The week's glorious weather brought more early migrants, with the first willow warbler reported on Wednesday (28th) and the first osprey of the season mobbed by gulls as it flew north on Friday (30th). Wheatears have been on several days this week, and the sand martin flocks are getting larger in size. Butterflies spotted this week include speckled wood, small white, comma, peacock and small tortoiseshell. A goldcrest singing in the car park on Friday was unusual for here; will it find a mate and nest? If you're visiting this week, look out for the superb display of cowslips flowering near the coffee shop.
Our pair of great crested grebes have re-appeared this week, and we still have two little grebes here, so are hoping that both of these will stay for the spring. A count of 26 little egrets was high for springtime, so will we see an increase in the nesting population across the river in Benarth Woods? Certainly there are plenty of grey herons on nest platforms.
The pick of the week's birding were two Iceland gulls, an adult and first-winter found by Rob late on Monday afternoon. He managed to get a photo of one of the birds - a rarity here.
It's still early for passage waders but a flock of 10 black-tailed godwits that dropped in on Saturday were welcome. The flock of tufted ducks is getting quite large for spring, with 25 birds yesterday (31st). A kestrel was a last taste of winter on Friday, and a red kite was seen by several visitors on Wednesday, while a couple of redpolls were heard flying over later in the week.
We've just published our e-newsletter for April. It includes news of three job vacancies, a couple of volunteer opportunities, our springtime events, and the first two winners of our Photo of the Month competition. Download it here, or if you'd like to receive it straight to your Inbox, visit our December 2010 posting and follow the sign-up instructions.
Julian HughesSite Manager, Conwy