Rare birds caught on camera
Post categories: birds
| 12:12 UK time, Wednesday, 15 April 2009
of one of the United Kingdom's rarest birds has been captured on Anglesey.
Although the west coast of Wales is a renowned hotspot for choughs, these crow-like creatures with their distinctive crimson-coloured beaks and legs are still scarce in the UK.
Now though, visitors to South Stack on the north west tip of Anglesey can get a close-up view of the birds nesting thanks to an RSPB nestcam which beams live pictures from deep inside a rock crevice to the reserve's information centre.
The nesting antics of other well-known South Stack species such as guillemots, puffins and razorbills could also be caught on camera as spring progresses, according to the RSPB.
Elsewhere in Wales, a pair of choughs have been regularly nesting for many years at the where visitors can watch live webcam link-ups right through until 17 July.
So with the bird world's version of Big Brother in full swing, who needs binoculars anymore, eh?
Did you know?
- The Welsh name for chough is ' which literally translated means red-legged crow.
- The chough figured prominently in the .
- According to King Arthur was turned into a chough when he died, the red feet and beak representing his violent, bloody end.
Want to know more?
Check out the .
Comment number 1.
At 6th Jun 2009, imamadcat2 wrote:The first time we visited South Stack we spotted the choughsflying around the lighthouse bridge. We had to get our field guide, out as we were novices then.
The next year we recognised their distinctive call from that of a jackdaw(easy for an expert maybe, but we were pleased as punch!)They moved freely around Elenors Tower,so close we could almost touch them!
This is the first year in five we have been unable to get to the reserve so we contented ourselves with the RSPB webcam.
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Comment number 2.
At 9th Jun 2009, froglet101 wrote:I have spent some time on La Palma recently and have a little query:
La Palma is one of the smaller Canary Islands.
One of the reasons La Palma is famous is for their population of "Grajas".
It is claimed that the Grajas only exist on La Palma.
However, watching Springwatch today, I noticed a remarkable likeness between Simon's Choughs in North Wales and the Grajas of La Palma.
Below is a link to a picture of a Graja:
The graja is certainly a type of crow and the name translates as "rook" in English but do you know if these are the same bird?
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