​The breeding season is drawing rapidly to a close for seabirds that nest along the North Wales coast. Most Puffins, Guillemots and Razorbills have left the cliff ledges but remain on the sea with their flightless young for several weeks, making them especially vulnerable to irresponsible watercraft users. Within a few weeks, these auks will move out into the Irish Sea and then the North Atlantic, set for a winter in the toughest of sea conditions.

Many Sandwich Terns have already left the North Wales Wildlife Trust’s Cemlyn nature reserve, although for now the Elegant Tern from the Pacific Ocean continues to offer fishy gifts to any Sandwich Tern within range. Before embarking on the journey to the west coast of Africa, young 'Sarnies' spend a few weeks getting their bearings and learning to fish, often remaining in family groups and begging for food from their parents. Sites such as the Clwyd estuary, Rhos Point and Glan-y-môr Elias near Llanfairfechan can host up to 1,000 Sandwich Terns on the high tide, so it is critical that people and their dogs give them space as they rest up before their long migration. They dive from a similar height to gold medallists Tom Daley and Matty Lee, entering the water with closed wings and barely a splash to seize a sandeel or sprat.

Local birdwatchers will be looking closely for coloured rings that were fitted to their legs when they were chicks. One at Rhos Point on Friday had been ringed at RSPB Hodbarrow in Cumbria last month, a colony that accounts for around 10% of late-summer Sandwich Tern sightings in North Wales. Around one-third originate at Cemlyn and a quarter from Lady’s Island Lake at the southeastern tip of Ireland, but others come from North Sea coasts as far away as Denmark.

The first Pied Flycatcher and Grasshopper Warbler of the autumn on Bardsey, Wheatear and Redstart on the Great Orme and a Wood Sandpiper over Penrhyn Bay are signs that migration is underway. Ospreys were over Point of Ayr, Caerhun, Beaumaris and Penrhyn Bay, and Hooded Crows at Aberdaron, RSPB South Stack, Church Bay and Cemlyn. Mediterranean Gulls are at several locations, including nine at Afonwen and eight on the Inland Sea. In the Dee estuary, a Melodious Warbler was ringed on Hilbre and a Long-billed Dowitcher is at RSPB Burton Mere Wetlands.

Satellite tags deployed to study wetland birds on Anglesey show the importance of the North Wales coast as an international flyway. BTO Cymru tagged several Curlews on the Cefni estuary last winter to track their daily movements as part of the ECHOES project. The €2.7 million EU-funded project, involving partners in Wales and the Republic of Ireland, is assessing the effects of climate change on habitats for birds around the Irish Sea.

Curlews are declining rapidly as a breeding species across the UK, and estimates for Wales vary between 400 and 1,500 nesting pairs. It’s a more common sight outside the breeding season, when Curlews feed on estuaries, but wintering numbers in Wales have declined by more than 40% in the last 25 years.

BTO Cymru scientists have shared maps on Twitter (below) showing that three of these Curlews spent the summer in very different areas. While one stayed on Anglesey, a second made a breeding attempt near Hebden Bridge in the South Pennines and the third, a female, flew to Oulainen in western Finland. The BTO’s Dr Rachel Taylor calculated that after leaving Finland at 6.30pm on 26 June and making a stopover in Sweden, she flew 585 miles non-stop across the North Sea and rested for just a couple of hours before crossing England to Morecambe Bay. The average speed of the sea-crossing was an impressive 38mph. Another tracking project showed that a Curlew that nested in Germany in 2020 spent last winter on the Menai Strait, commuting to fields in the Carneddau foothills above Llanfairfechan. These initial results show the international effort required to save Curlews across Europe.

The North Wales Wildlife Trust reserve at Cemlyn has seen a steady stream of visitors this week, coming to see the Elegant Tern and enjoying the sounds and smell of a busy breeding seabird colony. ‘ET’ spends each day on the lagoon islands, regularly taking to the air as neighbouring Sandwich Terns defend their tiny nesting territory from this Pacific Ocean interloper. The other tern species, Common and Arctic as well as Sandwich Terns, are busy commuting off North Anglesey, returning with small fish to feed their growing chicks. Up to three Roseate Terns have been at Cemlyn, and there was good news this week from Rockabill island in Dublin Bay, where a record 1,704 pairs have nested, 85% of the northwest European population. Birdwatch Ireland wardens report a productive season, with more chicks than in recent years. Three Roseate Terns were among the high tide count of Little Terns at Gronant on Sunday.

Autumn wader migration is underway, with Whimbrels dropping in from Iceland, four Spotted Redshanks at Connah’s Quay nature reserve, Wood Sandpiper at RSPB Cors Ddyga and 11 Greenshanks on the Alaw estuary. Three Great White Egrets are at RSPB Conwy and one at Connah’s Quay, perhaps from RSPB Burton Mere Wetlands, on the Dee estuary, where three pairs have raised ten young. A record number of Redshanks have nested on the reserve saltmarsh this year, and Bitterns and Marsh Harriers have nested in the reedbeds.

A Rose-coloured Starling remains at Moelfre, an unseasonal Black Redstart was reported in Rhos-on-Sea, an Osprey flew over RSPB Conwy on Saturday evening and a Spoonbill was at Connah’s Quay. Hooded Crows have been at RSPB South Stack, Amlwch and the River Clwyd south of Rhyl, and the hybrid offspring of a Hooded and a Carrion Crow on Holyhead breakwater. Mediterranean Gulls are starting to arrive in North Wales from across northern Europe, with 19 on Anglesey’s Inland Sea.

All terns are, in my book, elegant: sleek seabirds that wander the oceans. They connect North Wales, which is home to four species of tern at five busy colonies, with the western and south coasts of Africa, and even the edge of the Antarctic. But by its name, one tern is more elegant than others – and its appearance at Cemlyn, on Anglesey, on Sunday and Monday provided a dose of birding excitement between the rush of spring and autumn migration.

The Elegant Tern, found at Cemlyn on Sunday morning, originates on the Pacific coast. Up to 95% of the world population breeds on a single island, Isla Rasa, in the Mexican state of Baja California. A few hundred pairs also nest in San Diego Bay in the USA, and in winter they feed along the coast as far south as Chile.

Elegant Tern is an incredibly rare visitor to Britain, although one has already visited North Wales, at Black Rock Sands near Criccieth in 2002. Sporadic appearances in Britain and Ireland are believed to relate to a small number of birds that have summered in western Europe over the last 20 years. One or two pairs have bred at Albufera de Valencia, a coastal lagoon in eastern Spain, in the last decade and Elegant Terns have also been seen on Noirmoutier Island, at the mouth of the River Loire. A pair is currently feeding two chicks there, the first breeding record for France. Individuals have previously bred with Sandwich Terns in France and Spain, producing hybrid young. It’s not clear what led to this massive expansion in its global range, which began in the 1970s, but the trend has been attributed to greater frequency of El Niño, the warming of currents in the Pacific Ocean.

Cemlyn, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary as a North Wales Wildlife Trust reserve this year, is no stranger to unusual terns. Staff and volunteers warden the important breeding colony of Sandwich, Common and Arctic Terns, joined in some years by Roseate Terns. That means there are extra pairs of eyes to pick out surprising visitors, and the reserve has hosted Caspian Tern (1980 and 1988), Bridled Tern (1988), Sooty Tern (2005) and White-winged Black Tern (2014). With occasional Little and Black Terns too, has any other site in Britain hosted 11 different tern species?

Elsewhere in North Wales, unusual visitors include Rose-coloured Starlings at bird-feeders in gardens in Moelfre and Rhos-on-Sea, four Avocets and three Great White Egrets at RSPB Conwy and a Cattle Egret at RSPB Cors Ddyga. One of the eagle owl species, almost certainly an escaped captive bird, has been hunting around Amlwch harbour in recent evenings, perhaps the same bird that was seen in Pentraeth forest during the winter.

Midsummer sees herons and egrets, among the earliest birds to nest in the spring, disperse across the country. As well as the Grey Herons and Little Egrets that breed in North Wales, recent years have seen more Great White Egrets spread into North Wales from June to September. There were four, perhaps as many as six, at RSPB Conwy on Thursday and two remained over the weekend. One bore a ring that showed it was a nestling at the RSPB’s Ham Wall nature reserve, Somerset, just a few weeks ago. Great White Egrets have bred in Britain for less than a decade, including on the Dee estuary since 2017. Another Great White at Porthmadog Cob was joined briefly by another three on Monday, their larger size compared to Little Egrets being evident in Elfyn Lewis’s photo.


Egrets have been recovering from centuries of wetland drainage and persecution. The long, wispy feathers that grow from the head were hugely popular in ladies fashion and for ceremonial military dress during the 19th century, leading to the killing of huge numbers of egrets. They nest in colonies so were easy targets and numbers quickly crashed as thousands of chicks were left to starve to death. Each dead Great White Egret yielded a quarter ounce of feathers, worth $7, equivalent to £166 today. Up to £20 million worth of birds’ feathers were traded through London each year, over £200 million at current prices, from all over the world. The trade, dubbed “murderous millinery” by campaigners in late Victorian England, contributed to the decline of many species and the extinction of several more, such as the unique Huia wattlebird in New Zealand that was regarded by Maori as sacred.


1 July 2021 is the centenary of the Plumage Act becoming law. It followed decades of campaigning by the RSPB, formed by a group of women in 1889 to push for just such a law. Nancy Astor, Britain’s first female MP, took up the cause following her 1919 election victory. The law banned imports of feathers, although it would take several amendments and a change in fashion for sales to cease. The story of the trade and these women is powerfully told by Tessa Boase in Etta Lemon: The Woman Who Saved The Birds, which I can thoroughly recommend. Whenever I see an egret, I think of those pioneering women.


Beside the Great White Egrets, other sightings this week include Hooded Crows on Bardsey and the River Clwyd, Roseate Tern at Cemlyn lagoon, Spotted Redshank at RSPB Conwy, and Quail singing at Aberffraw, Holt and Glaslyn.
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There are just hours to go to order a copy of the new national avifauna, The Birds of Wales, at the pre-publication price of £25 (plus p&p). Click here for details and to order, using the code WALES50 to get the discount. The offer is valid until 30 June, after which it is published and will cost £45.

The quintessential sound of the Cuckoo is almost ready to depart for another year. I heard my first while on a moorland surveying for Black Grouse in April, and have doubtless already heard my last this year. Since they don’t raise their own young, once pairs have mated and the female has laid eggs, they begin their return migration to Africa.

The classic ‘cuc-koo’ song is that of the male, whereas the female utters a chuckling or bubbling call, especially after leaving her egg in the nest of the unwitting foster parents. That call is a similar to a raptor, which distracts the nest-owner, and makes it less likely to reject the cuckoo’s egg. The female with a rusty-brown collar, as shown in the photo, or all-over chestnut in some individuals, lays a single egg in each of up to 20 nests, most typically those of Meadow Pipits, Tree Pipits, Dunnocks and Reed Warblers.

The British Trust for Ornithology has resumed its satellite-tracking of Cuckoos this year, including two males in Wales: one near Llandegla, west of Wrexham, and one at RSPB Lake Vyrnwy nature reserve that has already made two forays 30km down the valley to Shropshire. By 15 June, three of the 11 tagged birds had already crossed the Channel on their southbound migration. You can follow them at bto.org/cuckoo.

Cuckoo numbers in Wales halved between 1996 and 2010, but have made a partial recovery in the decade since. The Breeding Bird Survey shows that numbers in 2019 were still more than 25% lower than the mid-1990s, but no updated figures are available for 2020 as the covid pandemic prevented surveys from being undertaken. Several readers have commented that they’ve heard Cuckoos in more places in North Wales this year, not only in the uplands but also on Anglesey, although the UK reporting rate on BirdTrack is more than 10% lower than usual.

While Cuckoos are already on the move, it will be another few weeks before autumn migration gets properly underway, and some smaller birds are now skulking quietly as they moult their feathers after the nesting season. Notable sightings in North Wales last week were a Rose-coloured Starling near Harlech, a Roseate Tern at Cemlyn lagoon and a Hooded Crow at RSPB South Stack. At least 10 Red Kites were on Anglesey last Tuesday, where it has until recently remained a scarce sight.

​Conservation and animal welfare organisations have issued a reminder to leave young birds alone. June is the peak month for chicks to make their first forays from the nest, and many songbirds spend their first hours on the ground. Nestlings that are not fully-feathered may have fallen, and if you can find the nest nearby (checking that the chick looks like the others in the nest), you can attempt to return the chick to its home. However, in most cases, youngsters have feathers and are being fed, or cajoled into flight, by the parents. These should only be moved if they are in danger, such as from road traffic or cats, and then only a short distance to safety, so that mum and dad can still hear their calls.

Phoning an animal welfare charity or vet should be a last resort (they are overstretched at this time of year). Only put it in a box and remove it if the bird is clearly injured, and then seek professional advice. Abandonment by parent birds is rare, as the bond to their chicks is very strong. The useful flowchart above was produced by the RSPB, who have more advice on their website.
 
Most songbirds make their maiden flight early in the day, and it has been assumed that this increases the chance of survival, perhaps by maximising the number of daylight hours in which to feed on their first day. However, a recent study of Blue Tits by scientists at Oxford University and the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Germany found no evidence for that hypothesis. They suggest that young birds fledge when they reach a certain point in their development, and since that moment will occur for some birds during the night, a greater proportion leave the nest in the first few hours after sunrise simply because the time is right.

The influx of Rose-coloured Starlings has continued, with pink-and-black adults at Valley and Tregele on Anglesey, but birds on Bardsey and at Morfa Nefyn last week have moved on. Three Roseate Terns are at Cemlyn lagoon, where wardens from North Wales Wildlife Trust report Sandwich Tern chicks are hatching. A Quail was found dead near Bryngwran earlier in the month. Farther afield, Britain’s first Sulphur-bellied Warbler was identified, on Lundy in the Bristol Channel and an Egyptian Vulture is on the Isles of Scilly, more than 150 years since the last accepted record in Britain.
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A new national avifauna, The Birds of Wales, will be published in July. Liverpool University Press is accepting pre-orders for £25 (plus p&p), which is £20 below the published price. Click here for details and to order, using the code WALES50 to get the discount. Offer is valid until 30 June.

I made my second visit on Sunday to the two squares above Conwy that I monitor for the Breeding Bird Survey, the main source of our knowledge of trends in populations of widespread species. There were so many birds, it took me almost an hour to walk each kilometre, carefully recording everything I saw and heard. In the square counted almost every year since 1994, this year has seen a record number of species (42) and the highest ever counts of Blackbird, Blackcap, Chiffchaff and House Sparrow.

Improved weather conditions last week are welcome news for birds whose eggs hatch in June, but may have come too late for some species. The dry and cold April meant that insects were in short supply, especially for aerial feeders such as Swallows and House Martins. The hard, dry ground made it difficult for wader species too, such as Curlews and Lapwings. Walking on moorland in April, even the sphagnum was crispy underfoot, conditions we often don’t witness in Wales even in late summer.

It was the wettest May in Wales since records began, with several centimetres of snow lying in the uplands early in the month. This suppressed insect numbers, with moth enthusiasts reporting a terrible start to the season. Swollen rivers washed out first nesting attempts by Sand Martins and Kingfishers, and many broods of Starlings, Great Tits and Blue Tits starved in their nests. These single-brooded species will be especially hit, as they rarely rear a second brood. Birds that can lay another clutch of eggs may do better, although later broods are usually smaller.

Some warblers have arrived later than usual, some by a couple of weeks, and for those that nest in reedbeds, such as Reed and Sedge Warblers, the reeds are only now large enough to support a nest. Choughs in west-facing nests suffered during windy and cold conditions in early May, but elsewhere they have fared better. Pied Flycatchers in southwest Britain have nested later than usual, with smaller clutches of eggs than usual reported, but ringers in North Wales report eggs hatching on typical dates last week and good size broods.

The warmer weather also brought an influx of birds from continental Europe. A Golden Oriole sang at Llanfairynghornwy, near Wylfa, on Friday, a Common Rosefinch sang in a Holyhead garden and others were at Cemlyn Bay and Bardsey. A Quail sang near Ynys, on the Dwyryd estuary, and a female in meadows near Penygroeslon became only the 138th ever to be ringed in Britain & Ireland. Rarity of the week was an Eastern Subalpine Warbler near Carmel Head, only the second in Wales away from Bardsey or the Pembrokeshire islands.  A Spoonbill on the Glaslyn Marshes was only the third record there and two Avocets at RSPB Conwy on Saturday are likely to have been failed breeders from elsewhere.

Pink-and-black Rose-coloured Starlings have arrived in huge numbers in southwestern Europe in the last week. Around 100 have been reported in Britain in recent days, including three in Holyhead, and singles in Valley, Beaumaris, Cemaes, Cemlyn Bay, Rhyl and on Bardsey. We could be on course for a record year, and unlike many rarities, these Rosy Starlings are quite likely to turn up in towns and gardens. 
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A new national avifauna, The Birds of Wales, will be published in July. Liverpool University Press is accepting pre-orders for £25 (plus p&p), which is £20 below the published price. Click here for details and to order, using the code WALES50 to get the discount.

Sad news from two of Wales’ Osprey nests, just weeks after the outrageous destruction of another Osprey nest at Llyn Brenig. All three chicks died in the nest by the Afon Glaslyn last week, following several days with no food provided by the adult male, which had suffered a wing injury. One of three chicks at Cors Dyfi also died last week, having been accidentally suffocated just hours after hatching.

The history of Ospreys nesting in Wales is one of 451 species documented in a new book, The Birds of Wales, published by the Welsh Ornithological Society and Liverpool University Press next month. As one of the editors, I’ll confess some relief at signing off the final proofs last week, two years and two days after our first meeting to plan the venture. Four of the editors are based in North Wales, as were many of the expert authors of species accounts and photographers whose wonderful images illustrate the book. The front cover and frontispiece paintings are by Anglesey-based artist, Philip Snow.

Wales is significant for its populations of Chough, Hawfinch and Pied Flycatcher, our Manx Shearwaters are of global importance, and the bird observatories on Skokholm and Bardsey have played an important role in the study of migration. Only a quarter of breeding species have experienced an improvement in status since 1900 and one-third of Welsh breeding species are projected to lose some or all of their geographic range here by the end of the century.

The Birds of Wales will cost £45, but you can pre-order it for £25 (plus p&p) until 30 June. Visit liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/books/id/54476 and use the code WALES50 at the checkout.

It was a quiet week for migrants, but Spoonbills were seen on the Dee Estuary and Anglesey’s Inland Sea, Hooded Crows at RSPB South Stack, Cemlyn Bay and Ynys Llanddwyn, and Great Northern Divers off Cemlyn and Beddmanarch Bay. 

​This rather odd message buzzed onto my phone on Saturday morning, and it was only when I saw the accompanying photo that it started to make sense. Nightjars are summer migrants, arriving back on heathland and clearfell forestry nesting areas in mid-May, where males display with an eerie ‘churring’ call from dusk. During the day, they sleep on the bough of a tree or fallen trunk, relying on their cryptic, mottled plumage to remain safe.

The Nightjar roosting at RSPB Conwy was just metres away from a busy footpath, but rather than selecting a tree, had chosen the back of a model heron placed in the growing reeds by staff as part of a children’s quiz trail! It was found by visiting birdwatcher Sean McCormack, who shared this video on Twitter, just moments after making the discovery. The Nightjar remained on its chosen roost all day, ignoring the steady stream of admirers who had a rare opportunity to study the bird in detail, right down to its ‘rictal bristles’. These are whiskers along the upper beak of nightjars, which may play a role in navigation, foraging and collision avoidance at night, although the exact function remains unknown. Not surprisingly, having lifted off to feed on moths on Saturday night, the Conwy nightjar was not seen again.
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It had hitherto been a quiet week for unusual birds, as breeding species worked hard to find food and protect their eggs and young from the cold, wet weather. Sadly one Osprey chick from broods of three at Glaslyn and Cors Dyfi died at the weekend, but farther south, the first chick hatched at the Llyn Clywedog Osprey nest. A Storm Petrel found dead in the Crafnant Valley may have been a victim of Sunday’s storm. A Black Tern has fed off Cemlyn Bay since Friday, roosting with a couple of thousand Sandwich Terns on the lagoon island, where North Wales Wildlife Trust is celebrating 50 years of its leasing the nature reserve from the National Trust. There's a fascinating blog here about the history of the site before it was acquired for the nation.

A Scaup is at RSPB Valley Wetlands, a complex that in 1988 recorded the only case of this northern species nesting in Wales, and a Bonaparte’s Gull from North America was at RSPB Burton Mere Wetlands on Sunday.

A new national avifauna, The Birds of Wales, will be published in July. Liverpool University Press is accepting pre-orders for £25 (plus p&p), which is £20 below the published price. Click here for details and to order, using the code WALES50 to get the discount.