I WISH I could say I found it, but I didn’t.
Even better than seeing a good bird, is actually being the first to find it. But on this occasion, just seeing the bird would be a challenge.
However, I was in good company with Alan Davies and Ken Croft, two of North Wales’ best birders, so if anyone would be able to see the bird, they would.
And the bird in question? A drake American Wigeon, seen the day before amongst a flock of 150 Eurasian Wigeon: it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.
“Very similar to Wigeon and sometimes difficult to distinguish”, proclaims my Collins field guide helpfully.
But we were looking for one thing in particular to help us distinguish our American visitor - its colour.
The Wigeon you will normally see here is a smartly-plumaged bird, with perhaps the most prominent feature of the drake being a creamy-yellow blaze down the forehead of an otherwise chestnut-coloured head, a greyish-pink breast and a predominantly grey body with a white and black tail.
The American Wigeon also has a creamy-white forehead, and a white and black tail, but there the similarity ends.
Its head is greyish with a broad green stripe across the eyes and down the neck, but the primary feature to look for is its body colour, a distinctive grey-pink shade.
It’s almost impossible to describe, though anyone familiar with the paintwork in National Trust properties may recognise it as ‘Dead Salmon’ - such an attractive name!
Our quest took us to a scenic spot near Porthmadog, down a narrow lane at Ynys which came to an abrupt end at the saltmarshes of the Dwyryd estuary.
Very picturesque with the sunlight highlighting the white cottages of Portmeirion across the river, and the peak of Snowdon glistening with a fresh dusting of snow.
But not a single duck, never mind 150.
Where were they? Keener eyes than mine picked out a handful of birds sheltering amongst the rocks on the far side of the estuary, a good spot for them to snooze in the sun out of the wind.
This was extreme birding, scanning through the telescope on maximum magnification to check out individuals fast asleep with heads tucked under wings, cunningly disguising themselves as rocks.
Sorry, but in such glorious weather and in such a beautiful setting, my patience with this game ran out fairly quickly and I amused myself with the camera.
I’m not giving up the day job just yet, but perhaps the above photograph gives you a feel for the beauty of the setting.
Alan’s significantly greater patience rewarded him when he picked out a dead salmon-coloured rock with a giveaway white patch.
Frantic arm-waving brought Ken back at a run with his scope from where he’d been checking out another group of birds, and once we had two scopes focused on the bird, it obligingly raised its head briefly to show us a hint of the green stripe.
The American Wigeon then it tucked back its bill to concentrate on sleeping.
So, only a teasing view of a stunning rare vagrant to the area.
But the home-grown beauty of Snowdonia on which to feast our eyes still made it a fantastic day out.
