The signs of Spring are here if you look for them - catkins on the alder trees and the daffodils starting to push up in the clawdd wall by the Visitor Centre - but we are still in the grip of wet and windy weather. There are plenty of birds to enjoy on the reserve, with lapwings and wigeons especially plentiful, both species taking advantage of the islands that were cut last month. We have raised the water level in the Shallow Lagoon and are now increasing the levels in the Deep Lagoon, creating lots of wet margins in which snipe can feed. We've been counting upwards of 100 snipe here recently.
There are plenty of ducks too, with small numbers of shoveler, goldeneye and gadwall, and both a male and female goosander, which are quite scarce here. An immature male scaup has been here for several weeks, but take care not to get misled by a female tufted duck with extensive white around the base of its bill, simulating a scaup! Aside from curlews, oystercatchers and redshanks that winter on the estuary, waders are a bit scarce, so it was nice to see six ringed plovers on the estuary today.
The windy conditions haven't made it easy to spot small birds, but treecreeper has been regular though sporadic (which is code for 'I haven't seen it yet!) near the Bridge Pond. At least two - and quite possibly more - stonechats have overwintered here, and will soon be moving on to wherever they'll spend the summer. At least one firecrest was still here up to last Monday (5th), and is probably hunkering down in a gorse bush out of the wind. A rock pipit remains on the estuary, while choughs fly over the reserve early each morning and then back to their Orme roosts during the afternoon.
It has been a great winter for water rails, though as we've raised the water levels, they have become harder to see from the boardwalk. A couple of weeks ago, wildlife monitoring volunteers Rob and Ruth did a playback survey of water rails on the reserve, playing their squealing call on a CD player and noting responses from the birds. They found 24 water rails here, which is the best count ever since we started monitoring them this way. That seems to us like the birds voting for our habitat management with their feet - and bills.
This week we completed some work to improve the scrub and grassland habitats for the invertebrates that live on the reserve (you can read about why we did it in last week's blog). The work went well, despite a few technical hiccups with the digger hydraulics, but - as we expected - some of the paths are now a little more bumpy because of the marks made by the caterpillar tracks. We'll be tidying these up next week, but please be aware of it if you are walking between the Carneddau Hide and the estuary. Also, look out for our Carneddau ponies, four of whom are back after a winter break elsewhere in the valley.
Finally, Julia will be retiring from the Coffee Shop at Easter, so we have a job vacancy, as Assistant Catering Manager (job-share). Full details are on our website, so if you know of someone who'd fit the bill (perhaps it's you?), please take a look.
Julian HughesSite Manager, Conwy