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.