The new year has begun with a nice selection of winter birds around the reserve, with water rails being a particular focus of attention (pictured). This charismatic species is more often heard calling from the cover of the reedbeds than it is seen, though the reserve certainly offers a better than average chance of catching a glimpse of these elusive birds as they creep around the lagoon edges while feeding.
Water rails begin to arrive at Conwy in late summer, with numbers building up through the winter which peak around this time of year. Therefore January is the time when our annual wintering water rail survey is carried out, after which numbers will start to diminish and most will have left by mid-April. A breeding water rail survey is also carried out in late April, although there have been no records of breeding birds in recent years. With very little chance of seeing all the birds present, the survey method involves playing the call over a speaker and listening for birds responding.
These surveys have revealed that an average of 17 birds have wintered at Conwy over the past 10 years, with the highest count being 24 birds in January 2018, and the lowest being just 11 birds in January 2020. Evidently the numbers fluctuate considerably from year to year, and are likely to be influenced by the weather which will determine how many birds move into the UK from the continent, and also how far west the birds will move within the UK to seek relatively mild conditions.
An area of private land adjacent to the reserve with suitable water rail habitat is also surveyed each year, and an annual average of six additional birds have been recorded wintering in this area in recent years.
This year, our Visitor Experience Assistant Alice joined regular volunteers Rob and Ruth who carry out the survey annually, and wrote the following account below of her experience.
'It was a beautiful sunny crisp winters morning and the weather had allowed us to get out for our winter water rail survey. Rob and Ruth, our survey volunteers (pictured) showed me the ropes on how we complete the survey on site. It was fantastic to be able to get out on the reserve and get a good insight into our water rail population. I talk to visitors daily and want to be able to share my love and knowledge for wildlife so actually being hands on with surveys like this one helps me to keep up to date with the reserve’s fabulous wildlife!
We had 35 survey plots to cover right around the reserve. At each plot we played the water rail call three times and then waited to hear any call back. We quickly learned that the water rails have a habit of calling after we walked away! We also had to be mindful not to double count any birds we had heard at a previous plot, so it was important to try and be as accurate as possible when marking the location of each water rail on the map. I would eagerly wait to hear the distinctive squeal shout at us after we had finishing playing our recording as if to say, ‘this is my territory’! On some occasions it felt as if they were about to run out and ambush us as the squeal rushed forward from the reedbed. Each time we got a return call it would bring a big smile to all our faces! We ended up with 18 call backs from the survey on the reserve and a further 10 were heard at our neighbouring piece of land we also survey.
It’s lovely to know our reserve gives these beautiful birds a safe place to hang out for the winter and it’s always a treat to spot one of these secretive birds skulking along the edges of the reedbed'.
Wildfowl is also of interest at this time of year and highlights have included a female scaup which has been present since 8/11, a female long-tailed duck which stayed from 7/11 up until 23/12, single drake common scoter seen on the deep lagoon on 10/1 and 20/1, and two drake pintail on 20/12. Up to six pochard have also been present throughout, along with a good number of shoveler for the reserve with a peak count of 27 on 11/1. Merganser have also made regular appearances with up to four birds present, and around 200 pink-footed geese were seen high over the reserve heading west on 2/1.
Waders of particular interest have included jack snipe on several dates including at least five birds on 26/12, and individual spotted redshank on four dates since the end of December. Woodcock have again been seen occasionally with a maximum of three on 28/12, and greenshank have been present several times including a high count of seven on 5/1. Up to three black-tailed godwit have also been present, and snipe appear to be around in good numbers. A count of 662 lapwing on 22/12 was a record number for the reserve with an influx of birds arriving during the particularly cold weather in mid-December, and favouring the bare ground on the recently re-profiled lagoon islands (library photo by Ben Andrew).
Firecrest made further appearances with individuals seen on 30/12, 1/1 and 7/1, while Scandinavian rock pipit (littoralis) on 19/12 and Siberian chiffchaff (tristis) on 26/12 were of interest, both being scarce subspecies of our regular rock pipit and chiffchaff respectively. Siskin have been seen regularly in recent weeks with up to 12 birds feeding in the alders around the discovery trail, while cold weather on 17/1 saw small movements of at least 24 fieldfare and 16 skylark over the reserve.
Other species of interest were a great white egret on 2/1, and raptors including a red kite on 26/12 and a kestrel on 19/1.
Sightings of non-avian interest included an otter seen in the deep lagoon on 19/1, and the first butterfly of the year, a peacock disturbed from its winter roost in a pile of scrap wood on 16/1.