All aboard the southbound train to autumn

Snipe (Dave Williams)

Habitat management at RSPB Cors Ddyga is pulling in waders, Starlings and Pied Wagtails keen to extract food from exposed soil where new scrapes and islands are being created. It was a joy to watch hundreds of Snipe probing the edges of shallow floods, with six Ruff, Spotted Redshank, Little Ringed Plover and a couple of Wood Sandpipers there in recent days. It’s a peak period for migration, illustrated by dozens of Swallows (and Red Admiral butterflies) heading south over Moel-y-gest on Sunday and dozens of House Martins feeding over Penmaenmawr before going to roost.

Black Terns were off Port Amlwch, Point of Ayr and the Clwyd estuary at the start of the week and two Garganeys on the Border Pool at RSPB Burton Mere Wetlands. The Clwyd estuary and RSPB Conwy each hosted a Little Stint at the weekend, and two Curlew Sandpipers fed on the Cefni estuary with another at Point of Ayr.

The first Dotterel of autumn visited the Great Orme, with the same or another reported on Foel Grach, high in the Carneddau, on Monday. A Dartford Warbler was a surprise visitor to the quarry at Holyhead’s Breakwater Country Park; it was the first Anglesey record for several years, although there appears to be suitable habitat on coastal heath along the north and west coasts of the island. This will have come from a breeding population somewhere to the south or east.

A Nightjar was on the beach on Bardsey, where other passage visitors included Pied Flycatchers, Grasshopper Warbler and Whinchat. Great White Egrets are at several sites as they disperse from breeding sites in southwest England and beyond: six on the Conwy estuary, two at Cors Ddyga and three on the Afon Glaslyn, where three Whooper Swans are at Pont Croesor. Northwest winds this week may bring seabirds close to coastal watchpoints and Pink-footed Geese from Iceland to western Britain.