It may already be May, and all our summer migrants are in, but the weather seems to think it's winter still most days, and so it seems do some of our birds. A few of our winter visitors are still with us, including 2 male and a female pochard. Small numbers of pochard breed on Anglesey, so maybe there's a slim chance that they will stay and breed? We also had a pair of wigeon until last week, but seems like the male has finally realised that he should be further north and disappeared, leaving a lonely female behind! Meanwhile our usual summer wildfowl are well into the swing of things, with broods of mallards and Canada geese popping up all over the lagoons, and it shouldn't be too long now until the great crested grebes hatch out.
Migrants are still passing through, heading further north or up into the hills where spring comes later; we've had up to 4 whimbrel, 5 wheatear, 4 whinchat and small numbers of white wagtail daily. A redpoll has been singing by the Carneddau Hide on a few days last week, and we're also seeing sandwich terns in the Estuary on high tides, presumably following the fish up the river.
We think we also had a first for the reserve on 24 April, although it wasn't quite in the same league as some of the rarities we've had previously here. As I drove in to work that day, I was greeted by the slightly odd sight of a red-legged partridge standing in the middle of the slip road looking very confused. It was later seen by the Tal y Fan hide by Henry Cook, and as far as we know it's a first for the reserve. It wasn't seen again, so hopefully it managed to overcome its bewilderment and find somewhere a bit more appropriate to make a home!
And finally, we were graced by the presence of a beautiful brick-red colour-ringed black-tailed godwit on the Deep Lagoon on 30 April. First spotted by Tony Gallon and photographed by Mike Nesbitt, it stayed for a couple of days, and we reported the sighting straight away to the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), who coordinate all ringed bird reports across the country. The group that ringed the bird have been in touch already, and we found out that it was a male who was first ringed in western France in September 2013 on migration, and was seen again in Brittany in November 2014. Information gathered by reporting such colour-ring sightings provides invaluable data about the movements of birds and their longevity, so if you ever see a colour-ringed bird, or find a dead bird with a metal ring on, it's always worth reporting on the BTO website (www.bto.org), and it's very quick and easy to do!