Otter-watching for the lucky few

Happy new year!

The week since Christmas has been blessed with bright, sunny days, encouraging lots of people to get outside and explore the nature reserve. Our recent star birds have all been here: firecrest and water pipit (to 30th December at least), kingfisher (to 31st) and water rails have been heard regularly. A treecreeper has been with a flock of long-tailed tits in recent weeks, a scarce visitor here, and seen most recently on 30th.

Two chiffchaffs were seen on New Year's Eve, and there are lots of bullfinches around, a species that seems to be doing really well here. Choughs have been seen over the reserve on some mornings, heading inland to feed for the day before returning to roost on the Great or Little Orme. The mild conditions means there are not huge numbers of ducks, but a nice selection: goosander (thanks to Bob Garrett for the photo), goldeneye, red-breasted merganser, pochard, and around 20 shelducks, returning to the area following their Autumn moult around the North Sea coast. A pintail was seen on Boxing Day.

There is a good size flock of lapwings, with a few black-tailed godwits among them this morning, with smaller groups of dunlins on the estuary, a knot on Thursday (29th) and greenshank on Wednesday (28th).

Wildlife sighting of the week came on Boxing Day when several visitors were fortunate to watch an otter fishing in the lagoon just in front of the Carneddau Hide. We know they are regular here, as we record them on a trail camera, but always at night; daytime sightings are rare.

Finally, there are just a few days left to apply for a new part-time post as Community and Volunteer Development Officer, supporting our nature reserves in North Wales (closes 4 January), and two weeks to apply for this year's internship as Volunteer Learning Assistant (16 January).