Green is the colour

For me, green is the colour of spring time, of blackthorn bushes bursting into leaf, the yellow flower-heads of the cowslips pushing through the green crown of leaves, and the first shoots of this year's reed growth poking their heads above the water's surface, amid the straw-coloured stems of last year's reeds.

Of course, green is also the international symbol for 'go', and this week it seems that the traffic signals somewhere in southern Europe were switched on. The chiffchaffs were, as usual, first to arrive, with the first one seen on 8 March, and now there are more than a dozen singing around the reserve. Next came sand martins, with the first birds on 14 March, and small numbers of birds on most days since. Then came the first swallows, on the early date of 22 March and the first wheatear on 24 March - we've been surprised by how few wheatears have been seen, the second was only this morning.  Waders have also started to arrive, with the first little ringed plover today, and several black-tailed godwits too. With southeasterly winds over the next few days, we're hoping and expecting more arrivals this week. If the skies are clear, look up for ospreys - one flew over Llandudno Junction yesterday (28th), which almost certainly came over the reserve.

Green is the colour of a female crossbill, and I was delighted to find one, and then a red male, perched in the top of an elder bush on the Ganol Trail on Monday morning (24th).  A few are heard flying over each year, but we think that these may have been the first to land on the reserve. These too are migrants, but moving within Britain or from the near-continent, back to their forest breeding habitats. Similarly, we've seen more meadow pipits, siskins and a red kite (Wed 26th), which may be a migrant.

Green is the smart head colour of the shelduck, whose numbers are building up on the estuary and the lagoons - there have been over 50 some days.  They gather here before heading into the hills to nest, in an old rabbit burrow. Many of our other ducks are winter visitors, so they have been shipping out: we haven't seen a pochard for several weeks, we were down to just two goldeneyes by Thursday (27th) and both the overwintering female scaup have left, though the smart male is still on the deep lagoon.

Green is the upperwing colour of the lapwings, which are now displaying regularly, alternately flashing the green and white as they tumble towards the ground. We only seem to have three, perhaps four, pairs this year, and our survey work through the spring will monitor their progress.  A great crested grebe has arrived on the deep lagoon, where a pair bred last year, so we're hoping for its mate to turn up soon.

Within the green water of the ponds (okay, I'm struggling with this whole green thing now), the first tadpoles have emerged from the clumps of frogspawn. We've only had one real frost all winter, so hopefully the spawn and tadpoles will survive. The sunny days have been bringing more stoat sightings too, though with no discernible pattern: they've been seen along the estuary, around the wildlife garden and near the Coffee Shop, where hundreds of cowslips are flowering. We've not had many reports of butterflies, but small tortoiseshells do seem more abundant so far, which is great news as it's one of the species that has become scarcer.

This is a great time to get outside and enjoy the amazing changes that nature gives us.  Time to stop reading this and go see!