On the move

The snowdrops are out, the gorse is in bloom and the first newt eggs of the year have been spotted, and each day's sunshine brings a bit more warmth.  Birds are on the move, too, with goldeneyes shipping out during the week (the last of the regular birds was seen on Sunday).

We're also seeing black-tailed godwits more frequently, with 11 stopping here yesterday as they start their journey north to their Icelandic breeding grounds.  This week, we finally heard news on a colour-ringed godwit that we saw here last April.  Ringed in Iceland in July 2007, it spent winter 2007/08 on the Firth of Forth and then the Algarve, it was then spotted again in Iceland in spring 2009 and returned to the Algarve in winter 2009/10 before being spotted at Conwy on its way north.  It is spending the current winter on the Algarve again, so will we find it again this spring?  Please report all colour-ringed godwits to reserve staff, and note the combination (there are usually two rings on each leg).

The three pink-footed geese have been here all week, usually keeping themselves separate from the increasingly noisy Canada geese.  Good numbers of siskins have been on the feeders this week, with a handful of lesser redpolls (six on Monday 14th is the highest count we know of).  A stonechat yesterday (Friday) and a kestrel last Saturday (12th) are ones of only a few records this winter, while a male goosander has been seen on the estuary again, a regular visitor this winter.  Of the waders, half a dozen ringed plovers and a dunlin on Sunday were the highlights of the monthly WeBS count.