It smells like Spring

April - a new month, with new improved weather.  Fewer days of gale-force winds, and more days of Springtime nature. We hope...

It has certainly got off to a good start, with daily arrivals of summer migrants. We heard our first willow warbler this morning, a bit earlier than usual, and our first white wagtails too.  There should be plenty more in the next couple of weeks. No blackcaps so far, so that's another species that should arrive in the next few days. Sand martins have been more numerous in the last few days, now that the cold northwesterly winds have dropped, and there have been a few swallows , and our first house martin on Friday (3rd).  Wheatears have been sporadic, but there are now lots of chiffchaffs holding territory around the reserve. Our first osprey of the year was spotted this afternoon, sending all the gulls into the air as it headed northeast over the lagoons.

A kingfisher was a nice surprise early this morning, the second sighting this week, and unusual here in spring, as they normally only occur in winter.  Might they be prospecting a nest-site nearby? Several little grebes are still here too, tempting us into thinking that they may stay and nest, but they've dashed our hopes in previous years by moving on by mid April.  Our pair of great-crested grebes have been carrying nest material into the edge of the reeds near the Coffee Shop, so fingers crossed that they will also stay.  We found the first lapwing nest at the end of last week, and there are several Canada geese sitting on nests on the lagoon islands. As usual, mallards were the first birds to get chicks onto the water, with a family of six near the Coffee Shop over the weekend.

The warmer weather on Saturday and Bank Holiday Monday brought out the insects, with peacock butterfly today, and lots of mining bees around the Ynys Screen yesterday.  Mining bees don't sting or swarm, but live in colonies, laying their eggs on a clump of pollen at the end of a 'mine-shaft' up to 60cm below the surface.  Other signs of spring include a buff-tailed bumblebee on Friday 30th, and lots of frogspawn in the ponds. Look out, too, for the many cowslips that are flowering around the trails - and the first dog violets of the year, seen this morning.  If you're walking around the trails (and don't suffer from hayfever), inhale the coconut-scent of the gorse bushes that are in flower - a wonderful smell.

Last week we surveyed the reserve for water rails, a shy and secretive reedbed dweller. We found 10 individuals, though it's always hard to be certain how many nests these will result in, as we almost never find the nests, and are very lucky if we spot the chicks.  One person who was very lucky last week spotted an otter in the Deep Lagoon (Tuesday 31st) - we know they use the reserve, because we find signs of them throughout the year, but very few people are lucky enough to spot one - especially at 9am!

Most of our wintering birds have now left, with a redwing on Saturday (4th) and a siskin on Thursday (2nd), while a stonechat the same day is likely to be a bird moving from its low-ground wintering area to somewhere at higher altitude. A couple of grey wagtails have been around this week, another bird we usually only see outside the breeding season.

A green woodpecker was reported last Monday (30th) in the wildlife garden - they are quite scarce here, and sadly have become much rarer in North Wales in the last 20 years.  We'd love to know more about this, so if you were the finder, please could you get in touch?

Finally, one visitor who arrived after a long journey (with an even longer one to go) is Gary Prescott. He is The Biking Birder, who is cycling to every RSPB nature reserve and WWT centre in the UK this year, raising funds for several charities, including The RSPB.  You can follow his exploits on his Facebook page and on his blog, and we're sure he'd appreciate a donation to help him on his way. He's in Northern Ireland this week, another stage of his journey to break the European record for the highest number of birds seen in a calendar year without getting in a car.