Of birds and bats

Spring has arrived in a rush, with good numbers of many summer migrants already here. It amazes me how quickly, having made the long journey from sub-Saharan Africa, these tiny birds get straight into the business of nest-building.  Last Thursday, for example, I saw the first whitethroat of the year, newly-arrived and making a half-hearted scratchy song from the top of a bush.  By Monday, his song was full-pelt, and he was carrying nesting material into that same bush.  Less than 100 hours after he'd arrived!

Other birds are also busy nesting, with a few - such as house sparrows and blackbirds - carrying food to nests hidden away in the scrub. Several Canada geese are sitting, as is a single lapwing, though there are several other lapwings around. A goldcrest has been singing, holding territory, near the Dipping Pond, not a bird that usually stays here in the summer. Time will tell whether he can find a mate.

Most of our spring migrants have now been spotted at least once.  Those that will stay to breed - reed, sedge, willow warbler and chiffchaff - are all abundant, with small numbers of whitethroats and lesser whitethroats, but no garden warbler - yet! Other birds that will nest locally, such as sand martins and swallows, are feeding by the dozen over the lagoons, though so far, just a few house martins and swifts have been spotted.  The swifts, in particular, are earlier than usual.

On the estuary, white wagtails and wheatears are seen almost daily (six of each this morning), while Sandwich terns and an Arctic tern were seen yesterday (Tuesday).  Yesterday evening, 40 little egrets were on the mudflats, a record for this time of year, and perhaps as indicator that it's going to be a busy season in the local breeding colonies.

A few scarcer migrants have been spotted: tree pipit and grasshopper warbler on Monday (20th), whimbrels on several evenings, whinchat on Saturday (18th) and a pair of redstarts on Thursday (16th).

Most wintering ducks have long since left for their northern breeding grounds, but a pair of wigeons remain, and a male pochard was a surprise this morning, weeks after the last sighting.  There are lots of shelducks around, gathering here before their nesting season begins: on Sunday, we counted 118 during the monthly Wetland Bird Survey.

We borrowed a passive bat detector from the Norfolk Bat Project over the weekend (long story, we are a bit farther west than King's Lynn). This monitors all the bats within the area that it's located while you're asleep in bed, and even though it is early in the season, there were several hundred 'hits' on the SD card when it was downloaded.  Two of these were from species not previously recorded on the reserve: Natterer's bat and Nathusius' pipistrelle. The pipistrelle is the third species of its type for the reserve (alongside common and soprano), and has only been recorded a handful of times in North Wales.  Many thanks for the loan of the kit, Norfolk Bat Project.

Our volunteers have started to do a regular butterfly, bee and dragonfly survey here. No dragons or damsels yet, but they saw plenty of butterflies: there are lots of peacocks around, and they also saw brimstone, orange tip and comma, and the first speckled wood this year was in the wildlife garden this week.