Patience is rewarded

March can be a frustrating month.  The buds on the willows, the nodding daffodils on the roadside verges and the first cloud of midges are telling you that it's spring, but while every day you expect to see a summer migrant, your hopes are dashed on the rocks of a northwesterly airflow or low pressure over Spain blocking their route from Africa to your local patch.  This week, the frustrations subsided...

Monday afternoon (12th) saw the first reports of sand martins mid-afternoon, and there have been small groups of four to six birds on several afternoons since, riding the breeze over the lagoons and hunting insects from just above the surface.  Although we've had one or two chiffchaff sightings in recent weeks, it's hard to know if these are overwintering birds or early arrivals, but three singing high in the trees yesterday (17th) are a good bet for summer visitors. And this morning, the first whimbrel of the year was on the high tide and the first wheatear on the causeway from the Tal-y-fan Hide.  For me, it is the first wheatears in North Wales, rather than swallows, that truly signify springtime.

On the islands, the lapwings have started to display, their wheezing call welcoming visitors each morning, and several pairs of oystercatchers have got together and are being equally noisy.  Our single great crested grebe found a mate, and by late in the week the pair were weed-dancing in their elaborate display, while stoats have started to be seen more frequently; let's hope they're as showy as last summer - expect the youngsters to be around in late May.  Great tits have been investigating the nestbox on Tal-y-fan Hide, while on the estuary and lagoon, a few black-tailed godwits have been reported.

We still have some signs of winter, with more than a dozen siskins feeding on alders in the wildlife garden, building up their reserves for a breeding season in the conifer forests, and one or two lesser redpolls were with them until Monday 12th at least.   Water rail and little grebe have both been seen too, and they can be hard to find later on in the spring, while the odd pochard, goldeneye and knot have been spotted this week.

So, our patience has been rewarded, but have our expectations simply grown?  Now we want to hear the first blackcaps and see the first swallows.  They'll be on their way soon, so let's just enjoy every moment of the next few weeks and marvel at the amazing global spectacle of migrants on the move.

Finally, on a more prosaic note, contractors for the North Wales Trunk Roads Agency will be re-modelling the sliproad from the A55 to the reserve over the next couple of weeks, improving the parking at the estuary viewpoint.  We understand that there'll be no or limited parking outside the reserve during working hours from Monday, but that there will be some limited parking after 6 pm.  While the work is underway, dog-walkers using the coastal path towards Deganwy may use the RSPB car park, providing dogs are on short leads in the car park.