impressive than those at Harlech.

6/8/11-Conway castle walls-view through a firing position opening

The walls of Conwy are judged the finest in Britain. They are completely intact and still give the impression of enclosing and protecting the town. It is possible to walk around the town along the wall. The circuit of the wall is 3/4 of a mile in length, with 21 towers at regular intervals of about 46m. The wall is 1.68m thick and 9m high, with towers rising to 15m. 

6/8/11-Conwy estuary at high tide, viewed from the bridge
6/8/11-The harbour viewed from the bridge
6/8/11-Conwy castle, bridge and harbour under grey rainclouds
6/8/11-Sculpture ‘Mytilus edulis’ by Graeme Mitcheson; carved in Kilkenny limestone

Conwy is famous for its Mussels and there is a ‘factory’ here in the harbour, not a very attractive one I might add, where the shellfish are processed. I love the sculpture, it looks beautiful and is very tactile.

6/8/11- A Herring Gull keeps lookout over the harbour

There were very few Herring Gulls around and about in the harbour area this afternoon and those there were on the whole very quiet and well-behaved. There were a few brief outbursts amongst them, all of them involving adult birds chasing away young ones.

An adult Herring Gull calming down after a chase
6/8/11- A young Herring Gull watching me over it shoulder

There were quite a number of Black-headed Gulls here, initially all swimming about on the water close to the harbour wall, but then one by one becoming restless and taking off and flying around the moored boats before returning.

6/8/11-Black-headed Gull with traces of dark head plumage remaining

They are attractive little gulls and look almost dainty compared to the big Herring Gulls. Most of them here have taken on or are in the process of losing the dark heads of their summer/breeding plumage and have just the dark spots either side of the head. Their red legs are clearly visible as they paddled around in the water of the harbour.

6/8/11-An individual with traces of dark head still visible
6/8/11-Black-headed Gull with completely white head and dark spots of non-breeding plumage

I could not resist one last photograph of the Smallest House in Great Britain, another of Conwy’s claims to fame. It’s usually almost impossible to see as when it is open it has people around it, as well as a lady dressed in traditional Welsh costume standing outside.

6/8/11- Another Conwy claim to fame; the Smallest House in Great Britain

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