Send in the diggers!

The breeding season is done and as there is still a distinct lack of water outside the coffee shop, we're going to take an opportunity to create some new wildlife habitat at the reserve.  The lagoon has never dried out for this length of time before, so in the next couple of weeks a digger will be creating some new islands in front of the coffee shop, to provide new roosting and feeding habitat for waders.  We'll be making that part of the lagoon a bit deeper too, so it's less likely to dry out completely in future.  Then we'll need to wait for some proper rain to turn the heap of mud into an island.  There'll be some disturbance, of course, while work is underway, but since few birds are using this area at the moment, it won't be significant (the rabbits might be a bit narked though).

Another redstart was seen at the reserve this morning, keeping its head down in the windy conditions (one was also here on Sunday 22nd, with two on Saturday 21st).  A wheatear on the estuary yesterday was another southbound bird, while last week's calm but drizzly conditions brought a fall of warblers: 28 blackcaps and three lesser whitethroats on Saturday, for example.

The flock of up to 30 black-tailed godwits has remained here all week, joined today by a few dunlins; by the way, a colour-ringed godwit here on 16 July - orange flag over white on left, pale green over blue on right -was ringed at Moeze in France in February 2009.  It was seen in France in November 2009 and again in March 2010; the sighting at Conwy was the first outside France.

Other good waders this week include the first snipe of the winter this afternoon, ringed plover yesterday, greenshank and whimbrel on several dates this week and a female ruff (so, properly, a reeve) on Saturday 21st.  A green sandpiper on Friday (20th) was the first here for a while, as were two little ringed plovers last Tuesday (17th).  The juvenile bearded tits were seen several times last week, most recently on Saturday, while sightings of the kingfisher have been rather sporadic - though there were two on the estuary just north of the reserve last week.

Stoat sightings have also become a bit more difficult this week, but those that have been lucky were treated to superb views once again.