For migratory birds, autumn is starting

Greenshank (Bob Garrett)

​Falling water levels in the Cefni Valley are attracting egrets into fields at RSPB Cors Ddyga that are busy with many young Lapwings, most already fledged. Up to four Great White Egrets and a Cattle Egret are with a dozen or more Little Egrets and Grey Herons, and Bitterns make occasional flights across the nearby reedbed. Several broods of Shoveler are loving the shallow pools, with Teal and Pochards nearby and an occasional Hobby overhead. It was great to hear Curlews still calling on Monday, evidently still watching over chicks that are close to fledging from pasture managed by farmers working with the Natur am Byth species recovery project.

An adult Rose-coloured Starling visited a Caernarfon garden last week, a Turtle Dove was on wires by the road to Porth Neigwl, a Ring-necked Duck remains at Llyn Brenig and a Wood Sandpiper was a good find at Llyn Trawsfynydd. A Whooper Swan on the Glaslyn estuary appears to be uninjured but didn’t leave for Iceland with the rest of its flock. An unseasonal Black Redstart was at Cemlyn, where North Wales Wildlife Trust wardens counted more than 1000 Sandwich Tern and 280 Black-headed Gull chicks. Mercifully, Welsh seabird colonies show no signs of the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza that was so devastating last summer.

Three broods of stripy Great Crested Grebe chicks are at RSPB Conwy, where Common Sandpiper has bred once again. While many birds are still busy with their breeding season, some waders are already returning from their breeding grounds to the north, presumably having failed to breed. A Greenshank at Morfa Madryn on Sunday morning was my first of the autumn and numbers of migrating waders will increase in the next two months, with the first Green Sandpipers expected in the next week.

North Wales Wildlife Trust is running events for Swift Awareness Week in several towns where the birds still nest, to encourage local people to champion these declining summer migrants. Events are in Llanberis, Trefriw, Menai Bridge, Bethesda, Holyhead, Wrexham and Holt in the next three weeks. Book a place on their website. And while you’re thinking about Swifts, please do sign this petition calling on Welsh Government to require homes for Swifts to be incorporated into new buildings.