Tomorrow is St David's Day, our national day, and there seem to be plenty of daffodils already blooming in the Conwy Valley, which always signals to me that our spring is early. The hedgerows already have that faint hue of green that, if the weather remains mild, is a prelude to the blackthorn bursting into blossom over the coming weeks. With news of swallows and sand martins in southern Britain, it's easy to be impatient for spring to arrive, but let's take it slowly and enjoy one of the best times of the year.
Here are a few signs of spring that we've noticed this week
#1 Frogspawn: the children who came to Muddy Puddle Club on Tuesday had a great watery-themed time, and they spotted the first frogspawn in the pond while they were looking for underwater insects. It's the first time in four years that the pond hasn't frozen solid, so we hope that we don't get a late frost that jeopardises them transforming from eggs to tadpoles to frogs.
#2 Lesser black-backed gulls: you might think of swallows or cuckoos as the portents of spring, but often the first returning migrants that we see at Conwy are lesser black-backed gulls. Unlike the resident herring gulls, the LBBs leave us in autumn and start to return in February. The British Trust for Ornithology have been tracking their travels from a breeding colony in Suffolk, demonstrating that some go to southern Spain and North Africa, and others stay closer to home (see here for the details and a feature about the project on BBC1's The One Show). We assume that Welsh-breeding birds do something similar, and now they're back.
#3 Stonechats: again, you might think of stonechats as resident, but in fact about half Britain's breeding population heads south to Europe and North Africa; it's a sensible strategy: although the resident birds might be first to occupy the best territories following a mild winter, if the weather had been snowy and frozen, the stayers might have perished. As it is, the stonechats we've seen hear this week (up to four reported along the estuary) are probably birds that have wintered along the coast and are now starting to move back into the uplands.
#4 Coltsfoot: this is a small yellow flower that is one of the first to appear at the sides of the trails - it's easy to mistake for a small dandelion. It's also known as butterbur or coughwort, because it supposedly had healing properties for colds and flu (but actually contains toxins, so don't put it in your tea). Being one of the first flowers to appear, it'll provide sustenance for the first bees - though we haven't spotted any yet.
But March can be a deceptive month, and we - and nature - know that it can have a cold sting in its tail.
Elsewhere on the reserve, our three scaup are still here, now in fine breeding plumage, but for how much longer? There are just a few goldeneyes and little grebes remaining, while a great crested grebe on the estuary was unusual - will a pair return here to nest, we wonder? A kestrel has been regularly hunting near the Coffee Shop, which is a bit unusual for here, and also notable are several sightings of rooks feeding on the pasture or perched in trees - we usually only see them flying over. Lots of songbirds are tuning up, and it's a particular joy to hear many song thrushes - including one that is mimicking a chough, a bird that doesn't occur here regularly, so has the thrush moved here from somewhere along the coast?
The weather forecast for this weekend looks okay, so celebrate St David's Day in the great Welsh outdoors.
Julian HughesSite Manager, Conwy