The week the Lepelaar visited

The biggest surprise of the week was the appearance of three spoonbills on Sunday; after commuting up and down the estuary for a few hours, they quickly settled on the Deep Lagoon and fed hungrily. The three stayed until Wednesday morning, when they headed west, being reported over the RSPB's Malltraeth Marsh nature reserve on Anglesey.

These three obviously like RSPB reserves, for the previous day they had been at our Middleton Lakes nature reserve, near Tamworth in Staffordshire, exactly 100 miles to the southeast. We know this because as you'll see from some of the great images that one of the birds was colour-ringed. Like its two friends, this was a juvenile bird, ringed as a nestling at a colony in The Netherlands earlier this summer, a country where spoonbill numbers are growing in response to major new wetland nature reserves. On the first afternoon, one of the watchers was a Dutch lady, so she was able tell us that in Dutch, spoonbills are called lepelaar, which means exactly the same as in English.

Lots of people came to see the spoonbills over the three days they were with us, and thanks to all those who shared their pictures with us on social media. A sample of these are shown above (by Richard Boden, Laurence Clark and Dave Williams from the RSPB North Wales Facebook page), and there is also a video clip (below) by Ian Collier.

Besides that taste of the Mediterranean, the rest of our birdlife this week has had an autumnal feel. This week there have been lots of redwings flying over, arriving from Scandinavia or perhaps Iceland. Coal tits have also been on the move, turning up on coastal headlands, local gardens and even on the feeders at the reserve, where a flock of 20 siskins has been regular. At least one pintail remains on the Deep Lagoon this morning and the long-staying spotted redshank was still here yesterday (Friday 16th). Stonechat and kingfisher have been seen this week, and a water rail has been seen regularly in the Bridge Pond where the water levels remain very low.

A few chiffchaffs are the only summer migrants still here, with the last blackcap reported on Friday 9th.  Red admirals are the only butterflies seen this week, with a few bumblebees but no dragonflies.