Jon from the coffee shop has just seen our first swift of the year, bombing along above the estuary track - quite possibly the first in North Wales. It's been a busy morning here with a yellow wagtail among 70 white wagtails on the saltmarsh, five wheatears, five common sandpipers and four black-tailed godwits. We haven't seen the colour-ringed godwit for a couple of days, but we had an email yesterday to confirm that it was ringed in Iceland. A brood of five Canada goose chicks was on the causeway this morning, one of two that have already hatched here. On the estuary, two dunlins were among the handful of curlews and redshanks still here, while a single snipe was probing in the mud on the lagoons - it will surely be off north any day now.
The lesser whitethroat that arrived here last week is still the only one here, but is giving its machine-gun rattle constantly and was carrying nest material earlier in the week. Our first common whitethroat of the year was spotted on Monday (19th) and the great crested grebes are displaying again today. Two coots have built nests viewable from the boardwalk and the Tal-y-fan hide, while a mute swan has a huge nest in the reeds, viewable from the right-hand side of Tal-y-fan Hide.
The escapee black swan is still here - one of our e-Group followers posted a photo of it here.
Julian HughesSite Manager, Conwy