The reserve had a taste of the Arctic this morning, with a whooper swan arriving (and then departing mid-morning) with a group of seven mute swans, and two scaup - a first-winter male and a female. The latter 'pair' of ducks arrived overnight, there having been a lookalike scaup here for several weeks, which is actually a female tufted duck with a broad white 'blaize' around the bill - an identification trap for the unwary, but its build and headshape are subtly different. The first flock of fieldfares was seen this afternoon, and surely the first redwings are not too far away.
A great white egret has been seen on the estuary on-and-off over the last couple of weeks. Water rail is regular outside the Coffee Shop now, and kingfisher has been seen most days too, as have one or two greenshanks, which commute between the estuary and the muddy edge in front of Benarth Hide (where they were photographed, above, by Bob Garrett). Wigeon numbers are building now (106 on Monday 2nd) and moorhens, mostly juveniles and more than could possible have bred here, are abundant at the moment - I counted 32 this morning!
Choughs are regular each morning, between one and nine flying southwest between 8am and 8.30am daily, their ringing 'chee-ow' call drawing attention to their daily journey into the Conwy Valley to feed. A couple of stonechats were around Carneddau Hide on Friday (6th), up to 16 black-tailed godwits feed daily on both lagoons, a ruff was here on Wednesday (4th) and Saturday (30th), and the long-staying bar-tailed godwit was last seen on Tuesday 3rd. An adult shelduck was here for a couple of days at the start of the week - an early-returning bird from the moulting grounds in the Wadden Sea, or one that didn't bother going that far?
Most of the summer migrants have now left, with recent final dates reported including: house martin on 3 October, white wagtail on 2 October, five swallows on 30 September and wheatear on 26 September. Chiffchaffs were still here yesterday (6th) and will probably continue to be seen or heard for another couple of weeks, as they don't travel so far as most of our other summer visitors.
It's getting harder to spot flying insects as the days shorten and the temperatures fall. A small arrival of migratory red admiral butterflies was evident in the middle of the week, and speckled woods were reported too. Common darters and migrant hawkers are still around the ponds, where work has started on reed cutting this week - but we'll be leaving plenty of standing reeds onto which dragonflies and spiders might have laid their eggs.