Thomas Alfred Coward and Charles Oldham

“ In one Rabbit-hole we found eight fresh eggs on a nest of light grey down, within arm's reach, and pieces of down at the mouths of other burrows showed that there were more nests in close proximity.
We saw a pair of Carrion-Crows, and on the Puffin ground a Lesser Black-backed Gull repeatedly swooped at a young Crow which cowered amongst the pink thrift. There is hardly any cover for hedge-building birds, but Blackbirds, Thrushes, and Hedge-Sparrows were feeding young in a small patch of brambles, stunted elders, and thorns on the lee-side of the island. ”

“ The thrift-covered turf slope above the cliffs on the western side is honeycombed with the burrows of Puffins, but the colony cannot compare in size with others which we have visited on the coast of Wales. The birds were brooding in their holes, and at every few steps, as we crossed the turf, one would bustle out, fly down the slope, just clear of the ground, and drop diagonally to the water. ”

“ Many of the small stony pasture-fields are bounded by low bramble-grown turf walls, which provide abundant cover for Whitethroats, Blackbirds, and Yellowhammers. Here the Corn-Bunting, perched on the highest spray, uttered his grating but not unpleasing song; this bird, however, was by no means generally distributed, being nothing like so plentiful as in the north and west of Anglesea. The Snow-Bunting is probably not infrequent on the coast in hard weather; we saw a bird at Penmon which had been killed against the telegraph-wires in January, 1902. ”

“ We saw Coal-Tits feeding young in three different places, but the bird was not common, and we did not meet with either the Marsh or the Long-tailed Tit. The Creeper has the reputation of being a shy singer, and when the trees are in leaf is easily overlooked; but, from the number of times on which we heard the song in many different localities, the bird must be very plentiful. The Tree-Pipit, like the Redstart, was unaccountably rare; we saw a pair in a wood at Holland Arms, heard three or four in song between Llanfair and Menai, and one at Llangoed, but none elsewhere. ”

“ Between Penmon Point and Redwharf Bay the limestone cliffs rise to a considerable height, affording nesting ledges, in places, for many rock-haunting birds. At one spot there was a small colony of Guillemots and Razorbills, the species being in almost equal numbers; in another place a few Razorbills were breeding in horizontal fissures, but we failed to detect any Guillemots there. The Herring-Gull was the dominant Gull in this district; mature and immature birds were common in the Straits, where the only other member of the family that we observed was the Black-headed Gull. ”

“ The turf is cropped by innumerable Rabbits, whose burrows honeycomb the ground, providing nesting-holes for many Wheatears, and a few pairs of Stock-Doves and Sheld-Ducks. In the bracken, which covers many acres, a fair number of Nightjars crouched during the day; and Lapwings, though common in the open country everywhere, were nowhere so abundant as here. There were several pairs of Meadow-Pipits near the Point, and along the cliffs from Penmon to Redwharf Bay; but the bird is not generally distributed. The Sky-Lark, on the other hand, was common everywhere. ”

“ House-Sparrows were often nesting in the same trees as the smaller species, and in two cases at least their untidy structures were visible in the loose foundations of nests in the rookery. The pushful Starling was, as might be expected, abundant. At Penmon birds were feeding young in the old Woodpeckers' holes; while in old walls, cottage roofs, the limestone cliffs, and trees in the woods, every likely hole was occupied by Starlings. ”

“ With them was a pair of Shovelers, the white on the neck and back and the chestnut breast of the drake making it conspicuous amongst the darker-plumaged Mallards. When the birds rose, the Shovelers flew apart, their low "tuk tuk" sounding very different from the noisy "quack" of the commoner species as they passed over.
Newborough Warren, a desolate waste of blown sand, whose unstable dunes are but partially held in place by the roots of maram-grass and dwarf willow-scrub, provides, in its innumerable Rabbit-burrows, nesting-holes for Wheatears, Stock-Doves, Starlings, and Sheld-Ducks. ”

“ Near Malldraeth Yard, where the high road skirts a big tidal pool, the Sheld-Ducks, unlike the Herons which were feeding in the pool, paid but little attention to passers-by. Many domestic Ducks were feeding here, but the wild birds would allow no encroachment upon the spot where they happened to be feeding, driving the domestic birds away. The Sheld-Ducks often rose from the marsh in pairs, the duck, on the wing, being noticeably smaller than the drake. ”

“ Half a mile north-east of Penmon Point lies Priestholm, or Puffin, an island, rising some two hundred feet above the sea, bounded by rugged limestone cliffs. "On this island," according to Willughby, "build the Anates Arcticæ of Clussius (here called Puffins) , Razorbills, Guilliams, Cormorants, and divers sorts of Gulls." On June 6th we visited the island, where we found the "divers sorts" to be three species—Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls and Kittiwakes. Herring-Gulls, abundant on the cliffs of the mainland, swarmed here; the colonies practically extending round the island. ”

“ With the exception of the isolated Holyhead Mountain, the high land is all to the northeast, from whence the country gently slopes towards the western shores, where the few insignificant sluggish rivers debouch in sandy estuaries. ”

“ A few demonstrative Oystercatchers, and a pair of Lapwings evidently had young on the island, and Rock-Pipits were nesting in several places on the cliffs. The Sheld-Duck is usually associated in one's mind with warrens, marshes, and coast sandhills, and we were rather surprised to flush a party of sixteen adults from the top of the cliff, between 100 and 150 ft. ”

“ Both Coots and Moorhens were nesting in some numbers in the llyns near Beaumaris, and the latter on brooks and small ponds in many places. The Coot was specially abundant on Llyn Bodgolched, a fair-sized pool, much choked with rushes and buckbean. Here were also a pair of Redshanks, several Mallards, and a few Reed-Buntings. The last-named bird appears to be very local in Eastern Anglesea.
The nature of the country in the southern part of the district is very different from the high land on the north-east coast. ”