It's been a good week for birds that start with the seventh letter of the English alphabet. Green sandpiper is a bird that can be hard to catch up with in North Wales, but we usually get a handful each autumn. We've had at least one every day since Thursday (28th), with three here on that evening. With their dark upperparts and white rump, green sands look like a big house martin, and take flight at a moment's notice. The supporting cast has included greenshank each day (two here on Saturday 30th), godwits (black-tailed, up to 17 feeding on the deep lagoon), grey wagtail, great spotted woodpecker, goldfinches by the dozen and, of course, our long staying goldeneye. Our great crested grebes hatched yesterday - there's definitely one fluffy chick, but we're waiting for a confirmed sighting of any more. Continuing the 'g' theme, it's been a good week for gatekeeper butterflies, with lots around the scrub, and gulls are ever-present with more than 500 black-headed gulls roosting at high tide and a brief appearance from a second-summer Mediterranean gull on Tuesday.
A juvenile stonechat on the estuary track on Wednesday (27th) was the first of the autumn, and seen again this morning (Sunday 31st), while juvenile redstarts continue their successful season with at least one bird on most days. There are lots of young pied wagtails around at the moment, with a yellow wagtail among them on the saltmarsh yesterday. Single whimbrels have been fun to pick out from the growing packs of curlews returning from the moors, while we've now got snipe sightings almost daily, and a couple of little ringed plovers are still hanging about. Back in the lagoon, the first wigeon of the winter was seen on 22nd July, and there have been a couple here since Wednesday (27th), and a few dunlins are seen each day.
The stoat family has dispersed, so most sightings are singles, and they can turn up anywhere: from under the coffee shop, scarpering across the paddocks, gazing in the back door of the Visitor Centre or scampering over Dave's foot while he was pulling ragwort from the grazed area on Monday! We're also getting more frequent sightings of bullfinches and suspect they have bred on the reserve, but get to know their soft call as they move furtively through the bushes.
One of our volunteers, Colin, has been busy building display boxes for our new information panels, and has added another two to the reserve this week: one about the waders that depend on the muddy estuary, and one that explains the origins of the nature reserve (its Welsh equivalent will be appearing very soon). Meanwhile, we're busy preparing for our 100th Birthday Party and Summer Fayre next weekend. We hope you're going to be there... PS. There are still tickets available for The Kate Doubleday Band on Saturday and David Lindo, The Urban Birder, guided walk on Sunday. Ring 01492 584091 to book.
Julian HughesSite Manager, Conwy