Signs of spring

Are you a list person? Lots of nature enthusiasts keep lists. Lists of birds you've seen, in a day, in a year, at a local patch, on holiday. I've even heard of someone who keeps a list of birds they've seen from the smallest room. In the summer, I always keep a list of dragonflies and butterflies I've seen when I'm out walking. As a species, we tend to like lists - they bring a sense of order to what we are doing.

We're keeping a list of signs of spring at the reserve, and we hope visitors will add to it over the coming weeks.  Here's what's on today's list:

- Snowdrops
- Singing song thrush
- Shelducks returning to the estuary
- first Coltsfoot in flower
- Goldeneyes displaying
- Alder catkins
- Lapwings displaying
- the sun is shining!

There's some obvious things we haven't noticed yet, such as the first frogspawn, and over the next few weeks, we hope we can add the first chiffchaffs singing, the first sand martins arriving from Africa, the first primrose, the first butterfly (brimstone or orange-tip?) and the first ladybird.  If you see a sign of spring at the reserve, come and tell us about it, or tweet it to @rspbconwy using the hashtag #signsofspring.

Half-term week has been a good one to get out and discover nature waking up from a long winter.  Visitors yesterday saw two firecrests, one bittern, and four choughs (we think this is the highest ever count here). Ringed plovers are another sign of birds on the move; there were eight here this morning, and 10 knots yesterday.  Curlew numbers are well down, suggesting an early departure, but last week's Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS) recorded 400 redshanks and over 60 snipe.

The lesser redpolls have continued to enjoy the nyjer seed from the feeder in the wildlife garden, and there was a smart male bullfinch feeding there today too.  Yesterday, a treecreeper was reported again in the same area - a real rarity here!

Last weekend saw the last of our three winter water rail surveys. After counts of 16 in December and 18 in January, seven for February might seem disappointing, but it's a sign that water rails move back towards their breeding areas comparatively early, especially as we've had no prolonged ice this winter. Not all our wintering birds stay for the summer.  Because the squeals of a calling water rail are quite individual, we are pretty certain that some of the birds we heard last week have held the same territory throughout the winter, and it will be interesting to see if they are still there in early April when we do the breeding survey.