Common Scoters are on the move. Thousands of these seaducks wintered in Liverpool Bay, and smaller numbers in Cardigan Bay, head east across England and the North Sea to breed in Russia and northeast Europe. Poor weather during their overnight flight forces some to seek shelter at inland lakes, such as a female on Shotwick Lake on Monday.

The departure of winter migrants is a sign of spring as much as arrivals from southern Europe and Africa. More than 100 Pale-bellied Brent Geese on the Foryd, west of Caernarfon, yesterday will be among the last to arrive in their breeding areas; these high Arctic birds must wait for the snow to clear in eastern Canada in late May before they can nest.

Summer migrants last week include House Martins at RSPB Conwy on Saturday and Aberdyfi on Sunday, the earliest this century in the recording areas of Meirionnydd and Denbighshire (which includes much of North Wales east of the River Conwy). The first Willow Warblers were ringed on Bardsey and at Bagillt last week, and Tree Pipits were recorded over Penrhyn Bay. A Turtle Dove flying south over South Stack with a couple of Collared Doves was an intriguing record. Now a scarce visitor to Wales in the face of a 99% decline in UK breeding numbers since the 1960s, the early date might suggest it overwintered in Britain. Sand Martins and Wheatears have been more widespread this week, and an early Redstart was reported near Flint.
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An Osprey fished at Aled Reservoir last week, and North Wales’ nesting birds should arrive this week. A Snow Bunting is at Cemlyn, Black-necked Grebe with at least three Slavonian Grebes in Beddmanarch Bay, and Black-throated Diver in Holyhead harbour. Six Waxwings in Flint last week could well be back in Scandinavia by now.

How good to be out in the sunshine at the weekend, with Wood Anemones bursting into flower and our resident birds into song. If you’ve promised yourself that you’ll improve your birdsong knowledge, now is the time to do it. Our resident songsters have control of the airwaves for a few weeks before most summer warblers arrive from Africa. There are some good smartphone apps that can help, but don’t assume that they are always correct with their identifications. Much better to get help from the experts, and BTO Cymru is the place to go. In April, they have organised Bird Identification training events at Morfa Aber, near Bangor, and Alyn Waters Country Park, near Wrexham, and two online refresher sessions on bird songs and calls for BTO surveys. Visit their website for details and to book.

The first wave of summer migrants is already here. The disyllabic song of Chiffchaffs seems to be everywhere and Sand Martins have been at several wetlands across the region. A Sandwich Tern was in Pwllheli harbour on Thursday, the first Wheatears at South Stack and the Great Orme on Friday, and Swallows over Bardsey on Friday and RSPB Conwy on Saturday. A Ring Ouzel was on the Great Orme at the weekend, and others may already have arrived on breeding territories in Eryri.

I enjoy hearing the dawn chorus through the bathroom window, picking out Wren, Great Tit and Dunnock, but the highlight has been the chirrup of House Sparrows, a species doing rather better in Wales than elsewhere in the UK. I first heard them, distantly, from the garden during the 2020 spring lockdown, when there was barely any traffic noise with which to compete. Each year they have moved slightly farther into the village and now they have arrived in our garden.

Scarcer visitors to North Wales this week include a Black-necked Grebe, in smart black-and-yellow breeding plumage with a scarlet eye, has been with up to eight Slavonian Grebes in Anglesey’s Beddmanarch Bay. Four Cattle Egrets were at nearby Valley over the weekend, Black Redstarts at Penmon Point and 10 Mediterranean Gulls are at Portmadog’s Llyn Bach. Wintering Surf Scoters remain at Llanddulas, but will soon leave with the seaduck flock.

Once you’ve seen a Black Grouse lek, you never forget it. Arriving before sunrise at a field, moor or forest clearing, their soft bubbling calls hang in the mist, interspersed with fierce hisses. As daylight grows, smudged blobs materialise into male Black Grouse, sparring in a flat open area, trying to impress females crouched, out of our view, in surrounding rush. A ‘lek’ is a gathering that determines the alpha male who will mate with the majority of females. Black Grouse and Capercaillie are the only British breeding birds that lek, but species as diverse as Atlantic Cod, birds of paradise, and some bats, butterflies and moths have evolved this approach to sexual selection.

It's nearly 40 years since I saw my first Black Grouse lek, in Clocaenog Forest, and I still get a kick from the experience, now as part of a scheme that monitors birds at ‘focal leks’ in Northeast Wales. Numbers had been declining, but last year’s results were a shock: a 45% decline since the last full survey in 2019. Their range has contracted dramatically too, away from the south and west. Now almost all Welsh Black Grouse can be shown on a single Ordnance Survey map, either side of the Dee Valley and stretching into the Clwydian Hills.
The decline has spurred a new project from RSPB Cymru, which last week secured funding from the Welsh Government Nature Networks Fund. It will work with landowners and government agencies to manage farmland and woodland in key areas to benefit Black Grouse as part of a long-term sustainable management plan, that will include grazing patterns, peatland rewetting and managing predation by foxes and crows.

Black Grouse are easily disturbed at the lek, so if you know of a site, stay in your car throughout, and drive away only after the birds have dispersed. Always follow the Grouse-watching Code. In the same area, another threatened species to receive NNF funding is the Curlew, and potential volunteers are invited to a sign-up evening at Llandegla village hall tomorrow evening (12 March) - see the graphic below.

BTO Cymru will also receive money from the same fund to launch a Welsh Raptor Monitoring Scheme. Building on a project that has run in Scotland since 2002, it will improve monitoring of birds of prey on protected areas and should produce Welsh trends for widespread species such as Kestrel and Peregrine. Volunteers will be a crucial part of data collection, which should start in 2025. Subject to funding, longer-term goals include monitoring productivity and developing population trends for scarcer species.
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The first migrant Chiffchaffs arrived at the weekend, with singing birds across the region. I watched a dozen in a copse near Llanfairfechan on Saturday, focused more on feeding than announcing their arrival. Sand Martins were at RSPB Conwy and RSPB Burton Mere Wetlands, and doubtless more will arrive this week on southerly winds. Greenland White-fronted Geese remain in the Cefni Valley, Surf and Velvet Scoters off Llanddulas, and two dozen Waxwings were on Halkyn Mountain at the weekend, but a flock at Garden City has moved on. A Black-necked Grebe joined four Slavonian Grebes in Anglesey’s Beddmanarch Bay.

This week saw a big increase in activity at my local rookery, in a copse and a handful of roadside trees at the edge of the village. In just a few days, the Rook colony has grown from one to 20 nests, with lots of squabbling over the best sticks. As days lengthen, the birds get busy. Blackbirds built a nest in my back garden in mid-February, and their low visibility suggests they’re now on eggs.

So it’s timely that the North Wales Wildlife Trust has issued a reminder to householders not to cut garden hedges until 31 August, as birds’ nests are legally protected. Farmers were also required to stop cutting from 1 March, as a condition of the Basic Payment Scheme. Welsh Government says that roadside hedges must not be cut if birds are nesting but even if no nests are found, only work necessary to resolve safety issues should be undertaken during the breeding season, and then works kept to a minimum and hand tools used.

St David’s Day also signalled the date that dogs must be on a short lead (no more than two metres) on Open Access land, irrespective of whether there is livestock. Some of our most threatened birds, such as Lapwings and Ringed Plovers, nest on the ground and are vulnerable to dogs. Dorset Police took action against the owner of one caught on camera taking eggs from a Curlew nest in the New Forest. Fences keep dogs and larger wild mammals out of Wales’ only Little Tern colonies at Point of Ayr and Gronant, and North Wales Little Tern Group has expressed relief that funding has been secured to employ wardens at the latter site this summer.

Many winter visitors are yet to leave, however. Up to 70 Waxwings remained at Halkyn on Sunday, Surf and Velvet Scoters off Llanddulas, and Greenland White-fronted Geese in the Cefni Valley. Cattle Egrets are at RSPB Cors Ddyga and the Clwyd estuary, and a Siberian Chiffchaff at RSPB Conwy. A Snow Bunting at Holyhead was snatched by a Peregrine. Two Sand Martins were reported at Morfa Nefyn last week, with a smattering of summer migrants elsewhere in southern Britain.