Spring migration of birds is still underway, unusual for the end of May. Cuckoos, Wood Warblers, Garden Warbler and Whinchat are among those seen on Bardsey at the weekend, with 49 Spotted Flycatchers there on Sunday and 11 at South Stack on Monday. More, along with Tree Pipits, Redpolls and Siskins paused on the Great Orme, and I watched dozens of Swallows flying over the waves at the southern tip of the Isle of Man, that would have left north Anglesey a couple of hours earlier. A northerly airflow for much of the month is thought to be the reason for the delayed arrival. Other sightings include a pair of Avocets at Cemlyn, Serin over RSPB South Stack, Wood Sandpiper and Black-necked Grebe at Llyn Trawsfynydd,l and two Cranes over Llangybi, near Pwllheli, then south over Bardsey on Friday.

Wildlife Trust wardens at Cemlyn, Anglesey, reported the first Sandwich Tern chick hatched on Monday, after announcing that breeding numbers were half last year’s total and Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza had been confirmed at the colony. The UK Government reports that Black-headed Gulls and Common Terns tested positive for bird flu on Anglesey and in Flintshire. Elsewhere in Wales, images from Grassholm in Pembrokeshire show significant gaps in the huge Gannet colony but RSPB Cymru reports no obvious signs of disease yet this year, and Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust reopened its Llyn Coed y Dinas reserve at Welshpool following a suspected outbreak in Black-headed Gulls.

After last week featuring the places with most bird sightings on BTO’s Birds on Your Doorstep, where has recorded the fewest species in the last decade? A sliver of coast north of Barmouth had just three regularly occurring species, but 63 when passage migrants were included. Two upland areas each had 14 regularly occurring species, the 10km square dominated by Aran Fawddwy between Bala and Dolgellau, and around Llanarmon Dyffryn Ceiriog in North Berwyn. Perhaps the biggest contribution we could all make to bird data in Wales is to spend time recording birds in places that others don’t. If you want to know where to start, sign up to BirdTrack to make your sightings count.

​Yellow Wagtail is, sadly, now a rare breeding species in North Wales, but small numbers pass through on migration, including distinctive forms that breed elsewhere in Europe. Identification can be a challenge, however, especially as hybrids are not uncommon. A Grey-headed (Yellow) Wagtail, en route to Scandinavia, was at Morfa Nefyn earlier in the month, identified following a post on social media. Another visited Cemlyn last week, along with a Blue-headed bird from central Europe, plus Little Gull, Tree Sparrow and Hen Harrier. Other sightings include Wood Sandpipers near Chwilog and RSPB Burton Mere Wetlands, Turtle Dove at Silver Bay, near Rhoscolyn, 59 Spotted Flycatchers on Bardsey, and a Black Kite reported over Esclusham Mountain, near Wrexham.

Bird sightings collected by volunteers over the last 50 years and collated by the British Trust for Ornithology show how populations have changed. The headline is pretty stark: the UK is home to a net 73 million fewer breeding birds than in 1970. The total declined from 232 million birds to 159 million. The total losses - of species such as Skylark and Yellowhammer - are actually greater, because they are partly offset by increases in species such as Wren and colonising species such as Cetti's Warbler. Visit Birds on your Doorstep, enter a postcode and call up a summary of changes in that 10-km square. In the coming weeks, thanks to Dr Simon Gillings at BTO, I’ll pick out some of the key findings in North Wales.

Where in the region are the most bird species recorded? Perhaps it’s no surprise that it is coastal headlands and islands, which attract migrant birds and birders in equal measure. Ynys Enlli/Bardsey, Uwchmynydd and Aberdaron is the top-scoring grid square, with 257 species in the last 10 years – 40% of the total ever recorded in Britain. Squares SH39 on the north Anglesey coast, including Cemlyn, has recorded 240 species and the north of Holy Island, with 236, is close behind, containing well-watched sites such as RSPB South Stack and Beddmanarch Bay.

More results from Birds on your Doorstep will be published here in the coming weeks...

Bardsey Bird & Field Observatory warden Ed Betteridge had a surprise last Tuesday when one of the first birds he found on the island was a Song Sparrow. This streaky songbird, not closely related to our House Sparrow, is resident across the northern states of the USA, but look quite different in each part of North America, caused by local environmental conditions not genetics. Song Sparrows that breed in southern Canada leapfrog their sedentary relatives to winter in the mid West and Gulf Coast states. It is only the 11th Song Sparrow found in Britain, and with the exception of one in Yorkshire in 1964, all were found around the Irish Sea or on Fair Isle, just south of Shetland. This may point to it riding on a ship for all or part of its voyage. This was the second Bardsey record, coming 53 years almost to the day after the first, but unlike the 1970 visitor, this was a one-day wonder.

News of the Song Sparrow rather overshadowed another trans-Atlantic arrival, an American Golden Plover at Cemlyn, on Anglesey. Other unusual birds last week include a Quail at Sealand, Wood Sandpiper at Cemlyn, Garganeys at RSPB Cors Ddyga and Tree Sparrows at RSPB South Stack. A White-tailed Eagle reported flying up the Dee valley near Holt on Sunday may be a young bird released in southern England as part of a reintroduction project.

The latest Wetland Bird Survey results show big declines of several species in Wales in the last 10 years. Non-breeding populations of Pochard fell 66%, Bar-tailed Godwit by 64%, Grey Plover by 52%, Coot by 42% and Red-breasted Merganser by 37%. There were positive increases in Whooper Swan, Gadwall, Eider, Pale-bellied Brent Goose, Turnstone and Little Egret in Wales over that period. The Dee estuary remains the fourth most important wetland in the UK for waterbirds, with another Liverpool Bay estuary, the Ribble, in second place.

Many of our summer migrants have now arrived, with a rush of warblers and Swifts in the last week, and Spotted Flycatchers are due now, usually the last to make it to Britain. At Cemlyn lagoon, North Wales Wildlife Trust wardens report that Sandwich Terns and Black-headed Gulls are on nests, that Arctic Tern numbers are higher than usual but have yet to lay eggs, and a Roseate Tern visited on Sunday.

Rarity of the week was a Black-crowned Night Heron on the Afon Wen near Chwilog. Wood Sandpipers visited RSPB Cors Ddyga and Llyn Trawsfynydd last week, and a Short-eared Owl was over Gronant and Talacre, where Little Terns are starting to nest and Denbighshire Council and RSPB wardens are reminding dog-walkers to keep their pets on a lead. Two Dotterels were on the summit of Foel Fras and 10 on Carnedd Llewellyn, a brief pause en route to a Scottish or Norwegian mountain-top. A couple of Avocets stopped on the Clwyd estuary last week and a Black-winged Stilt and Spoonbill visited several sites on the Dee estuary.

The results of January’s RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch show House Sparrows topping the Welsh chart once again, with numbers higher than elsewhere in the UK. There were 49 species recorded in Welsh gardens over the Birdwatch weekend, with the biggest changes including a 68% increase in Blackcaps compared to 2022 and a 41% increase in Long-tailed Tits. Redwing, Fieldfare and Goldcrest sightings were also up. Nuthatch numbers were down by more than 20% and Jays by a massive 73%, which reflects the abnormal winter numbers in 2022 that followed a huge movement into Wales the previous autumn. The number of Pheasants recorded in gardens was also down by more than 20%, which may reflect lower volumes being released by shoots last year because avian influenza meant eggs and poults were more difficult to obtain.   
 
The GWCT Big Farmland Bird Count results were also published recently, which recorded 95 species in Wales during two weeks in February. Robin, Blackbird and Carrion Crow were seen on more than 50% of farms participating.

Text updated on 9 May with additional information about 10 Dotterels in the Carneddau on Sunday 7th.

​The appearance of a couple of Black-winged Stilts on the Clwyd estuary last week may be a consequence of water shortage in North Africa and Iberia. These elegant wading birds should be nesting on saltpans and lake edges around the Mediterranean, but occurred at more than 30 sites across Britain and Ireland this week, including one at RSPB Burton Mere Wetlands. Stilts have bred sporadically in Britain, but these were the first sightings in North Wales for 26 years. Another Mediterranean wetland species, Black-crowned Night Heron, was reported at more than 60 sites in Britain & Ireland last week.

A two-year drought, exacerbated by irrigation diverting water to vegetable and soft-fruit farming, has led to the world-famous Coto Doñana drying out. Home to rare waterbirds including Marbled Duck, Crested Coot and thousands of Greater Flamingos, it is further threatened from proposals by Andalucia’s government to allow irrigation for strawberries and blueberries grown as out-of-season exports to northern Europe.

Other rare visitors to North Wales include a Pectoral Sandpiper at RSPB Cors Ddyga, Long-tailed Duck on the Afon Glaslyn at Porthmadog, two Dotterels and a Blue-headed Wagtail on the Great Orme, Little Gull on the Alaw estuary and two Avocets at Gronant. Among migrants on the North Wales coast was a Corn Bunting on the Great Orme, now a rare bird in Wales that is just hanging on as a breeding species on the Shropshire border. Whinchats, Whimbrels and Swifts are now arriving across the region.

Tragic scenes are unfolding near Welshpool, at a wetland home to one of the most important Black-headed Gull colonies in Wales. The species is among those worst hit by ‘bird flu’ across northern Europe so far this year, and is suspected to be responsible for the death of dozens of gulls at a nature reserve in the Severn Valley and meres across Cheshire. Black-headed Gull is already on the Red List of conservation concern in Wales because of a huge decline in the breeding population, and avian flu could push it to the brink of extinction.

On Conwy’s Sychnant Pass, the call of a male Cuckoo welcomed Spring on Saturday. Y Cog, in Welsh, features in a ninth-century poem, Claf Abercuawg, and one folk tale suggests that you’ll retain your state of health from the day of your first Cuckoo for the rest of the year. I trust I’ll remain out birdwatching until Christmas! Other Cuckoos in the hills of North Wales include a satellite-tagged male that returned to moorland above Wrexham for at least his third summer. Tracking by the British Trust for Ornithology shows he completed his 5000-mile journey a week earlier than in 2022, making the final leg from Brittany at the weekend.
 
Cuckoos feature in the latest UK Wild Bird Indicators published by government, based on surveys conducted by birdwatchers across the country. Birds of enclosed farmland fare worst, down 60% since 1970, but a decline in woodland species has accelerated in the last decade. Even wetland birds, whose populations were stable until 20 years ago, are on the slide. An upland bird indicator, published for the first time, shows a 10% decline since 1994. Moorland specialists, such as Curlew and Whinchat, and upland river birds such as Dipper, have declined the most.
 
Recent highlights in North Wales include Blue-headed Wagtails at Cemlyn, RSPB Cors Ddyga and Gronant, where the first Little Terns are on the beach fenced off by Denbighshire Council wardens. Large arrivals of Little Gulls and Bar-tailed Godwits around Britain included small numbers in North Wales. But Britain’s first Black-winged Kite, filmed near Newtown last week, has yet to show itself again.
 
Following the failure of aged Mrs G to return to Nant Glaslyn, the male Osprey at Pont Croesor, Aran, has a new mate. Glaslyn Wildlife have named her Elen, after another Eryri peak. She laid her first egg on Monday.

It’s the time of year for early morning bird surveys – and I love it! Creeping out of the house at 4am into the frigid quiet, roads empty save for an occasional delivery van, an owl or a Badger in the headlights. Switching off the engine on the moorland in the pitch black, and already two species have woken: well before daybreak, Skylarks and Curlews are joyous and welcome sounds.

This Friday is World Curlew Day, an opportunity to celebrate a family of birds in decline across the world. Our Eurasian Curlew is a regular sight along the coasts of North Wales over winter, but most adults have now left for their breeding grounds in northern Britain, Finland and Germany, so just the year-old birds remain here. The Welsh breeding population is far rarer, probably only a few hundred nesting pairs remain and they are forecast to be extinct by 2033 without immediate action. Gylfinir Cymru, a partnership that wants to keep the bubbling call of Curlew in Wales, is asking farmers, gamekeepers, birdwatchers and walkers to record sightings of Curlew in potential breeding areas so that conservation measures can be taken. Head to bit.ly/curlewcymru (neu bit.ly/gylfinircymru yn Gymraeg) if you have records that could help.

Bird of the week was a Red-rumped Swallow that fed over lagoons at RSPB Conwy for a couple of days, only the second reserve record. Remarkably, the third Alpine Swift in a fortnight was seen there on Friday, and later briefly over Llandudno’s Grand Hotel. Other regional highlights include two Dotterels and a Siberian Chiffchaff on Bardsey, Hooded Crows at Morfa Nefyn and RSPB South Stack, Wood Sandpiper and Garganey at RSPB Cors Ddyga on Monday, and Little Gulls at Cemlyn and Valley. The first Whimbrels of spring are on Anglesey, Redstarts have arrived in small numbers and Pied Flycatchers are back on territory.

Click on the images below to see Steve Culley's photographs of the Red-rumped Swallow

The spectre of bird flu in wildlife may not have been in the news lately, but has not gone away. Seabird wardens are monitoring colonies anxiously as auks, terns and Gannets return from a winter at sea or the African coast. Confirmation of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in Sandwich Terns in The Gambia is especially worrying as that’s a wintering area for many British-nesting terns. In the USA, several endangered Californian Condors have died of HPAI in recent days and the virus has reached poultry in the southernmost region of Chile, a country that has witnessed die-offs of species as diverse as Brown Pelicans and sealions. Concerns are growing about the potential impact of bird flu in the wildlife-rich Antarctic region. Meanwhile in Britain, the government is now asking for all dead birds to be reported to Defra, online or on 03459 335577.

In North Wales, Sandwich Terns are returning to their only Welsh colony at Cemlyn and seasonal firsts included Tree Pipit at RSPB South Stack, and Grasshoppers Warbler at RSPB Cors Ddyga and Llanbedr last Tuesday, Sedge Warbler at RSPB Valley Wetlands on Friday and Reed Warbler at RSPB Conwy on Monday. Hoopoes were briefly at Cemlyn and in a Rhoshirwaun garden, near Aberdaron. A Spoonbill made a one-day visit to RSPB Cors Ddyga last week, and there were equally brief appearances by an Iceland Gull at Hen Borth on the north Anglesey coast and by four Avocets at Malltraeth Cob pool.

An Alpine Swift was reported over Llandudno West Shore on Sunday, a few Common Sandpipers and Little Ringed Plovers are scattered along the coast, and larger numbers of Wheatears and Willow Warblers are now arriving. The spring gathering of Great Northern Divers in Caernarfon Bay reached 34 birds on Saturday, staging here ahead of their journey to the Arctic Circle.

The first half of April should see widespread arrival of summer migrants, but some early appearances include a Pied Flycatcher at RSPB Ynys-hir on 30 March, Redstart in the Conwy Valley, House Martins at several sites in North Wales and a juvenile Swallow at RSPB Conwy that may have hatched in southern Europe in February.

An influx of Alpine Swifts from southern Europe extended to North Wales last week, with two over Llandudno Junction, one past Bardsey, at least one over Talacre and another over RSPB Burton Mere Wetlands that drifted regularly into Flintshire. Two were reported close to the Great Orme on Sunday evening, where they may have roosted in the cliffs. Since there had been only a dozen records in the region previously, and just three since the turn of the century, that made for quite a week.

Herons have a prolonged breeding season, with some large Grey Heron chicks in nests by the Conwy estuary, but Little Egrets have yet to start nest-building. A Cattle Egret on Porthmadog’s Llyn Bach was only the third record on the Glaslyn and a Purple Heron is on fields behind Porth Neigwl. Mediterranean herons have been spreading north in recent years, and may feel extra pressure because of drought in southern Spain, exacerbated by irrigation that takes water from natural wetlands to supply soft fruits for our tables. A Cuckoo fitted with a satellite tracker passed quickly through southern Spain, flying some 2,200 miles in just a few days from Guinea, south of the Sahara, to rest in the hills above Valencia. It’s hoped that it will return to moors near Wrexham where it was tagged by the British Trust for Ornithology in 2021.

Elsewhere, the head-plumes of three breeding-plumage Slavonian Grebes shone yellow in the sunshine off Penmaenmawr at the weekend, with another three in Beddmanarch Bay. Ring Ouzels were on Penycloddiau and South Stack, and a Black-necked Grebe off Llanddulas, where at least two Surf Scoters remain. Ospreys have returned to the Glaslyn Valley and Llyn Brenig.

The rapid greening of the hawthorn leaves on hedgerows, surprisingly advanced for the third week of March, is starting to hide early nests delicately woven by Long-tailed Tits, Blackbirds and Dunnocks. It’s a reminder to put the hedge-trimmer back in the shed for the winter, and to leave part of the lawn uncut so that emerging insects can find pollen and nectar.

Chiffchaffs are now widespread in our woodlands, Sandwich Terns have been at several coastal watchpoints and Sand Martins are already exploring potential nest sites. The descending cadence of Willow Warblers, which used to be unusual in March, have been heard in several places, and six House Martins at RSPB Conwy last Friday were the first of the year in North Wales. Bird observatory wardens have returned to Bardsey, kicking off with a Firecrest on Sunday, among 219 migrating Goldcrests ringed on Sunday and Monday. They caught 177 Goldcrests all year in 2022!

Ring Ouzels are back on breeding territory in Nant Ffrancon and around Aber Falls, a few days after the first northbound bird stopped on the Great Orme. A pair of Garganeys were at RSPB Cors Ddyga on Sunday and an Alpine Swift was reported over Talacre on Wednesday. Several Ospreys have passed through the region; one caught a fish at Llyn Brenig on Sunday, but was not one of the breeding pair. Females have returned to nest sites on the Dyfi estuary and Llyn Clywedog, and those in North Wales should arrive in the next 10 days.

Winter birds are shipping out, but almost 50 Great Northern Divers in Caernarfon Bay, a regular stop for northbound migrants. Four Velvets Scoters and two Surf Scoters remain at Llanddulas, a Water Pipit was at RSPB Cors Ddyga, Twite at Gronant, Fieldfares on Mynydd Hiraethog, and Redwings and Bramblings over the Great Orme. In the Dee estuary, Hilbre Bird Observatory’s first Bearded Tit was a surprise last week and a Long-billed Dowitcher is at RSPB Burton Mere Wetlands.

[text updated on 28 March to reflect increased numbers of Goldcrests on Bardsey, and the return of two nesting Ospreys on the previous day]