Tern away

High tide this morning brought some great birds onto the reserve.  The 61 little egrets were impressive, presumably a mix of local breeders and their young, plus some from other sites in North Wales.  From memory, this could well be a local record on the estuary. 

Terns are rare birds at Conwy, so an Arctic tern in front of Carneddau Hide was a nice surprise this morning, but hasn't been seen since.  Two knots in summer plumage were a bonus, the first of the autumn, while 27 black-tailed godwits, greenshank, whimbrels and dunlins were among the other waders on the islands.  Sunday's tide brought a spoonbill onto the estuary - presumably the same one as last week that has been feeding un-noticed somewhere up the river.  A green sandpiper fed in the rejuvenated pools, close to the common sandpiper chicks, on Saturday morning - there seem to be quite a few going through North Wales this week.

Our two stripy great-crested grebe chicks are still doing well, and Sarah spotted two juvenile little grebes here on Friday (23rd) and a juvenile red-breasted merganser on Sunday, though they probably didn't hatch here.  A lot of the smaller birds have been harder to see this week, but the juvenile great spotted woodpecker is still here, and there was a jay on Friday, both species we normally see only in winter.

In between the showers, plenty of people have been enjoying the six-spot burnet moths, moving from thistlehead to thistlehead like hummingbirds in front of the coffee shop, and gatekeeper butterflies are numerous at the moment.