Stoats are A-list celebs. And they know it.

There's no real theme to this week's wildlife news, other than that the stoats have undoubtedly played the starring role, and the photos that visitors have been putting on the reserve's Flickr photostream have been fantastic.  The one here by Adrian Foster is just one of many that he and other photographers have taken along the estuary track.  However, by the end of the week, the youngsters were roaming farther and Mum had moved them over the bank into the lagoon area, and they've been spotted several times from the coffee shop.

Meanwhile, out in the water, the autumn feel continues with greenshank this morning, a well-watched green sandpiper last Sunday and increasing numbers of redshanks through the week (35 yesterday).  The little ringed plover count has increased to an impressive 10, including four rapidly-growing young, and there's been a ringed plover with them all week too.  A ruff was seen on Monday, a handful of dunlins have been present daily and a couple of black-tailed godwits were here on Thursday. Midweek rain enabled us to raise the water levels outside the Tal-y-fan Hide, and we'll aim to keep them as shallow puddles through the second half of the summer.

Our summering goldeneye remains here, but we've also started to see shovelers, teals and even our first wigeon of the autumn this week, a sure sign of the Earth turning beyond the summer solstice.  A juvenile stonechat on Wednesday was a surprise; we wonder where it fledged from, as we've seen young stonechats in midsummer in previous years.  The bee orchids have been less spectacular this year, but some are flowering later than usual - there's still a very showy one at the start of the boardwalk.

Finally, keep a lookout for the family of ravens that are using the reserve.  I watched a parent bird fly down to the estuary and grab a crab from the mud, then fly to the lagoon and dunk the crab in the water before smashing it up and feeding bits of it to a begging youngster.  The juveniles are perfectly capable of finding their own food now, but it doesn't seem to stop the lazy 'teenager'...

What else have we been up to?
We've been busy with press interest this week thanks to the local newspapers helping our plea for memories and photos of the early days of the reserve and the opening of the Conwy tunnel, 20 years ago in October.  If you can help us, we'd love to hear from you. 

We've also launched a partnership with Arriva Trains Wales this week, encouraging visitors to use the train to travel to the reserve.  We're offering free drinks if you present a valid rail ticket to Llandudno Junction on the day of travel.  We're grateful to Arriva Trains Wales for promoting this at local railway stations - see the posters for full details of the offer.  At Llandudno Junction station they're in the entrance foyer and in the bus stop.

Last weekend's non-wildlife highlight was A Whirl on the Wildside, a fun evening of music, dancing and fiendishly difficult quizzes, organised by volunteer Joy Vyner from the RSPB Conwy Support Group.  Thanks to all her hard work, and the generosity of people who attended, she raised more than £800 for the reserve and for the RSPB's ambitious Harapan Rainforest restoration project in Sumatra.

We've also been busy finalising the details of our Bioblitz Weekend on 9/10 July.  The Bat and Moth Night is almost sold out, so if you want to come, ring us soon.  The main event, on Sunday 10th, is going to be great fun, with lots of naturalists converging on Conwy in a race to find and identify as many different species as they can.  Do come along and join in - many eyes make light work...

Please note that on Wednesday 6 July, the coffee shop will be closed until 11.30 am, but the Visitor Centre and the reserve trails will be open as usual from 9.30 am.

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