Fox cubs delight visitors

A family of fox cubs has been delighting visitors who chance across them on the reserve this week, and we've seen some great photographs on social media, such as this one by Nathaniel Ramanaden. We all know that foxes cause strong emotions - you only have to read the responses on Twitter to some of the pictures shared by visitors.

Foxes cause mixed feelings for nature reserve wardens. First and foremost, they are native mammals, a natural part of the Welsh countryside, and I always get a little thrill from seeing one, as that's a less than frequent occurrence. They are superb predators, now pretty much at the top of the food chain in the absence of their own predators, such as wolves. Of course, this means that sometimes they'll eat the very wildlife that you're working hard to encourage, and if the population of your target species is in the early stages of recovery, seeing a fox take the bird that you've emotionally nurtured can be tough.

But I also know that we're guided by good science. In 2007, one of the last things I was involved with before I moved to Conwy was a review of the evidence of the impacts of predation on wild birds (you can read our report here). It concluded that generalist predators, such as foxes and crows, can sometimes reduce the population levels of ground-nesting birds such as waders, seabirds and gamebirds. You can read more about the conservationist's dilemma in this blog by Martin Harper, our Director of Global Conservation.

At Conwy, a small number of ducks and waders nest on the ground, typically on the islands in the lagoon. Mallards, moorhens, coots and little grebes have had a good breeding season, with plenty of chicks on the water. By contrast, we've yet to see any tufted duck chicks, and we think both our common sandpiper and oystercatcher broods failed. There's a whole host of reasons, and predation is undoubtedly part of the mix. Last winter, we installed a fence between the Carneddau Hide and the islands, to reduce the chance of a fox heading out there for a snack - our thanks to National Lottery players (via Heritage Lottery Fund) for the money to do this. Foxes can swim, of course, so it's no guarantee, but it's been good to see many more birds using the islands this year.

So, while foxes obviously eat things on the reserve, their principal diet is probably rabbit, we're not overly concerned, and it's great to hear from people returning to the Visitor Centre thrilled at having seen a fox. At other nature reserves, of course, predation by foxes can be an issue, and it's great to hear news from other RSPB sites in North Wales with thriving lapwing populations since fences have been installed.

Bird highlights this week indicate autumn passage migration and dispersal of locally-reared fledglings: a juvenile redstart was by Carneddau Hide this morning, and almost 200 curlews are on the estuary - we guess these are breeders from Scotland and Northern England. Four jays along the boardwalk today is a surprisingly high count, again a sign of local movement. A juvenile stonechat and two knots were here on Wednesday (5th), four common sandpipers on Tuesday (4th), green sandpiper and juvenile wheatear on Monday (3rd), and a hobby last Saturday (1st), our third record in just a couple of weeks. Small numbers of black-tailed godwits have been dropping onto the lagoon to feed, returning from their Icelandic nesting areas, and a greenshank was seen on Wednesday (28th).

The weather has been a bit mixed for insects, but look out for ringlets, meadow browns, red admirals and comma butterflies; there was a painted lady here on Saturday 1st. Broad-bodied chaser dragonfly has been regular, and look on the flowerheads for soldier beetles, which seem to be having a monster summer!