Rangers from Denbighshire Council and volunteers from North Wales Little Tern Group spent this week putting up the fences that should protect Wales’ largest Little Tern colony from beach users, dogs and predatory mammals when the birds return from West Africa to Gronant soon. The RSPB has been undertaking similar work at its Point of Ayr nature reserve in neighbouring Flintshire. Recent storms demolished the Gronant viewing platform and remodelled the beach, and seasonal wardens hope that northerly winds don’t coincide with high tides in the coming months. A Snow Bunting and Whinchat were at Gronant on Saturday.
It was good to see a Pied Flycatcher and hear Cuckoo at Pensychnant above Conwy on Sunday while doing a Breeding Bird Survey. Both species arrived on territories across North Wales last week, as have more Ring Ouzels; more than 20 were seen in the Carneddau at the weekend, with 11 on passage at Penycloddiau in the Clwydian range and five over Llanfair DC. Several dozen Swifts flew up the Cefni Valley with House Martins on Monday, when two Cattle Egrets were found at Ffynnongroyw. Several Purple Herons were in Wales last week, including at Cors Dyfi nature reserve and near Aberffraw. Four Cranes that flew up the Dee estuary were seen from Connah’s Quay but headed east across Wirral. Hawfinches are at a couple of sites in the Conwy Valley, a summer-plumage Spotted Redshank remains at RSPB Conwy and a Corncrake called on Bardsey all week. A Turtle Dove purred briefly near Edern and a Spoonbill was at Dinas Dinlle. A Redwing over Penrhyn Bay may be one of the last of the winter and Waxwings were at Halkyn and Colwyn Bay. Two Ring-necked Parakeets have been in Llandudno gardens, with sightings from the Great Orme to RSPB Conwy.
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The vivid yellow male Golden Oriole must be among the most highly-prized birds to find in Britain. One in Holyhead’s Breakwater Country Park on Saturday was a popular draw for local birders, since migrants have a reputation for not staying long. Small numbers used to breed in East Anglia, but they are now birds of mainland Europe, common in deciduous woodland where summer temperatures are high and rainfall low.
The one-day visitor was part of a weekend influx, 16 recorded between Friday and Monday, almost all in southwest Britain; but the Golden Oriole in Holyhead was the only one north of Gower. More than 130 have been seen in North Wales since the first confirmed record in Ruthin in 1870. Only one on Bardsey on 11 April 1981 was earlier in the season, since the majority are found in May and June. Greater numbers of common summer visitors arrived in recent days, with more than 200 each of Blackcap and Willow Warbler last Saturday on Bardsey, where a Nightingale has been present for four days and a Corncrake was the first ringed at the Bird Observatory since 2015. Whinchats and Wood Warblers are back on their breeding sites, and the first Garden Warbler was at Cwm-y-glo, near Llyn Padarn, on Friday. Winter birds are shipping out, with Redwings reported in several places, including birds likely to be Icelandic breeders. A dozen Waxwings on a Brymbo housing estate may prove to be the last of the winter. Ospreys at Cors Dyfi got down to egg-laying at the weekend, while last year’s female at Llyn Brenig appears to have been replaced; the regular male mated with a three-year old female that hatched in Scotland and was released in Dorset in 2021. Meanwhile, a female (KS1) that hatched beside the Afon Glaslyn in 2018 has returned to the Yorkshire Dales where she has bred since 2022. January’s RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch results, released last week, showed House Sparrow retaining top spot, but Blue Tit overtook Starling as the second commonest species, with numbers of the latter down 18% in just one year. Great Tits also did well, up from eighth to fifth place, but eight of the top 10 species were seen in fewer gardens than in 2023. Full details are on the RSPB website. The 2023 Hen Harrier survey published this week showed mixed fortunes for Britain’s most persecuted bird of prey. Numbers increased in northern England and parts of Scotland, but fell hard in southern Scotland and Northern Ireland. The Welsh count, undertaken by the RSPB and Natural Resources Wales, was up by four pairs since 2016 to 40 territories. Almost all were in North Wales, with the Berwyn Special Protection Area holding 40% of the total.
Out before the stormy weekend, I watched four summer-plumaged Slavonian Grebes off Aber Ogwen and a flotilla of over 100 Eiders from Penmaenmawr, having seen 40 earlier from Penmon. Those Eider numbers are far higher than known to breed in the whole of Wales, so presumably these are migrants stopping to feed before heading farther north. Storm Kathleen brought a Storm Petrel, Arctic Skua and Arctic Terns off Criccieth and a Hoopoe to Bardsey, the island’s first since 2015, but the winds were disruptive for early nesting birds such as Rooks and Grey Herons. First migrant arrivals included Redstarts at Pont Croesor and Pensychnant on 1 April, Whitethroat at Morfa Nefyn on 4th, Reed Warbler at RSPB Conwy on 5th, Pied Flycatcher in the Conwy Valley and Grasshopper Warblers at Shotwick and Ynys on 6th, Sedge Warbler at RSPB Conwy and Little Tern at Cymyran on 8th. Ring Ouzels were at several sites, the highest counts being five at Penycloddiau and on the Great Orme. An Avocet was at Malltraeth last week, a Dotterel on Cadair Idris and 12 Waxwings dropped briefly into Colwyn Bay’s Parc Eirias. A Black-necked Grebe remains in Beddmanarch Bay, a Little Gull is at RSPB Cors Ddyga and 62 Great Northern Divers in Caernarfon Bay. Several readers have reported Siskins in their gardens for the first time, following last week’s report in BirdNotes. A ringer handled more than 650 Siskins in his garden above Bagillt in the month to mid-March, including birds previously ringed in Norway, Estonia, Russia and northern Scotland, while others had come no farther than across the Dee estuary. Another ringer caught 33 in Dolgarrog last week, including one ringed in Belgium, and reported that some were almost twice as heavy as others, stacked with fat for onward migration to northeast Europe. Several readers report Siskins in their gardens for the first time recently. Records of these compact black-and-yellow finches peak in March and October, but larger immigration has been evident in recent weeks. Numbers reported to the BTO Garden BirdWatch in Wales last month were the highest ever, beating the previous record in winter 2012/13. Users of recording app BirdTrack report occurrence at almost double the usual rate, and large numbers have been ringed in some areas. Belvide Ringers in South Staffordshire handled almost 2,500 Siskins last month, including individuals previously ringed in Lithuania, Poland, Germany and Czechia.
Many of these Siskins wintered in southwest Europe and are on their way back to forests in Russia and northeast Europe, having taken a longer arc through Britain rather than across central Europe. Siskins visiting Wales in winter usually originate in Scotland, Norway and Sweden, although one ringed in Llandygai, near Bangor, in February 2013 was found near St Petersburg the following summer. Last week saw Ospreys return to their North Wales breeding sites: pairs to Cors Dyfi, Glaslyn and Hafren Forest. At Llyn Brenig, the male of last year’s returned, and as of Monday, the nest had been visited by two different females, including one released in Poole Harbour in 2021. Ospreys were also at RSPB Conwy, the Great Orme, Llyn Tegid and Llandderfel. Other summer migrants to arrive before the end of March included Little Ringed Plover on the Clwyd estuary and House Martins at RSPB Cors Ddyga, Rhuddlan and Gresford Flash. A Ring Ouzel was on the Great Orme, a Cattle Egret on the Conwy estuary and a couple of Snow Buntings at Cemlyn last week. Black-necked Grebe and Slavonian Grebes remain in Beddmanarch Bay, Surf Scoters at Llanddulas, and eight Long-tailed Ducks and a Little Gull were off Criccieth on Friday. 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. 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. 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. A murmuration of Starlings is one of nature’s winter spectacles. Thousands come together ahead of roosting, usually in a reedbed, where they can sleep above the water in relative safety from mammal predators. These are primarily winter visitors from Russia and northeastern Europe, and soon will be starting the eastward journey to their breeding areas.
Hundreds are currently coming into RSPB Conwy at dusk, and far larger numbers in the Cefni Valley. After feeding on fields across Anglesey, last week they gathered between the A55 and Llangefni. These are, of course, native birds that have probably been making seasonal movements across Europe for millennia. But Starlings spread across North America after just 160 were released in New York’s Central Park in 1890-91. The introduction created economic and ecological problems, and the population is now estimated to number 90 million birds. A new study, led by Julia M. Zichello from the American Museum of Natural History, shows that while the bill length of Starlings in Europe has remained the same for more than two centuries, those in North America are now 8% longer than Starlings caught in Wales, but their bodies are 5% smaller. By contrast, the bills of Starlings living in New Zealand – where they were introduced in 1862 – are no different to those in Europe. The authors can’t be certain what has driven the changes, but suggest a number of possibilities. Longer bills can help birds to thermoregulate, so may be an adaptation to warmer summers in North America than Eurasia. But the most likely explanation is that Starlings in America obtain half their food from outwintered dairy cattle, seeking out flaked corn in bundles of Alfalfa hay. If individuals with longer bills have better access to corn, inherited traits have been passed on by those Starlings that are most successful. Finding food in feedlots may also mean that the bill suffers less wear than when they probe the soil. The pace of evolution illustrates the challenge of forecasting the results of introducing species beyond their native range. Sightings last week include Avocet at Flint Castle, 10 Great White Egrets at RSPB Cors Ddyga and a Mealy Redpoll at Llyn Brenig. Seven Velvet Scoters and two Surf Scoters are at Llanddulas, 40 Waxwings remain near Halkyn, 90 Whooper Swans near Llanfrothen and five Slavonian Grebes in Beddmanarch Bay. Have your say on the future of farming The RSPB Cymru/Welsh Ornithological Society seminars on the proposals for a Sustainable Farming Scheme arrive in North Wales this week, with all welcome to Wrexham on Tuesday and Caernarfon on Wednesday, and an online session on Thursday 29th. WOS President Iolo Williams has urged people who support nature-friendly farming "If you do only one thing for Welsh wildlife in 2024 . . . please do this." Full details are on the WOS website. Curlews need our help Offer your help as a volunteer to survey Curlews in the Clwydian Hills this spring, as part of the Curlew Connections Wales project designed to help the species’ recovery. The project is also seeking help in Montgomeryshire and Bannau Brycheiniog National Park. Email kappleby@gwct.org.uk for details. At nine centimetres long and weighing just 5.5 grammes, little more than a 20 pence coin, it’s easy to overlook a Firecrest. But the black-and-white striped head and orange crown are striking. Firecrest is a scarce breeding species in Wales, although there could be more across Welsh forests than are found by birdwatchers each spring. It was one of the last resident species in Europe to be described in the scientific record, in 1820. Previously, it was assumed to be a variant of Goldcrest, with whom it shares the title of smallest bird in Europe.
A Firecrest at Bodffordd Sewage Treatment Works on Anglesey last week is only one of four reported in North Wales since the turn of the year. Typically around a dozen are sighted by the end of February across the region, numbers having increased during the early 2000s. In the last decade, however, only in winter 2016-17 were fewer recorded in the region. Little is known about the origin of our wintering Firecrests, or whether our small breeding population moves elsewhere. Bird-ringing suggests at least some come here from countries bordering the southern shore of the Baltic Sea, arriving via a short sea crossing from Belgium and the Netherlands. The wintering flock of Waxwings remains at Halkyn, with 75 on the Mountain last week and 21 in the village on Saturday. Another group is near Llanddulas, where two Surf and two Velvet Scoters remain offshore. Another Surf Scoter was reported off Black Rock Sands on Sunday. Great White Egrets, Cattle Egrets and Water Pipits are at RSPB Cors Ddyga, where the mild weather prompted a Bittern to crank up its booming call. A flock of Pink-footed Geese, numbering more than 500, are in the Cefni Valley, and another 3000 fed in fields east of Abergele with a single White-fronted Goose. Last week’s high tides pushed a Water Pipit close to Flint Castle, where two dozen Twite feed up ahead of their journey to a Hebridean summer. If you have joined the social media channel, BlueSky, you can find me here. |
Bird notesA weekly update of bird sightings and news from North Wales, published in The Daily Post every Thursday. Archives
April 2024
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