It's starting to feel a lot like Springtime

It's definitely felt like Spring this week, with blackthorn starting to flower, the cotton-like buds of willows emerging, and my nose caught the coconut-scented aroma of gorse flowers this morning. Wonderful!

The dawn chorus is starting to build, with robins, dunnocks, song thrushes and blackbirds declaring their presence, and some territorial scrapping around the reserve. The trees in Coed Benarth, on the west bank of the estuary, are being occupied by grey herons, sitting atop their bulky nests. Increased numbers of little egrets are feeding in the estuary, too, though they won't start nest-building for a couple of months. Grey herons have bred in Coed Benarth since at least the early 19th century, though none was recorded in the first half of the twentieth. Nests increased to almost 40 by 1974, but the site had been abandoned by 1979. Herons returned in 1985 and numbers peaked in 2006, when little egrets first nested here. In 2016, there were more little egret than grey heron nests for the first time.

Another sign of the changing season are the black-backed gulls. The great black-backs that have been around during the Winter are starting to leave the estuary, heading back to their nesting grounds, while the first lesser black-backs - which will probably stay locally to breed - are returning, some from as far away as Portugal and Spain.

Our wintering ducks - including goldeneyes and pochards - are still around, with an increase in gadwalls and tufted ducks this week, as birds from farther south start to make their way north towards their breeding areas. A few shovelers are here, and a great-crested grebe might perhaps be half our breeding pair. 

The starling murmuration has got into gear again this week after a temporary lull. An estimated 40,000 birds were swirling around on Friday afternoon, but although they came in to roost last night, their was no aerial display. If they're going to murmurate, it starts around 4.45pm until dusk. The car park is usually locked at 5pm, but we will try to keep it open later on evenings during half-term; check our Twitter or Facebook accounts each day to see whether we're staying open late, or check in the Visitor Centre during the day.

A flock of linnets are foraging for seeds in the saltmarsh or on the lagoon islands, and a yellowhammer was reported on Friday (17th), a rare bird here. The overwintering water pipit has been seen several times this week, and should soon be gaining its smart grey and cream breeding plumage. 

The mild nights encouraged us to start moth-trapping again. We don't catch huge numbers at this time of year, but we do see species that don't occur here later in the Spring and Summer. This one, called Agonopterix ocellana (it has no English name), is only the fifth record for Denbighshire (the recording vice-county that RSPB Conwy is in). Amazingly, that last county record was in Glan Conwy, just half a mile away, in 1983, before the nature reserve was created.