Creating a home for waders

We got busy with the digger last week and reprofiled the islands in front of the Carneddau Hide.  It has created lots more shoreline habitat for waders, and denuded them of vegetation that was deterring birds from using them. It's also really opened up the views, both across the islands and more widely across the lagoon, as the lower islands don't block the view of the water. 

We then moved the digger to the shoreline of the Deep Lagoon in front of the Benarth Hide.  We've created several channels and bays and used the material to create a new island. The idea is that as the water levels rise and fall, there will be more edge habitat for waders, but it is a bit of an experiment because we are unsure whether the mud and silt will be moved around by stormy weather in the winter.  If it survives, it will give us the confidence to do some more work in that area.  For more information about what we've done and why, read Sarah's blog from a couple of weeks ago.

We won't see the full benefits of the work until water levels rise, of course, as they usually reach their lowest point in the autumn, after a long summer of evaporation by the sun and the wind, and transpiration by the reeds.  This is perfect management for migrating waders, and we've had some great birds this autumn including Temminck's stint, little stint and spotted redshank (the last of which was still present earlier this week).  By October, there has usually been enough rain in the hills to allow us to pump water from the Afon Ganol (the stream at the south end of the reserve) into the lagoons, but the very dry September and start to October suggests that the water levels will remain low for longer into the winter this year.  That's nature, and there's not a great deal we can do about it!

The fine weather has meant that butterflies such as speckled wood, peacock and red admiral, and dragonflies such as southern hawker and common darter, continue to be seen regularly on sunny days, but most of our summer visiting birds have now left - just a few chiffchaffs still feed on insects among the willow trees and a wheatear was on one of the newly shaped islands yesterday (Thursday 8th). A spotted flycatcher was a good record on Thursday (1st). This week has also seen the first arrivals from farther north, including an occasional redwing, redpoll and stonechat, a flock of up to 20 siskins, and meadow pipits.  A couple of pintails and a handful of shovelers have been on the Deep Lagoon this week, plus a single pochard and a few red-breasted mergansers.

We have cut back the reeds in the Bridge Pond, which looks dramatic, but the new growth is already starting to come through, and it's provided visitors with great views of water rail this week.  Small groups of choughs have been seen flying over the reserve again this week, usually southwest early in the morning and northeast in mid-afternoon.