Ynys-hir

With the super full moon we have big high tides at the moment. Coming to the reserve an hour or so before hand is perfect time for our estuary hides. At the moment with have a group of whimbrel with the curlew, , common sandpiper and a wood sandpiper, green shank. Good number of little egret with up to 3 great white egret. Barnacle geese arriving on the saltmarsh amongst the canada geese. Birds of prey include peregrine…

It seems as if overnight we have leapt into spring at RSPB Ynys-hir. In the woods the early spring flowers such as primrose, celandine and wood anemone are in flower whilst the fresh green leaves and shoots of the bluebells hint at what is to come.

With some warmer weather our spring migrants have started to arrive.

Firstly the chiff chaff and willow warblers, then on 30th March a male Pied flycatcher, blackcap and sand…

Back at the end of January we were very happy to welcome Aberystwyth University Conservation Volunteers on site for the day. Their task – to clear a special site on the reserve of the tangle of bramble that has hidden it for a while. The site? CADW heritage Domen las, this mound in the woods behind the hide of the same name has historical importance. The mound is all that is left of a strategic castle facing northeast…

In nature the winter months can bring a sense of stillness, hibernation, the natural world slowing down, readying itself for the surge of life and energy as a new Spring approach. Imbolc is the Celtic celebration or marking of the year celebrated on 1^st February,, when Spring is not with us but there are stirrings  afoot. Shoots pushing through, bird song beginning to fill the morning air and the days beginning to stretch…

Mid-Winter is with us. The days are at their shortest and sometimes on walks outside it can seem as if the world has stopped with a silence and a stillness. With the holidays here giving our warden team and volunteers a well-earned break it’s a good chance to grab a cuppa and have a read on what we have been up to on the reserve throughout the Autumn.

Woodland management at the reserve is mostly aimed at improving…

it has been an interesting Autumn with at times the weather feeling as if it was still a Summers's day. The trees and woods at Ynys-hir have not disappointed in their splendid natural explosion of colour. Everything from the bright yellow of the hazel leaves, oranges of the beach and oak, larch and birch through to the reds of wild cherry have been wonderful to see and spend time in and amongst them. 

The change of…

It's been a busy week out on the pools at Marian Mawr and the saltmarsh and river.

Russell Jones (Warden) was very luck to see a spotted crake on Sunday, exciting record for the county as well as Wales. 

All week visitors have enjoyed views of greenshank (10 plus) green sandpiper as passage waders take advantage of the muddy poos.

Up to 3 great white egrets, gargany, water rail being the other highlights with numbers…

Ynys-hir has been buzzing with invertebrate life recently, the mix of habitats and careful management means we get a wide variety of insect life across the reserve. Many of the species are familiar to the wardens but every year, often completely by accident we come across interesting insects that challenge our ID skills.

Whilst checking the Ponies a week ago I heard a faint, unfamiliar buzz coming from a dry ditch area…

The Lapwing breeding season starts in early spring, through the winter we carry out extensive work across the wet grassland to make the habitat suitable for them. In the Autumn of 2021, a new fence was constructed around the breakwater field, overlooked by the Ynys-Feurig hide. This site was chosen for several reasons, firstly to try to relieve some pressure on our other fenced area at Lodge farm. Having all the breeding…

Late Spring sees the reserve at one of its' best times.

The woodland floor is covered in bluebells with other spring flowers such as primrose, wood anemone, lesser celandine, stichwort and wood sorrel.

The trees are coming into leaf with a lovely fresh green and the air especially in the mornings is full of birdsong.

So far on site we have willow warlbers, chiff-chaff, pied flycatchers and redstarts - enjoying the…

 A couple of years ago RSPB was able to purchase coastal fields bewteen Aberdyfi and Tywyn on the north side of the Dyfi estuary. Historically this area had been used by breeding waders such as lapwing however numbers had dwindled.  Last year our warden team built a temporary electric fence around one of the fields  to reduce predation on the small breeding wader population which had used this site for nesting. For the first…

Cold winter days and grey skies at Ynys-hir bcome alive with the flight of not one, but two Marsh harrier, seen regularly for the last week on the wetland areas. One vsitor even managed to catch one of them on camera eating a shelduck from Ynys Feurig hide.

Hen harrier also almost a daily sighting as well as peregrine over the grassland/saltmarsh areas.

On the pools and estuary, pintail, shoveller, wigeon, teal and great…

The past weeks saw challenging and varied weather, from torrential downpours one minute, sunny spells another and some of the first heavy (ish) frosts keeping us on our toes.

Some particularly frosty mornings over the past weeks

Although it may seem like a long time until the reserve is filled with a plethora of species of both flora and fauna there is still a wide variety of wildlife to be seen and heard around the…

(Cerdit Aardman/Netflix)

Rydyn ni'n falch iawn o fod yn bartner gyda Netflix ac Aardman ar Robin Robin, sy’n stori gerddorol stop-symud newydd ar gyfer y Nadolig ac sy’n adrodd sut mae robin goch ifanc yn ceisio darganfod ei le yn y byd. Mae’n ymddangos am y tro cyntaf ar Netflix ar Tachwedd 24 – felly rhowch y dyddiad yn eich dyddiadur! 

I ddathlu, rydyn ni’n eich gwahodd i ymuno â theithiau antur unigryw ar thema Robin Robin yma yn RSPB Ynys-hir  y 

(Cerdit Aardman/Netflix)

We’re delighted to be partnering with Netflix and Aardman on Robin Robin, a half-hour, stop-motion, festive story for the whole family, about a young robin trying to fit in. It’s debuting on Netflix on 24 November – get the date in your diary! 

To celebrate, we’re inviting you to join exclusive Robin Robin-themed adventure trails right here at Ynys-hir this Christmas season. 

Over 30…

The team has expanded at Ynys-hir - welcome to Mark Carter our new Estate Worker joining us for 6 months over the Autumn/Winter period.

Mark got stuck straight away with one of the big focuses over the past few weeks - ensuring the boundary fence lines around the site, in particular Coed Penryn Mawr, one of the larger sections of ancient woodland on the site, are in good condition to house a small number of cattle grazing…

What a changeable Spring it has been. April as we know, was the driest and coldest on record for quite a few years with a frost nearly every night, and though the days were sunny the air did not warm up. This then has been followed by one of the wettest May's on record for Wales and it has only been in the last week that it feels like Summer might be here.

So how has this affected the birds?

Well to begin with the…

It seems fitting that this, the 50^th Anniversary of RSPB Ynys-hir with it’s wonderful sessile oak woodlands, should be what is called a “mast” year for acorns. A year when trees produce an abundance of their “seeds”. This is the year when the oaks are quite literally showering us with their abundance.

Acorns have been raining down on the woodland floor for the last few weeks at Ynys-hir and…

As we enter the beginning of October there is a definate feel of the seasons turning. September turned out to be a beautiful month with warm sunny days bringing out lots of dragonflies and damselflies such as the black darter, southern hawker, common darter, golden ringed dragonfly,small red damselfly and common blue damselfly.

The leaves are now beginning to turn their yellows and oranges and with a drop in temperature…

August can quite often be a time when it feels as if there is little to see out on  a walk around. However, it is a time for movement, of birds leaving us after a Spring and Summer breeding and raising young, a time of passage when birds which have breed further north use the area as a stop off on their way south, then a time of return, as birds which left us in the Spring to head north to their breeding grounds come back…

Bracken covers much of the lower slopes of the Foel, and it provides nesting opportunities for birds such as nightjar, tree pipit and meadow pipit (the nests of which are parasitized by cuckoo). The caterpillars of the Dark green, and Small pearl bordered, fritillaries use bracken litter for hibernation and aestivation. Bracken can provide a protective nursery for young trees, and there are now hundreds of rowans on the…

We are open!! Along with many other RSPB reserves Ynys-hir has been able to re-open with the lifting of some Government restrictions, however not all staff are back in work and so as with many of our sites, we are on reduced hours. Open Wednesday through to Sunday 10am-4pm. The car park and reserve will be shut outside of these hours.

Also our Welcome area is for the time being outside near the picnic benches, the Visitor…

Many of you will be familiar with a part of the reserve known as Y Foel. This is the hill that forms the stunning backdrop to the view from the picnic tables by the visitor centre. There are public footpaths up here and the walk is well worth it, not just for the stunning views over the main reserve, the Dyfi estuary and the southern mountains of Snowdonia, but alo for the wildlife.

News from Neil, our Assistant Ward…

As we all adjust to life at home during Covid-19 the RSPB is asking people to join in weekdays with #BreakfastBirdwatch #BrecwastGwylioAdar on it's various social media pages (follow us on Facebook RSPB Mid Wales and twitter @RSPBYnys_hir) from 8am-9am and share the birds you see in your gardens or out of your windows. The team at Ynys-hir have been doing that fron their various homes in Mid Wales. Here are some of the…

New legislation, which comes into force today, gives greater protection to one of Wales’ rarest birds. RSPB Cymru Head of Species, Julian Hughes, and David Anning, Site Manager at RSPB Ynys-hir, explain why Greenland white-fronted geese need help.

As the first swallows and warblers start to arrive in Wales, the longer days also trigger a restlessness in our winter migrants to head home.

For Greenland white-fronted…