A flock of 30 Red Kites in central Anglesey last week must be the largest on the island in at least 250 years. In the modern era, they have only nested on Anglesey since 2020. While Red Kites continue to recover from near-extinction in Britain, their Europe-wide population remains suppressed by toxic ammunition used to shoot gamebirds and deer, as are other raptors such as Golden Eagle, White-tailed Eagle and Marsh Harrier according to a Cambridge University study.

While lead has long been banned in products such as petrol and paints because of human health risks, an estimated 7000 tonnes from shot and bullets is left in the countryside each year, contaminating soil and the food chain. The Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust estimates that up to 400,000 waterbirds suffer lead poisoning every winter in the UK. Shooting organisations committed to end the use of lead shot voluntarily by this year.
Welsh Government is now considering recommendations from the Health & Safety Executive to restrict lead in ammunition used for killing game. Last week, wildlife organisations wrote to Wales’ Deputy First Minister calling for a transition to a full ban on lead in no more than 18 months. They are asking people to support a Britain-wide ban by emailing the UK Government.

The sea off Llanddulas is winter home for thousands of seaducks, mostly Common Scoters but with several Surf and Velvet Scoters among them, and at least two Long-tailed Ducks. Another Long-tailed Duck was with three Velvet Scoters and 70 Red-throated Divers off Llanddona on Saturday, and a similar number of Red-throats were in Caernarfon Bay along with 21 Great Northern Divers. Underwatched Barmouth Bay hosts Slavonian Grebe and Great Northern Diver, while a Sandwich Tern, which should be wintering off southwest Africa, fished off Colwyn Bay’s Porth Eirias at the weekend.

Horton’s Nose in Kinmel Bay continues to host Snow Bunting, Hooded Crow and Black Redstart, while two Snow Buntings remain on the Great Orme. Other Black Redstarts were at Pwllheli and Amlwch. Upland snow pushed thousands of Redwings into the valleys while hundreds of Lapwings and Golden Plovers on Anglesey have doubtless moved from snow-covered fields farther east. Frozen lakes elsewhere brought more than 50 Goosanders, a high count in North Wales, with over 200 Pintails to the Dee floodplain at Holt. A Firecrest was at Anglesey’s Llyn Parc Mawr, several Hawfinches at Coed Cilgroeslwyd and a Spotted Redshank at RSPB Conwy, while several Water Pipits and a Cattle Egret were at RSPB Cors Ddyga on Monday.

​Sunday’s blanketing of snow across much of North Wales was sufficiently short-lived that few movements of birds were evident, although some Redwings came into gardens in search of food. Larger Fieldfares have been scarce since the initial wave of migration from Scandinavia in November - check out the map below that shows how much scarcer they were in December 2024 compared to the previous year.

​Small flocks of Meadow Pipits and Chaffinches were among other species that dropped from hills to coast in search of snow-free feeding areas. A flock of Bramblings in Gwydir Forest will have moved in from Scandinavia, while Pink-footed Geese inland from Abergele may have responded to frozen fields in Lancashire or the Dee Valley.

Snow Buntings on the Great Orme and at Horton’s Nose nature reserve, Kinmel Bay, felt no such imperative to move, seeming content to spend the whole winter on the Welsh coast. A Common Sandpiper is also wintering, around Church Island on the Menai Strait, when most of its compatriots are somewhere south of the Sahara Desert.

A Red-necked Grebe in Red Wharf Bay was the first in North Wales for several years, one of two dozen that occurred across Britain last week. Two Black-necked Grebes and three Slavonian Grebes were on the Inland Sea, with single Long-tailed Ducks there and off Benllech. Another Long-tailed Duck is off Llanddulas, with four each of Surf and Velvet Scoters among the rafts of seaduck. Slavonian Grebes and a Scaup were off Borth-y-gest.

Hawfinches are around churchyards at Caerhun and Llanrwst, up to eight at the latter, with a small flock in Vale of Clwyd. Four Short-eared Owls and a Green Sandpiper were around Anglesey’s Alaw estuary, 20 Twite at Flint Castle, four Water Pipits in Foryd Bay and a Firecrest near Mochdre. Two Ruddy Shelducks on the Dee estuary and a Snow Goose near Morfa Dinlle probably have a feral or captive origin. 

New Year sees keen birders reset their birding clock to zero after totting up the totals for 2024. Some will count the number of species seen in their home county, others set no geographic limit. But as the birdwatching community increasingly highlights its own responsibilities for greenhouse gas emissions associated with travel, 2025 might be the time to concentrate on a local patch: anything from the daily dog walk to a local nature reserve. Another New Year’s Resolution could be to submit regular sightings to BirdTrack, an online recording system run by the British Trust for Ornithology, RSPB and Welsh Ornithological Society among others. Users maintain their records online and make them available to local recorders and for conservation purposes. I keep a list using the BirdTrack smartphone app every time I go birdwatching.

December ended with an unseasonal Ring Ouzel at Aber Falls, a species that should be feeding on Juniper berries in the Atlas Mountains of North Africa. Mid-winter sightings are not unprecedented in their northwest Wales breeding area, but in the last quarter century, half a dozen in northern Eryri in early 2015 were the only records.

A Great Grey Shrike hunted around clearfelled forestry at Rhyd Galed, east of Llyn Brenig over Christmas. Three Surf and seven Velvet Scoters were off Llanddulas, with Long-tailed Ducks here, at Benllech and Gronant. Black Redstarts were at Aberdaron, Kinmel Bay and Tonfanau, up to 30 Twite are at Flint Castle, with Water Pipits here, at Foryd Bay and Gronant. Snow Buntings remain on the Great Orme and at Kinmel Bay, with others at Penmon Point and Traeth Lligwy last week. The most remarkable news was a photo posted on social media of a Scops Owl near Beaumaris in mid-November. It is potentially the first in Wales since 1955.

The pictured Golden Plover at Gronant won second prize in the Welsh Ornithological Society’s Young Photographer competition. Daniel Gorton, a Land & Wildlife Management student at Llysfasi College near Ruthin, also took first prize for an image of Waxwings taken last winter in Flintshire. It seems there will be no repeat of Waxwing flocks in North Wales this winter: just four were reported across the whole of Britain by the Birdguides news service in December. The Euro Bird Portal shows that few have left southern Scandinavia and Finland compared to the same time last year.

This page was updated on 1 January 2025, as it originally suggested that Scops Owl would have been the first Welsh record. There have been two records in Pembrokeshire, but this would be the first in North Wales.

It’s not surprising that Kingfishers are popular subjects for nature photographers: social media regularly features the blue and orange predator perched on an overhanging branch at The Spinnies, near Bangor, or Big Pool Wood, near Prestatyn. Both sites, managed by North Wales Wildlife Trust, have viewing hides overlooking ideal habitat.

It takes skill and patience to capture a good photograph of a perched Kingfisher, but its even harder to capture the moment that the bird leans forward, a fraction of a second before pushing off, maintaining its eyes squarely on whatever moves below as dinner. This week’s photo was highly commended in the Welsh Ornithological Society’s annual photo competition. It was taken by Alun Lambert, a regular visitor to Big Pool Wood from his home in west Cheshire.

People who have never seen a Kingfisher may not realise that they are only the size of a Robin, just 16cm from bill tip to tail. Alun told me that getting this image relied on setting the camera to a fast shutter speed and he takes as many shots as he can in the time available. He says he deletes thousands of dark or blurry pictures for every handful that are light and sharp. BirdNotes will feature some of the other winning photos from the competition, taken in North Wales, in the coming weeks.

Recent weather hasn’t favoured wildlife photography, with few scarce visitors seen in the run-up to Christmas. A flock of Twite fed on saltmarsh below Flint Castle, and there were Water Pipits there and on Y Foryd. A Bearded Tit is in reeds at Gronant, a Spotted Redshank was at RSPB Conwy and Snow Buntings on the Great Orme late last week. Storms pushed a Little Auk and Little Gull past Cemlyn Bay while unusual visitors to the Menai Strait included Black-necked Grebe off Aber Ogwen, Great Northern Diver in Bangor Harbour and a Black Guillemot at Menai Bridge. An unseasonal Swallow was seen at Penmon last week.

Storm Darragh continued to dominate lives in North Wales for much of last week. Conifer plantations suffered particularly, with shallow rootplates pulled out of the sodden ground. Some native woodlands also took a hit, with large Oaks and Ash trees uprooted at some sites. It is hoped that woodland managers will minimise intervention, ensuring safety where there is public access but leaving fallen timber and upright snags to rot in situ. Dead and dying wood is a valuable part of healthy woodland ecosystems, and the holes in the canopy will enable plants and insects to flourish until new saplings take their place.

Gulls continued to take advantage of the glut of sealife washed ashore. Thousands were reported at several sites, and there must be more than 10,000 between Point of Ayr and the Little Orme. A beefy adult Glaucous Gull arrived at Gronant from northern latitudes, although a few birders queried whether it might contain some Herring Gull genes. Caspian and Yellow-legged Gulls were among seabirds off Old Colwyn on Sunday with Velvet and a couple of Surf Scoters, and Eiders winter off Rhyl and Point of Ayr. Bearded Tits continue to be elusive at Gronant, but a couple of Cattle Egrets on the Alaw estuary last week were not seen again.

Inland, a drake Ring-necked Duck on Llyn Tegid is likely to be one seen here in previous winters, while a Common Scoter on Llyn Celyn was presumably heading for Cardigan Bay before a premature landing. Up to half a dozen Hawfinches feed among Hornbeams at Bodnant Garden, with a couple more across the river at Caerhun and others at Llanrwst.

Anglesey’s Inland Sea hosts a Black-necked Grebe, two Slavonian Grebes and a Long-tailed Duck, and is one of the few reliable sites for these three winter visitors to North Wales. A Snow Bunting has been popular at Kinmel Bay’s Horton’s Nose throughout the week, as were two on the Great Orme, while a Black Redstart winters at Llanbedrog Quarry.

As North Wales tidied up after Storm Darragh at the weekend, birdwatchers looked to the north coast to see whether the forceful northerlies had brought any unusual seabirds. Thousands of gulls feasted on clams and starfish washed up by the huge waves along Colwyn Bay and Llandudno’s shoreline and a displaced Gannet was spotted over Bangor retail park in Caernarfon Road on Monday. Point Lynas recorded Black-throated, Red-throated and Great Northern Diver on Sunday morning, and 14 Black Guillemots, unusual here in winter. Many hoped that some Little Auks would be seen, as occurred in number on North Sea coasts but it was not to be. This diminutive seabird, half the size of a Puffin, breeds in the high Arctic no closer than Svalbard, but has become such a rare visitor to Wales that future sightings will require verification by the Welsh Birds Rarities Committee.

While some birdwatchers were facing into the teeth of the prolonged gale, those sitting comfortably in the observation hide at The Spinnies North Wales Wildlife Trust reserve found the bird of the weekend, a Great Grey Shrike. It is the first in the region this winter and caused the smaller birds on the feeders to flee, but eventually a group of embolded Chaffinches saw it off. The Shrike is another visitor that has proven hard to find in recent years, although one or two are seen around felled forestry in Mynydd Hiraethog each winter.

Other sightings over the weekend included a handful of Hawfinches in Llanrwst, Water Pipit at RSPB Cors Ddyga and a Black Redstart in Aberdaron. Four Snow Buntings are on the Great Orme and another at Kinmel Bay’s Horton’s Nose. A Firecrest continues to overwinter in the old Llanbedrog quarry and a Whimbrel, which should be in west Africa, was on the Clwyd estuary.

A few weeks ago, I watched thousands of Swallows feeding over the forests in uMkhuze nature reserve in South Africa. It was fantastic to watch several species mix together: Wire-tailed Swallows with ridiculously long tail-streamers, Greater and Lesser Striped Swallows that migrate from central Africa to breed in the southern summer and ‘our’ Swallows from Europe, that were by far the most numerous. Ringing shows that these were very likely to be Swallows that had bred in Britain & Ireland, since Swallows from elsewhere in Europe winter closer to the Equator.  Do check out the map on the excellent Eurasian African Bird Migration Atlas to see Swallow movements across Europe.

There have been more than a dozen December records of Swallow in North Wales this century, but nonetheless one past Rhos Point was a surprise for birders watching Purple Sandpipers on Saturday. Even more unexpected was a Red-rumped Swallow at Aber Ogwen, near Bangor, at the weekend and reported in Beaumaris on Monday. This Mediterranean breeder should be south of the Sahara now. Only three dozen have occurred in Wales and this one was more than a month later than the previous latest in any year. You must wonder about the survival chances of both these birds, although one did overwinter on Anglesey in 2022.

A Snow Bunting remains on the Great Orme’s western cliffs, three more were in Gronant Dunes and one in Rhos on Sea on Sunday. Slavonian Grebes were in the Menai Strait and Beddmanarch Bay, half a dozen Hawfinches are back to winter in riverside trees at Llanrwst and three Scaup were on flooded fields at RSPB Cors Ddyga, where a flock of White-fronted Geese were seen last week. The herd of Whooper Swans in the Glaslyn Valley increased to 48 last week.

RSPB Cymru and North Wales Wildlife Trust have thanked supporters of a Senedd petition asking for ‘Swift bricks’ to be mandatory in all new built developments. It passed 10,000 signatories last week and this is the last chance to sign before it closes on Thursday.

A new report suggests that the Slender-billed Curlew is now globally extinct. The last documented record was in Morocco in 1995; I remember the RSPB’s Chris Gomersall returning with photographs of that individual, having no idea I was most likely looking at the last of its kind, of a species I could never see. If the report is adopted by international authorities, Slender-billed Curlew will be the first extinction of a bird species in Europe/North Africa since Canarian Oystercatcher prior to 1940 and the flightless Great Auk in 1844.

It is sobering news for everyone committed to saving the related Eurasian Curlew as a breeding bird in Wales, and that should include Welsh Government ministers developing the Sustainable Farming Scheme. The Cri’r Gyfinir LIFE project, which has worked in Hiraethog and Ysbyty Ifan for the last four years, ends next month with a specially-commissioned film Curlew Custodians that shows how farmers across the UK have helped the birds. A free online screening and talks have been arranged for next Tuesday 3 December at 7pm. Visit the project website to reserve a place.

For more about Curlew recovery work underway in Wales, read my recent column on a conference organised by Gylfinir Cymru.

My own return from several weeks of travelling coincided with the first widespread snowfall and Storm Bert. Far smaller arrivals include Firecrests from continental Europe: two at Llyn Parc Mawr on Anglesey and Llangwstenin, near Mochdre, and others in Bangor and Llanbedrog. Purple Sandpipers returned to their regular haunts near Rhos Point and Cemlyn Bay.

The changing conditions will have been difficult for summer migrants that should be in Africa: a late Wheatear at Aled Isaf Reservoir and three Swallows over the A55 across Anglesey’s Inland Sea last week. Chiffchaffs, including one of the Siberian form at Llyn Cefni, are likely to spend the winter here.

Scaup, Velvet Scoter, Long-tailed Duck and Surf Scoter have joined the wintering flock of Common Scoters off Colwyn Bay. Two Slavonian Grebes were off Aber Ogwen, a Black-throated Diver at Rhos Point last week and a Cattle Egret was near Llanfrothen. Snow Buntings remain on the Great Orme, with up to seven here over the weekend. A couple were at Llanddona recently and another on Moel Famau, below which Crossbills feed in the forestry – a species unusual in that birds can nest through the winter if there is an abundant supply of fruiting pine cones.​

I recently attended a gathering of people involved in efforts to save Curlew as a breeding species across Wales. It was sobering and uplifting in near equal measure. Those leading recovery efforts shared their experiences, frustrations and elation.

Curlew is the highest bird conservation priority, because the UK is the second most important country in the World, after Finland, yet the breeding population is in steep decline. The situation is especially critical in Wales, where there may be as few as 400 breeding pairs and Curlew is forecast to be on the point of extinction by 2033 without intervention. This prompted conservation groups, game management organisations, farming unions and scientists to come together under the banner of Gylfinir Cymru/Curlew Wales and produced a national recovery plan. Silage cropping, changes in grazing management in the uplands, and predation by foxes are among the threats facing Curlews, with tree-planting and onshore wind turbines being additional challenges.

Many of the recovery efforts are focused in Important Curlew Areas identified in the Plan. We heard from a farmer-led project in Radnorshire, a National Nature Reserve manager in Wrexham, and from project officers working for a National Park, a National Landscape, a charitable trust responsible for a large estate, RSPB Cymru and the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust. In North Wales, action is underway in Anglesey’s Cefni Valley, the South Clwyd hills, Mynydd Hiraethog, Ysbyty Ifan and Fenn’s & Whixall Moss.

It was a summer of mixed fortunes, with cold, wet conditions making it hard for tiny chicks to thrive, but in other places positive management of hay fields and wet features resulted in young birds flying successfully. What was apparent in all the efforts was the importance of farming and farmers. We heard some wonderful examples of farmers going the extra mile to help Curlews.

There were clear messages about continuity, since this work has only short-term funding. It is clear that Curlews won’t be saved without people on the ground and financial support for farmers to incorporate Curlew-friendly measures as part of their business. But we also heard about the wider benefits of the management, for Lapwings, dragonflies, peatlands and water quality. Saving Curlews remains a huge challenge, but there are a lot of knowledgeable people across Wales working their socks off to keep its cry in our landscape.

While Red Kites have returned to the region in recent decades, but numbers of Buzzards monitored by the Breeding Bird Survey in Wales are at their lowest since at least the mid-1990s. We know little about the trends in Sparrowhawks and Kestrels, although by broad consensus encounters with the hovering falcon have diminished. Now BTO Cymru is launching a monitoring scheme designed to understand more about the breeding populations of these raptors and the ecologically-similar Raven.

Cudyll Cymru will start next March, with the Bangor-based organisation asking people to register now to take advantage of training available for volunteers over the winter. With funding from Welsh Government’s Nature Networks Fund, the BTO is keen to attract new entrants to bird monitoring as well as experienced birdwatchers.

In 2025, the project will focus on four species that are widespread in Wales: Buzzard, Kestrel, Red Kite and Sparrowhawk, with Raven added to the roster in 2026. Current monitoring often struggles to provide information on some of these species, as they live at low densities and are less active during surveys undertaken early on spring mornings.

The scheme is designed to be flexible, with participants choosing their survey area to monitor, ideally somewhere that you are able to visit regularly. It could even be the regular dog-walk or commute, so long as you are able to visit at least a few hours each month between early March and late summer. Those involved will be asked to count individuals of one or several of the species within their ‘patch’, and if possible to map their territories. If nests can be watched without causing disturbance, the organisers would also like to know about the number of chicks that reach fledging age.

Full details at bto.org/cudyll-cymru and bto.org/cudyll-cymru-cymraeg