The Daily Osprey

We've had a busy week at Conwy. The glorious sunshine has brought thousands of people to the reserve, getting out and enjoying nature. It has also brought lots of summer migrants to the reserve, and the breeding season has really started to get into full swing.

Our great crested grebes have built a nest in reeds across the lagoon from the Coffee Shop, though we don't think they are yet incubating eggs. Our little grebes are still here too, though if they are nesting, it will be much deeper into the reeds, out of sight. Robins, blackbirds and long-tailed tits are all nest-building on the reserve, while SparrowCam (a nestbox camera we are showing live in the Visitor Centre) has been a stop-start affair, with male and female house sparrows bringing in grass and feathers to build a nest, but taking out almost as much as they've brought in.

Lots of swallows and sand martins are feeding over the lagoons each day, catching flies emerging from the water. A few house martins have been seen among them.  The morning air rings to the dual note of singing chiffchaffs and the falling cadence of willow warblers, though we have noted only one blackcap so far.  Common sandpipers have been seen on several dates, but otherwise passage waders have been limited to a few black-tailed godwits so far.

Small numbers of white wagtails have been seen (6 on Thursday 9th was the highest count this week), usually on the estuary, and one or two wheatears have been seen daily.

The highlight of the week has been ospreys, with birds seen on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. It was tempting to assume that this was a single bird hanging around the estuary before continuing north, but several were photographed and the careful eyes of local birder Rob Hughes showed that at least two, and quite possibly more, birds were involved.  The osprey image (above), by Matthew Boa was posted to our RSPB North Wales Facebook page after he saw it over the estuary on Tuesday evening.

The best way to spot an osprey is to watch how the gulls react, as they mob ospreys noisily. So on Saturday, I expected to see an osprey when all the gulls raised a racket, and was more surprised to see a short-eared owl heading down river, pursued by herring gulls.  A distant red kite and chough were also see from the reserve on Tuesday (7th)

The last vestiges of winter include a couple of wigeons, lesser redpoll flying over on Wednesday (8th) and a few snipe.  A few goldcrests and skylark are birds on the move through Conwy. Butterflies seen this week include peacock and small tortoiseshell, while a visitor spotted a large eel swimming in the gin-clear waters of the Bridge Pond. The cowslips are looking fantastic now, and popping up in several new places, and look out for the dog violets along the estuary wall, where we strimmed the bramble over the winter to encourage more flowers and invertebrates.

A peacock butterfly, a stoat and a grey heron are among the species that are appearing on the walls of The LookOut this week. Local artist Richard Hackett has been painting a mural on the back wall of our straw-bale building to highlight some of the wildlife you can see from here, and to welcome people inside.  If you're here over the next few days, stop by and say hello as he finishes off his painting.