Watch out for the dragons!

Finally, something that feels like summer. Days when you don't have to wear a fleece, waterproofs or wellies. Days when your walk is full of colourful insects and flowers. Days to get outside even if Taekwondo or BMX racing is on the tv (three cheers for North Wales gold medallist Jade Jones, by the way).

After a terribly poor summer, butterflies have finally made an appearance this week, with lots of gatekeepers and meadow browns, a nice sprinkling of common blues, a few red admirals and even a small copper. Emperor dragonflies and common darters have been regular around the pools this week, just stay quietly patient and they'll come and investigate you.  The red and black 'butterflies' are actually six-spot burnet moths - look for mating pairs on flower heads around the paddocks and in front of the coffee shop.

Birds have an autumnal feel to them, with plenty of small birds each morning, including willow warblers starting to sing again following their moult and a couple of redstarts reported this week, the most recent from the Coffee Shop this morning.  Among the growing flocks of curlews and redshanks have been a turnstone (found on Tuesday 7th and still present today), several dunlins, ringed plover and little ringed plovers.  Our single summering snipe has been joined by at least three more, while a smattering of black-tailed godwits (36 on Tuesday 7th) and a greenshank are in the mix of the other waders.  One or more green sandpipers has been present over the last couple of weeks, last reported on Wednesday (8th), and an occasional whimbrel and bar-tailed godwit have also been seen.

A great spotted woodpecker this morning and a jay yesterday are signs of birds moving around the countryside now that the breeding season is over. A kingfisher (Friday 10th) and goldcrest (9th) are similarly birds that are on the move.  A hobby last weekend (4th) was a good reserve record, making us wonder how close by they may have nested, as it remains a scarce bird in North Wales.  A white wagtail has been among the pied wagtails, though there are plenty of juvenile pied wags to catch out the unwary. A juvenile yellow wagtail last Saturday (4th) was almost certainly a migrant as they are on the critical list as a North Wales breeding species. A first-winter yellow-legged gull was among the high tide gull roost earlier in the week

The breeding season has, we think, pretty much finished, with our last young lapwings and oystercatchers fledging this week. That said, I saw blackbird carrying food and a blackcap feeding its recently fledged young this week, so there are still a few nests on the go, perhaps taking advantage of the better weather following the June washout.