One good tern deserves another

We have had a busy week at the reserve, with lots of families enjoying the good weather through the Easter holidays, and lots of migrant birds to see and hear. We've had large groups of sand martins feeding over the lagoons all week, and each day there have been a few more swallows and house martins among them. White wagtails peaked at 50 on the saltmarsh this week, with a couple of yellow wagtails, and a few more wheatears heading north. A pair of linnets have been here all week, and we wonder if they will stay to breed.  Pairs of mallard and Canada geese are being followed around by chicks, and Lee from the Visitor Centre team managed to avert disaster earlier in the week when he spotted Mrs Mallard marching her brood towards the A55.

A little ringed plover has been here all week, perhaps waiting for a mate to appear and eyeing up the bare parts of the islands for nesting? Our great crested grebe is also looking a bit lonely - although another grebe was seen here last week, it seems to have gone. An Arctic tern roosted here on Sunday night (20th) - it's nearing the end of its journey, having wintered somewhere between South Africa and the Antarctic shelf, it'll be heading for a nesting colony somewhere between Anglesey and the Arctic Circle.  It's a scarce species at Conwy, but they say that one good tern deserves another, so maybe we shouldn't have been surprised that a Sandwich tern was seen over the estuary on Friday and roosting on the lagoon at high tide on Saturday.

The monthly Wetland Bird Survey last weekend included 80 shelducks, 288 oystercatchers and the last few teal and snipe of the winter, along with whimbrel, a species we've seen almost daily (a peak of eight on Tuesday 22nd). A bar-headed goose has been hanging out with a greylag goose - it looks very smart, but will be an escapee from a collection, since they are native to Asia.

Most of the songbird summer migrants have now arrived, with the first garden warbler on Thursday (24th), though a redstart on Easter Monday had just stopped briefly to feed before moving on.

In the sunshine, butterflies have included our first brimstone of the year, plus speckled woods, orange tips, peacocks, small tortoiseshells and large whites. We had a report yesterday of a grizzled skipper; this is a rare butterfly in North Wales, so we'll be keeping a close eye out. Do let us know what you see, by reporting it to the book in the Visitor Centre, on Facebook or Twitter.

Finally, and with belated apologies, volunteer Robin Sandham has written a short summary of the birds seen here in 2013, including first migrant dates.  Not surprisingly given the cold weather last March and April, most birds arrived a few days later than usual.  You can download his report below.