Firefly

The end of November, we have our Countdown to Christmas event on Sunday, and we have still barely had a frost. 

But we know it must be Winter because a couple of firecrests have taken up annual residence.  Both are females (judged by those who have studied the photographs), they tend to inhabit the bushes alongside the path between the Bridge Pond and Carneddau Hide.  Following a week of silence, a blast from a Cetti's warbler this morning proved that he is still present around the Bridge Pond too. Water rails are scattered across the reserve - in front of the Coffee Shop, Tal-y-fan Hide and the Ganol Trail are all good places to look.

On the lagoons, small groups of pochards and shovelers are feeding, and two goldeneyes are also present. More mallards than usual are on the shallow lagoon, on which we are slowly raising the water level. A pair of ravens have been hogging a dead sheep that was washed up on the shoreline last week - a few magpies look on from nearby, trying to snatch some of the action when the ravens aren't looking. A kestrel over the car park this afternoon was the first here for a while, and kingfishers have been seen sporadically this week.

A great spotted woodpecker has been seen and heard regularly over the last couple of weeks, while a grey heron is regularly spotted in the wildlife garden at dawn and dusk - we're a bit mystified as to what it's feeding on, as they don't usually like landing in places from which they can't easily take off. Several chiffchaffs are still around the reserve, and a blackcap was seen on Sunday (23rd). Other scarce visitors include a yellow-legged gull (Wed 19th) and rock pipit (Tue 18th)

A snow bunting was photographed here last Saturday (22nd), and two were reported on Monday.  A good count of dunlins (251) were on the estuary on Monday (24th), while the starling roost is around the 2000-bird mark. A great crested grebe has been seen a few times in the last 10 days, unusual visitors here in winter, while a stoat was by the Coffee Shop last Friday (21st), another animal that is hard to see at this time of year.