If you walk in the hills around North Wales, you'd be forgiven for thinking that cuckoos are still a common summer visitor, and in some places they are. But in the lowlands, they've become an all-too-rare symbol of spring. In my ten Summers at RSPB Conwy, I've only previously seen one cuckoo, and most years, none are recorded. So it's been nice to see one daily this week, and by the descriptions we've received,…

Original post: 22 June. Updated with spider checklist: 27 July.

We held two events here last weekend, designed to encourage more people to discover the nature around us.

On Saturday, Richard Gallon from the British Arachnological Society, gave an excellent introduction to the variety of spiders that you can see in North Wales. The region played a key role in the developing study of spiders during the 19th century, thanks…

As we are now well into the breeding season the passage of migrant birds we could expect earlier in the spring has steadily slowed down, leaving us mostly with our more regular breeding species. But there’s certainly plenty of interest on the reserve at the moment, and we’ve had a few nice surprises drop in.

The appearance of a hobby on 26/5 and 2/6 was perhaps the highlight, and is one of our scarcer…

RSPB Conwy’s Coffee Shop in Llandudno Junction, overlooking the Conwy Valley, received its bronze award last week following an inspection by the Soil Association earlier in the year, becoming only the second café in the county to gain the catering mark.

RSPB Conwy’s Catering Manager, Jon Ward, said: “As a charity that campaigns for nature across the country, our customers want to see ethically-sourced…

As part of our Celebrate Biodiversity event on Saturday, staff from the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) gave bird ringing demonstrations, while our resident moth expert, Bob Evans had been trapping moths on the reserve the previous evening to show to members of the public. Both of these activities are extremely valuable in telling us more about the wildlife and biodiversity we have at Conwy, while visitors were able…

I've been in a reflective mood this week. Coming back to the reserve after a couple of weeks' holiday is always good; I feel refreshed, Spring has clearly moved into Summer; and it was great to hear about some positive things that had happened while I'd been away (more news on those to come).

Yesterday it was 25 years since I started working for The RSPB. I remember vividly the excitement I felt about starting…

If you enjoy seeing families of birds with their young then it’s a great time to visit the reserve at the moment.  We are currently about half way through monitoring our breeding water birds and the latest survey yesterday morning revealed plenty of activity with broods of ducklings, goslings and various other chicks around the…

Even some of the keenest birders struggle to get enthusiastic about gulls. Large gulls take four years to reach their adult plumage, and transition through a range of plumages that can require feather-by-feather examination through a telescope to nail the identification. And then there are the 'splits'. Twenty-five years ago, just one 'herring gull' was recognised across Europe and western Asia. That was initially split…

While April can often be a cool month in North Wales, May usually brings some real warmth, and with it come many more flower species. Some of April's flowers, such as gorse and dandelion will remain throughout the summer, but others such as cuckoo flower and cowslip, will be over by the end of the first week of May.  Also in this series of blogs are flowers to spot in June, July and August.

Here are 10 flowers to spot…

Several weeks of northerly airflow has slowed northbound migration, but birds are used to inclement conditions and such is their urge to get to their breeding sites that they can overcome all but the worst weather. Overnight, more common whitethroats have arrived, and it feels as though there are more reed and sedge warblers here, though we won't know for certain until Tim does this week's breeding bird census.…

Since the reserve was created in the early 1990s, RSPB staff, volunteers and visitors have kept records of the wildlife seen here. Over the last couple of years, volunteer Ruth Morgan has been helping us get these in order, and with assistance from our more techy colleagues, we have brought together the various spreadsheets, maps, surveys (and bits of notebook) into the RSPB's super database, known as Merlin.

It's been a good start to the Spring for butterflies at Conwy, thanks to warm, sunny weather in late March and early April. Brimstones, small tortoiseshell and peacock butterflies were first out, on 15 March, with comma from 25th, orange tip and large white from 8 April, small white from 9th and speckled woods from 15 April.

We have published a list of the butterflies recorded at the nature reserve (click on the…

It will soon be time to be looking for damselflies and dragonflies on the reserve. Many are here already, of course, as larvae (nymphs) in the ponds around the reserve. The damselflies (smaller, resting with their wings along their abdomen) will be first to emerge, with large red damselfly and common blue damselfly from mid May onwards. The first dragonflies (larger, resting with their wings at 90 degrees to the abdomen…

As we get further into the breeding season, each day brings more birds arriving from Africa. Some of these will breed on the reserve or in the local area, while others stop off to feed on their way to more northerly breeding grounds.

Migrant breeding birds including reed and sedge warblers have been steadily building in number and can now be heard singing from many of the reedbed and scrub areas around the reserve. Other…

The longer days and warmer temperatures prompt the first flowers to bloom during the month. We have recorded over 350 species of flowering plant on the reserve, though there are certain to be some we have missed. So, we’ve put together a photoguide to 12 flowers that you should easily be able to find as you walk around Conwy this month.  Of course, we would ask you not to pick any flowers from the reserve and to…

This is an exciting time of year: each day brings new wildlife to the reserve, migrant birds arriving from Africa, colourful butterflies and bumblebees on the wing, and flowers starting to bloom. Of the 17 regular Summer migrants that we expect to record on the reserve each year, 10 had already been seen by 8 April, and five of these (shown in yellow below) were on their earliest dates since we've been keeping records…

The arrival of the first Summer visitors is always special. They bring hope and as the days lengthen, the prospect of warmer days and balmy evenings.  As usual, chiffchaffs were the first to be heard, their bi-syllabic song being first heard on Friday (10th), and there are now several around the reserve (photo above by Bob Garrett). Our earliest ever singing chiffchaff was just two days earlier (in 2014), and the early…

What do you think if someone mentions moths? A dull brown version of a butterfly? Something that flutters around your outside light on a summer's evening?

Moths are pretty amazing creatures, and here are five things that you possibly didn't know:

1. There are around 2,500 different species of moths in the UK, around 800 'macro' moths (the bigger ones), and the remainder are 'micro' moths (small and need an…

It's definitely felt like Spring this week, with blackthorn starting to flower, the cotton-like buds of willows emerging, and my nose caught the coconut-scented aroma of gorse flowers this morning. Wonderful!

The dawn chorus is starting to build, with robins, dunnocks, song thrushes and blackbirds declaring their presence, and some territorial scrapping around the reserve. The trees in Coed Benarth, on the west…

There are signs of Spring out there; we haven't spotted any frogspawn yet, but the daffodils around the Visitor Centre are pushing upwards and it won't be long before some of the early wild flowers start to appear. The deep yellow flowers of the gorse are in flower, of course, providing an early source of nectar for any early Queen bumblebees and hoverflies that emerge in the coming weeks. Gorse brightens the…

If you live in Wales, I'm pretty certain you'll know of Derek Brockway. He has been forecasting the weather to viewers on BBC Wales Today since 1997, has a huge following on Twitter (@DerektheWeather) and is a keen walker. For the last decade, he has been walking some of the most scenic and historic parts of Wales with a camera crew in tow for Weatherman Walking, now in its tenth series.

Last May, Derek visited…

It's been a rather grey start to 2017, but in the moments of sunshine, the reserve has looked stunning, as this view across the estuary (by Rob J. Davis) illustrates. As regular readers will know, I do like a bit of rain in the Winter, as we can raise the water levels on the lagoons in readiness for Spring. We have, finally, been able to pump a reasonable amount of water onto the Shallow Lagoon (the one closest to the…

Happy New Year! The Christmas break is a good chance to review the year and to catch up on some reading. There's plenty to be proud of at Conwy in 2016, as you can read in last week's blog.

Two things that I've read this week provide good reasons to spend time discovering nature in North Wales this year.

Firstly, the travel-guide people Lonely Planet have named North Wales as the fourth best place in the…

Happy new year!

The week since Christmas has been blessed with bright, sunny days, encouraging lots of people to get outside and explore the nature reserve. Our recent star birds have all been here: firecrest and water pipit (to 30th December at least), kingfisher (to 31st) and water rails have been heard regularly. A treecreeper has been with a flock of long-tailed tits in recent weeks, a scarce visitor here, and…

We've been back through the RSPB North Wales Facebook page and report our year through the posts that you liked, loved and shared the most.

The year kicked off where December had finished, a wet and windy month. Late in January we went for 24 hours without rain for the first time in 66 days! Storm Gertrude made a mess of the Ynys viewing screen, but our volunteers soon put it back together again, and later in the…