Autumn migration here on the reserve is still in full swing, with each day seeing a different suite of waders feeding up on the lagoons before they leave us and head off further south. The grey phalarope stayed with us until 26 September, and was seen busily picking insects from the surface of the water and also catching them from the air too, but has now moved on to pastures (waters?) new. However, the lagoons have been a motorway pit stop for feeding for a variety of other waders too - this week we saw a spotted redshank on 29 and 30 September, a ruff on 26 and 27 September, up to 9 black-tailed godwits, 4 snipe, up to 4 greenshank, a knot on 26 and 28 September, up to 15 dunlin, and over 135 redshank. Which all goes to show just how vital even small sites like Conwy reserve are for waders. They serve as stepping stones on the big migration journeys, where tired and hungry birds get to stop for a while, feed up and hopefully rebuild some of their vital fat reserves before they head off on the next stage.
Spotted redshank
The winter wildfowl are starting to build up too now, with up to 37 wigeon seen daily on the Deep Lagoon, and the males are beginning to come out of their drab eclipse plumage and look a fine spectacle again. Some of the red-breasted merganser males are also starting to gradually moult back out of their camouflaging eclipse plumage too, and we've seen a group of 17 birds here this week. Over the last couple of days, we've seen meadow pipits moving through the reserve, all feeding up on the seeds from the salt marsh plants on the estuary.
Summer's not given up the fight yet though - the sunny weather this week has seen lots of common darter dragonflies mating and egg-laying on our new fresh water pools. It's wonderful to see pools that have only been around for a few months filling up with wildlife and starting to look truly natural.