It has sprung!

The Spring that we thought would never come has finally arrived in a rush.  Gales earlier this week made finding birds difficult, but the last two calm sunny days made it all seem worthwhile.  In the space of a week, many of our expected summer migrants have arrived: yellow wagtail (Sunday 14th, and more today), whimbrel (Monday 15th), redstart (Wednesday 17th, with more on Thursday and Friday), whitethroat and sedge warbler (Thursday 18th), grasshopper warbler (Friday 19th) cuckoo, common tern, reed warbler and swift (today).  There have also been huge numbers of chiffchaffs and willow warblers all week, good numbers of swallows and sand martins, with a few common sandpipers and house martins too. White wagtails have finally arrived in reasonable numbers, with up to 40 around the lagoons and on the saltmarsh - our thanks to Keith for posting this picture on our Flickr website. The first blackcaps that we think are migrants, rather than overwintering birds, have also arrived this week. It's fantastic, with every bush alive with birds, and even a short walk can take a longer than you expect.

We have at least four lapwings on nests, plus Canada geese and the oystercatchers getting territorial too. A pair of little ringed plovers seem to have taken to the island outside the Coffee Shop - will they breed again this year?  We've been starting to see stoats again this week, so hope they'll be preparing for a family too.  The cowslips are flowering outside the Coffee Shop, and we've seen comma and small tortoiseshell butterflies too.

Among the arriving migrants have been some other scarcer birds too: three Arctic terns today (and one yesterday), firecrest reported on Thursday (18th), bar-tailed godwit (Sunday 14th), pintail (Friday 12th), several black-tailed godwits and Sandwich terns. A handful of siskins and lesser redpolls have been seen, usually around the wildlife garden feeders, where a goldcrest was seen this morning. There's been no further sign of the bittern, seen here on Thursday 11th, but who knows what else will arrive in the coming weeks...

Meanwhile, the Conwy Connections project reached another milestone this week with the completion of Y Maes, the landscaped area between the Coffee Shop and Visitor Centre. It's mostly open for you to use, except for the areas that will be grass, which isn't growing very quickly yet!  We'd love to hear your feedback on the new area.

We've also started work on the new building next to the Coffee Shop, which will be mostly made of wood and straw bales. The bales arrived from a farm in Cheshire this week, donated by The Crown Estate, who are also making a major financial contribution to the improvements we are undertaking this year. The carpentry work is being undertaken by Greenbuilt, who started work this week.  We plan to bury a time capsule beneath the floor of the Observatory, and we're looking for your ideas of what we should put in it.  Look out for a separate blog about this later today.

The speed of progress will depend on the weather, as we can only build with straw when it's not raining. While this work is underway, there's no access from the back door of the Coffee Shop to the trails - you can still use the paths through Y Maes, of course, and we have re-opened the walk through the Wildlife Garden now that the work here is complete.