So, there was Winter, just sauntering along with its usual mix of wind, rain, and then more rain, and just as the days started to lengthen, snowfall, frosts and freezing winds scattered birds across Europe and deposited them in unexpected places. Many visitors and social media followers reported redwings and fieldfares in their gardens, and we had a good number on the reserve last weekend, the latter very unusual here outside the Autumn months. A few people also saw snipe and woodcock in their gardens, and again we saw plenty here, though you had to feel for them trying to probe soil whose surface was frozen solid. On Friday afternoon, some snipe realised that the reflected heat from the coffee shop windows was keeping the soil soft, and we watched several just yards away successfully pulling invertebrates from the ground.
Skylarks and meadow pipits were on the move too, forced down from the hills and away from the snow-covered east, to the reserve that had only a light covering. Overnight snow this morning caused another movement of both, along with at least a dozen stonechats, which may well be migrants, as we typically see an increase in their number in early Spring. A short-eared owl was a welcome surprise yesterday morning, likely to be another refugee from the snow-covered moors, and it stayed around until this morning, when we watched it thermal high into the sky, pursued by a sparrowhawk. Late last week, a smart male hen harrier hunted over the reserve, and two red kites flew low over the grassland, a species of which we see surprisingly few.
Two kingfishers have been regularly perched in trees above the Bridge Pond, and again these may be birds that would have been expected to be looking for nest sites farther up the valley by now. The 'Beast from the East' scattered grey plovers, golden plover, knot, turnstone, sanderling and ruff across the reserve, and a flock of 500 dunlins was the biggest here for years. Were they sheltering from the worst of the storm, away from the mouth of the estuary? A jack snipe was seen in front of the Tal-y-fan Hide, and has subsequently been reported from the Coffee Shop.
Firecrests have been seen daily; this morning, we watched one 'flycatching' gnats near the Tal-y-fan Hide. A treecreeper has been spotted sporadically, a rare visitor on a site with very few mature trees. Having had no starling murmuration for most of the winter, around 8-10,000 flew in last night at 5.45pm. The reserve car park is already locked at that time, so please park carefully outside the gates if you're planning to look.
The cold snap has delayed the departure of ducks, so there are plenty of waterbirds to see this week: a pair of pintails on Friday (2nd), the long-staying male scaup, plus pochards and goldeneyes, and higher than usual numbers of gadwall and shoveler. Many of the wigeons and teal have shipped out already, however. A couple of great-crested grebes, in full breeding regalia, are back on the deep lagoon, so perhaps a future nesting pair; there are lots of little grebes too, some starting to prospect for nesting places in the reeds.
But the biggest surprise of the week was this afternoon when two water voles were spotted on the water's edge in front of the Coffee Shop. Although water voles occur at low densities across North Wales, we have never recorded them at the reserve before, nor even seen any evidence, despite intensive monitoring.
There are other signs of Spring: the first coltsfoot flowers emerging from the ground, fluffy buds starting to appear on the willows, the lesser black-backed gulls returning from Iberia, and reed buntings returning to the wetlands (I wonder how far away these spend the winter?). Right now, it's hard to believe that the first wheatears and sand martins should be here before the month is out, and a few days of warmer weather will bring bumblebees and butterflies. Bring it on!
Julian HughesSite Manager, Conwy