Bird sightings on the reserve have remained fairly steady over the past month with a nice variety of typical winter species present and good numbers of wildfowl on the lagoons.
Highlights have included a jack snipe on 3/4, woodcock over at dusk including one on 23/11 and two on 8/12, up to two spotted redshank seen on nine dates, and Siberian chiffchaff (a subspecies of our regular chiffchaff) on 3/12 and 11/12.
Shoveler have been present in good numbers with a record reserve count of 44 on 15/12. Pochard have so far peaked at nine birds on 29/11 and 30/11, while wigeon and teal have also been present in high numbers. Merganser have often been seen as well with a maximum of seven on 13/12, and up to two goosander have made occasional appearances.
Other notable waders have included knot in small numbers with a peak of six birds on 13/12, regular greenshank with maximum counts of six on 25/11 and 19/11, and occasional black-tailed godwit with a high count of 11 on 2/12.
Great white egret and kingfisher have been fairly regular again with sightings of each species on 12 dates.
Passerines have included numerous redwings which have been a regular sight all over the reserve, along with a single fieldfare on 21/11, a surprisingly scarce species here. Siskins have also been fairly regular again with a maximum count of at least 25 on 13/12 while small flocks of bullfinches have also been seen daily. Other notable species include Cetti’s warbler, more often heard than seen, and chough which continue to be recorded flying over the reserve when moving between their roost sites and daytime feeding areas.
Looking back over the year there’s been numerous highlights and a few surprise firsts for the reserve including Alpine swifts with single birds on 28/3 and 29/3, two on 30/3 and a further individual on 14/4 when a large nation-wide influx occurred. An icterine warbler on 7/6 was also a first, though less surprising was a cattle egret which made its long anticipated first reserve appearance on 26/9 with a further sighting on 19/10. A red-rumped swallow present from 11/4 to 12/4, and a Lapland bunting from 17/10 to 22/10 were both only the second records here for both species. A spoonbill seen on 6/7 and 7/7 was a really nice sighting here with only five previous records, while a red-throated diver on 10/11, although commonly seen along the North Wales coast in winter was only the fourth record for the reserve. (Photos left-right: Alpine swift by Steve Culley, Lapland bunting, red-rumped swallow and spoonbill by Zak Spaull).