Whiteout!

The week has been book-ended by two rare species. Monday kicked off with a great white egret, only the second reserve record (and the first to plant its feet firmly on reserve mud). The size of a grey heron, it dwarfs the many little egrets feeding in the Shallow Lagoon, as shown in Adrian Foster's excellent photo. The great white is still present today (Sunday 24th). Aside from its size, its bright yellow bill is distinctive, but a close look shows traces of black at the tip of the upper mandible, remnants of its breeding-season coloration farther south in Europe.

Friday's surprise was a white-letter hairstreak, a scarce butterfly in North Wales, although there is a breeding site a couple of miles northeast of the reserve. It was photographed by Dennis McCann on Friday (22nd), who shared his pictures on Facebook, enabling us to confirm the sighting and add it to our records. It's not the first time that a good digital photo has helped us to add a record to the reserve's list, so please do snap and share - via Flickr, Facebook or Twitter.

The first wigeons and shovelers of the autumn arrived this week, another signal that the northern breeding season is coming to a close. Teal numbers are also on the up, while waders include a couple of hundred curlews, a few black-tailed godwits, dunlins and whimbrels, a single greenshank and green sandpiper, with a little stint reported on Thursday (21st). A skylark on Saturday and common gull on Wednesday (20th) are further signs of autumnal change. A juvenile wheatear present all week retains some downy plumage, which suggests that it hatched not too far from Conwy; a juvenile redstart here on Monday (18th) is also likely to have been a local breeder. Kingfisher has been seen most days this week, while highlights of the previous week include a yellow wagtail and a hooded crow on Saturday (16th), the latter the third reserve record, but perhaps all relating to the same individual that has been in the valley since the start of the year.

There are loads of six-spot burnet moths flying (check the flower heads of knapweeds and field scabious), and the many black-and-yellow striped caterpillars on ragwort suggest that we'll have plenty of cinnabar moths emerging in the coming weeks. A few migrant silver-Y moths have been spotted this week, the first common darter dragonflies, and gatekeeper, red admiral, small tortoiseshell and meadow brown butterflies are on the wing.