Qualla: Cemlyn Bay and Lagoon https://qualla.com/cemlyn-bay-and-lagoon en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:13 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/k/z/cemlyn-bay-and-lagoon-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Cemlyn Bay and Lagoon https://qualla.com/cemlyn-bay-and-lagoon Cemlyn Bay and Lagoon: Introduction https://qualla.com/cemlyn-bay-and-lagoon/ Photo credit Jimfbleak at English Wikipedia, Public domain. Sandwich terns nest by shouting at each other. Visit Cemlyn Bay between May and August and the sound of around 1,500 breeding pairs reaches you before the colony itself comes into view - a continuous mechanical chorus rising over the lagoon, broken by the harsher cries of the Arctic and common terns that nest alongside them, and the warning calls of black-headed gulls. The colony sits on a few small islands in a brackish lagoon. The lagoon is held back from the open sea by a curving shingle ridge thrown up by Irish Sea storms. Walk the ridge and the two worlds touch within metres - on one side the constant wash of salt water, on the other a tern colony making more noise than any human-built city of its size.

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Image: Jimfbleak at English Wikipedia | Public domain

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/k/z/cemlyn-bay-and-lagoon-wp/gckz-cemlyn-bay-and-lagoon-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Cemlyn Bay and Lagoon: How a Storm Beach Built a Lagoon https://qualla.com/cemlyn-bay-and-lagoon/ Photo credit Robin Drayton, CC BY-SA 2.0. The geography is straightforward but unusual. A long shingle beach, thrown up over centuries by Irish Sea storms pushing pebbles inland, runs in a smooth curve across the mouth of the original bay. Behind it, fed by small streams and topped up by occasional storm waves over the r...

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Image: Robin Drayton | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/k/z/cemlyn-bay-and-lagoon-wp/gckz-cemlyn-bay-and-lagoon-how-a-storm-beach-built-a-lagoon.mp3 0:06 2 full Cemlyn Bay and Lagoon: The Only Welsh Colony https://qualla.com/cemlyn-bay-and-lagoon/ Photo credit Andrew Fielding, CC BY-SA 2.0. Cemlyn matters out of all proportion to its size because of what nests on it. Sandwich terns - sleek black-capped seabirds that winter along the West African coast - choose only a handful of European sites for breeding, and the colony at Cemlyn is the only one in Wales. Numbers h...

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Image: Andrew Fielding | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/k/z/cemlyn-bay-and-lagoon-wp/gckz-cemlyn-bay-and-lagoon-the-only-welsh-colony.mp3 0:06 3 full Cemlyn Bay and Lagoon: Vagrants and Surprises https://qualla.com/cemlyn-bay-and-lagoon/ Photo credit Eric Jones, CC BY-SA 2.0. Cemlyn occasionally draws birds it has no right to host. In July 1988 a bridled tern - a species more at home around the Caribbean and Indian Ocean - turned up and stayed for several weeks, drawing British twitchers from across the country. In July 2005 a sooty tern, an even more...

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Image: Eric Jones | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/k/z/cemlyn-bay-and-lagoon-wp/gckz-cemlyn-bay-and-lagoon-vagrants-and-surprises.mp3 0:06 4 full Cemlyn Bay and Lagoon: Walking the Ridge https://qualla.com/cemlyn-bay-and-lagoon/ Photo credit Robin Drayton, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Anglesey Coastal Path crosses Cemlyn Bay on the shingle ridge itself. From the National Trust car park at the eastern end, a walk along the beach takes you past the colony - viewing points on the lagoon side are roped off to keep visitors away from the nesting birds, but the ...

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Image: Robin Drayton | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/k/z/cemlyn-bay-and-lagoon-wp/gckz-cemlyn-bay-and-lagoon-walking-the-ridge.mp3 0:06 5 full