Easterly winds last week brought the ‘tseep’ calls of Redwings to North Wales, with the first heard over Penrhyn Bay on Friday night and on Holyhead Mountain on Saturday. The main arrival of these thrushes from Scandinavia is usually in the second half of October, but small numbers are normal in late September, before the last of the Swallows and House Martins have departed south.

The first Lapland Buntings of autumn were on Ynys Enlli/Bardsey and Pen Cilan last week and a handful of Yellow-browed Warblers were seen in Wales. With larger numbers on North Sea coasts, there may be more of the warblers from Siberia to come. Records came from near Carmel Head, Porth Meudwy and Tonfanau, with one heard at a Gyrn Goch bus stop just north of Trefor. Strong winds brought a Leach’s Petrel past Rhos Point, Little Gulls to the Glaslyn estuary, Balearic Shearwaters off Tonfanau and a Sabine’s Gull was seen from a ferry leaving Holyhead on Sunday.

The American Golden Plover was seen intermittently at Aled Isaf Reservoir, although viewing conditions have been challenging in bad weather. A couple of Cattle Egrets remained at RSPB Cors Ddyga last week and another is near Tywyn’s Broadwater, while a Great White Egret was at Rhosneigr and a drake Scaup in Foryd Bay. A flock of 100 Greenfinches on the Great Orme indicated smaller birds on the move.

Waders arriving from the north include Turnstones bearing inscribed orange leg flags that were attached in previous winters by SCAN ringing group along the North Wales coast. Reading the inscriptions as the birds feed hurriedly among the rocks on our beaches is a challenge, but the completion of new sea defences at Old Colwyn may provide an opportunity for telescope users as the waders roost close to the new fishing platform extending from the promenade.

Bookings have opened for the Welsh Ornithological Society conference in Aberystwyth on 16 November, on the theme Action for Welsh Birds, with bursaries available to support attendance by 16-26 year olds. Programme and booking is at birdsin.wales/conference

Most birders dream of finding a rare visitor. Few of us will come across a first for Britain or Wales, but finding a Wryneck is more achievable as small numbers turn up each year. This woodpecker migrates from Europe to Africa each autumn, and has an unusual defence feature: twisting its neck and hissing like a snake when threatened. My autumn coastal walks have yet to realise a Wryneck, but there were wonderful views of one in last week’s sunshine at Cemlyn.
​
Rarest visitor of the week was an American Golden Plover on Aled Isaf Reservoir, a species recorded on fewer than 30 occasions in Wales. This excellent find was only the third in Wales away from the coast and illustrates how waders migrate over land. It was in a small flock of European Golden Plovers, with which it may have travelled between the Arctic Circle and Europe for several years.

Birdwatchers have become used to seeing Great White Egrets – the height of a Grey Heron – alongside Little Egrets in recent years on larger estuaries. They are yet to breed in Wales, although that can only be a matter of time. The weekend saw an influx, with a Welsh record 24 on the Dyfi estuary, seven on the Conwy and five on the Mawddach; although this was small beer compared to more than 100 on Rutland Water in central England. Two more diminutive Cattle Egrets are at RSPB Cors Ddyga, with another by Porthmadog Cob, where a site record 17 Greenshanks were seen last week.

Other unusual sightings included a Garganey on Llyn Trawsfynydd, Spotted Redshanks at Malltraeth Cob and RSPB Conwy, a Barred Warbler at Cors Ddyga and Little Stint on the Alaw estuary. Thousands of Pink-footed Geese have returned to the Dee estuary for winter, with smaller numbers over Criccieth and Foryd Bay. A flock of 48 was the largest ever recorded over Bardsey.

For birdwatchers of a certain age, news last week of the death of Tony Soper was a reminder of the early days of wildlife on British television. Instrumental in the creation of the BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol, he fronted a suite of programmes that brought British nature into our homes in parallel to Sir David Attenborough presenting wildlife wonders from farther afield. He was a keen birdwatcher and was among the first people – with Welsh luminary Bill Condry - to see Britain’s first and only Summer Tanager, an American vagrant, on Bardsey in September 1957.
​
The children’s tv series Wildtrack (1978-95), co-presented with Su Ingle, was instrumental in firing my own interest in birds, cemented by the annual Birdwatch programmes (1980-88) presented live from the field with RSPB Cymru’s Roger Lovegrove, which were a predecessor of Springwatch. His informal yet earnest style fell out of favour with tv bosses and he faded from public consciousness as the enthusiastic Bill Oddie and Chris Packham acquired his mantle, yet I am sure there are many other wildlife enthusiasts whose interest was nurtured, in part, by Tony Soper putting Britain's birds on our screens.

Last week’s gales pushed North Atlantic seabirds into Liverpool Bay, some of which made their way into the teeth of the northwest winds along the North Wales coast. By Wednesday afternoon it was clear that scarce visitors were close to shore, mainly between Point of Ayr and Anglesey’s Wylfa Head, with smaller numbers off the north coast of Pen Llŷn and Bardsey.
​
Leach’s Petrels were seen from 15 watchpoints, with at least 117 reported, the most significant movement since 2017. It is one of the most threatened seabirds that occurs in Welsh waters, listed as Vulnerable globally and added to the UK Red List. The British breeding population, entirely in Scotland and primarily on the remote island of St Kilda, has declined by a catastrophic 79% in just two decades. Watching Leach’s Petrels at close quarters was a treat. The fluttering flight reminds me of a Noctule Bat, changing speed and direction erratically. They paddle on the water, picking tiny plankton from the surface. Yet this tiny bird, only marginally bigger than a Skylark, spends much of its life in such stormy conditions far from land. Sadly, not all survive the storms: one met its end outside Lidl in Llandudno Junction, either hit by a vehicle or dropped by a large gull.​

Among other seawatching highlights were more than 60 Arctic Skuas, 16 Sooty Shearwaters and eight Sabine’s Gulls, including one off Tywyn on Sunday. More than 1500 Sandwich Terns battled west off Rhos Point in just a few hours last Wednesday. However, only 17 Great Skuas were recorded, reflecting the impacts of ‘bird flu’ on their northern colonies.
​
When the winds calmed, autumn migrants on Anglesey included a Wryneck, Turtle Dove and Little Stint at Cemlyn on Monday, two Spoonbills on the Alaw estuary, and Hooded Crows at RSPB South Stack and Ynys Llanddwyn. On the mainland, Pink-footed Geese flew over RSPB Conwy on Monday, Deeside’s Hudsonian Godwit was again off Flint last week and several readers noticed gatherings of House Martins flocking ahead of departure to Africa.

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. 

Our largest breeding seabird was added to the Welsh Red-list of birds this week following a dramatic halving of the breeding population between 2022 and 2023. Gannet numbers had been increasing progressively on the sole breeding site of Grassholm, Pembrokeshire, until a decade ago, but Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (‘bird flu’) caused a loss of 52% in just one year. It means that 20 of 22 breeding seabird species are now Red or Amber-listed.

The other change on the list, updated in light of new data on seabird populations, was more positive, as Black Guillemot moved onto the Green List of lower concern. The small Welsh population breeds in rocky clefts at the base of cliffs on the Great Orme and around Anglesey, although a few now summer in Cardigan Bay. Since they do not breed or roost colonially, they were probably hit less badly by HPAI.

There was no sign of bird flu in any UK seabird colonies this year, good news for the pioneering Gannet colony on Ynys Badrig off the north Anglesey coast. Last year, there were concerns that the virus could extinguish establishment of a second Welsh breeding site. Photos show several well-grown chicks and at least one adult with a black iris, rather than the usual pale blue. This individual has survived the flu, based on a study led by the RSPB in Scotland that found 78% of black-eyed Gannets had antibodies for the H5N1 strain of the virus.

Elsewhere in North Wales, the Hudsonian Godwit continues to show at Flint Castle on high tides, a young Honey-buzzard flew over Holyhead Mountain on Saturday and a Wood Sandpiper was at Foryd Bay. A Grey Phalarope and all four skua species passed Bardsey during strong winds, five Black Terns passed Point of Ayr, and Curlew Sandpipers and Spotted Redshanks were at RSPB Conwy and Malltraeth Cob pool. .