July? A quiet month? Not here!

Today's Wetland Bird Survey counted more than 1700 birds of 29 species, as numbers start to build following the breeding season. There were notable counts of little egret (62), mallard (136), curlew (273) and redshank (507), and the good thing about paying close attention to the common birds is that you can find some scarcer ones: Mediterranean gull (1), hobby (2), shoveler (3), dunlin (4), plus a wall butterfly, a species that has only occurred here on a handful of occasions.

We were also treated to binocular-filling views of a male kingfisher that perched on the new(ish) fence in front of the Carneddau Hide and then plunge-dived for a fish - another reason to thank National Lottery players for the funding. Thanks to volunteer guided walk leader Cathy for the photo.

The hobbies (either a male and female, or an adult and juvenile) are an intriguing sighting, our fourth record of the Summer, and we are wondering if they have bred somewhere in this part of the Conwy Valley. We're also intrigued by daily sightings for the last 10 days of two or three juvenile redstarts, that can only have fledged from a nest very recently. Redstart has never bred on the reserve, and we have no reason to think they have done so this year, but we suspect the nest was not far away. We also continue to host at least two juvenile stonechats for the second week, and a grasshopper warbler was reported singing near the Carneddau Hide on Monday (17th).

Each day brings different wader species dropping in as they travel south: greenshank (today), whimbrel (at least four today), black-tailed godwit (daily, with a peak of eight on Friday), green sandpiper (yesterday), and little ringed plover (Wednesday). The long-staying garganey was seen daily until last Wednesday (19th), our brood of seven young gadwall are still doing well on the deep lagoon, and a female pochard visited on Wednesday.

Common darter dragonflies have started to emerge this week, and should become abundant in the weeks ahead, while our invertebrate survey volunteers Ruth and Rob Morgan report an excellent count of butterflies this week, with second-generation common blues particularly notable. Look out too for soldier beetles on flower heads, common green, field and meadow grasshoppers in the grassland, and a wood mouse that has taken up residence in the compost bin!

There are thousands of six-spot burnet moths around the reserve; really, I challenge you to go for a walk in the sunshine this week and not see a hundred or more. The cinnabar moth caterpillars are munching through the ragwort in the car park, and in a few weeks' time, we'll hopefully see plenty of the adults flying around. Sighting of the week was also a moth, thanks to volunteer and moth expert, Bob Evans. Bob does most of his volunteering at night, using bright lights to attract nocturnal moths on the reserve. But some moths fly in the day, and won't come to light, yet are really elusive. Earlier this week, Bob brought some pheromone lures to the reserve. He wanted to see if he could find six-belted clearwing, a moth that we've only recorded once previously (during a Bioblitz event with Cofnod in 2011). His first attempt produced nothing, so he was delighted on the second day to find three male six-belted clearwing moths, drawn to the lure of female pheromones. Nice one, Bob!