More than a million people participated in the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch at the end of January, including a record 53,000 people who counted 1,094,355 birds in Wales. Once again, the House Sparrow took top spot, while Starling stepped up to second and Blue Tit dropped to third place. Cold weather may have pushed Starlings west into Welsh gardens, while Blue Tit numbers have fallen by almost 20% in the last decade following several poor breeding seasons.

The annual Birdwatch is just one way to connect with birds. A YouGov survey found that 35% of people in Wales had seen wildlife near home over the last 12 months that they had never noticed before. It also revealed that 63% of people in the UK said watching birds and hearing their song added to their enjoyment of life during the pandemic, with 51% saying that lockdown has made them more aware of their local nature. So, how to maintain that enthusiasm as lockdown eases?

Spring migration provides one opportunity, and although cool winds slowed the arrival of some species, birdwatchers in North Wales saw good numbers of Ring Ouzels at the weekend: at least 10 in the Nant Ffrancon Valley, half a dozen each in Carneddau’s Anafon Valley and Tal-y-fan, and five at Minera, near Wrexham. The ‘Mountain Blackbird’ is Red-listed because of huge declines, but Snowdonia National Park is a stronghold and it’s vital that the right levels of grazing continue to support these special birds.

White Wagtails streaming north to Iceland are stopping on our beaches and fields to refuel. The Cors Dyfi and Glaslyn Ospreys have each laid their first eggs, while a new pair has occupied the nest platform at Llyn Brenig. Winters hangs on with Scaup on Llyn Brân, Surf Scoter off Llanddulas and a Snow Bunting atop Moel Eilio, just north of Eryri. 

The sharp drop in temperature will be a shock to hungry migrant birds arriving from Africa, and the insects on which many depend. It may also hinder resident birds that are already nesting, including those such as Mistle Thrush, Grey Heron and Dipper that have hatched young by early April.

Ahead of the northerly winds, migrants had been streaming in. Huge numbers of Sand Martins fed over Anglesey’s Cefni Valley last week, with smaller numbers of Swallows and House Martins, and Pied Flycatchers have been seen in several woodlands across North and Mid Wales. Other migrants seen this week include Whimbrels, Tree Pipits, Ring Ouzels and Common Sandpipers. Several Ospreys were spotted in local airspace, and a remote microphone recorded a Stone-curlew over Penrhyn Bay, a rare bird in Wales.

The RSPB’s Cors Ddyga nature reserve was filled with the calls of Curlew and Golden Plovers on Sunday morning. More than 200 of the plovers fed in the pools, many in their striking black-and-gold plumage ready to nest as soon as they arrive on the Icelandic, Greenland or Faeroese tundra. They shared the reserve with many White Wagtails also heading to Iceland, and several Little Ringed Plovers. Skylarks’ powerful song mixed with the falling cadence of freshly-arrived Willow Warblers, and early visitors heard the deep boom of Bittern. Earlier in the weekend, I’d counted 180 Eider ducks off Penmon Point, the largest number I’ve seen in the Menai Strait.

In Mynydd Hiraethog, a Black Redstart was on the dam at Llyn Aled Isaf on Sunday, a Scaup on nearby Llyn Brân and two Little Ringed Plovers on Llyn Brenig, where a pair of Ospreys has been seen. A Surf Scoter was off Llanddulas at the weekend, another close inshore off Talacre, and the wintering Iceland Gull remained at Rhyl’s Brickfields pond to Sunday, at least.

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.

The coming weeks will highlight the strong connection between North Wales and Iceland, as the East Atlantic Flyway will be busy with northbound birds. White Wagtails, Whimbrels and Black-tailed Godwits will call into our wetlands to refuel as they head towards their breeding grounds after a winter in Africa. The small Welsh population of Greenland White-fronted Geese on Anglesey and the Dyfi Estuary will soon be heading northwest, making a stopover in Iceland, as will some of the Pale-bellied Brent Geese that winter in the Menai Strait. Breeding waders from Iceland, Greenland and Canada, such as Turnstones, Redshanks and Oystercatchers, also winter on the mild Welsh coast. The familiar black-and-white Oystercatchers will soon be moving to Iceland, the Faeroes, Norway and Scotland to nest. Results from the BTO Non-Estuarine Waterbird Survey (NEWS) of the rocky and open coast were published last week and show Wales holds the highest densities of Oystercatchers but that the decline in numbers has also been greatest here.

The one species with Iceland in its English name, the gull, does not breed in the country. Its Welsh name, Gwylan yr Arctig better describes its breeding area of northeast Canada and Greenland. There have been few Iceland Gulls in North Wales this winter, but one at Brickfields Pond nature reserve has been enjoyed by birders locked down in Rhyl, and another was in Foryd Bay last week.

Birders braving the wind at the weekend saw more Wheatears, Chiffchaffs and Sand Martins arriving, with a few Swallows too. The gales blew a Little Gull through Anglesey’s Llyn Llywenan on Monday, and Lapland Buntings and a Snow Bunting hunkered down on the Great Orme. Several Black Redstarts were reported last week, including one at Minera Quarry. Pairs of Ospreys have returned to their nests by the Afon Glaslyn and Cors Dyfi, and one of the Llyn Clywedog pair is also back.
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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.

A Tawny Owl roosting on Anglesey has won top prize in the Welsh Ornithological Society’s photographic competition for Stephen Culley. The shot was taken at Cemaes Bay during lockdown last May, in what he describes as a “chance encounter”. Tawnies are our most abundant owl species, although Anglesey is one of the Welsh counties where they occur at lowest density, according to the 2018 Tawny Owl Point Survey by the British Trust for Ornithology.

Summer migrants are appearing in greater numbers, with Wheatears, Sand Martins and House Martins at several sites across North Wales. Ring Ouzels were on the Great Orme and Conwy Mountain, and two sang on territory in the Anafon Valley, above Abergwyngregyn. Early Sandwich Terns were at Llanfairfechan and Wales’ only breeding colony, Cemlyn Lagoon. A Whitethroat near Bettisfield on Saturday (20 March) is 10 days earlier than the earliest North Wales record this century.

Bird Observatory staff returned to Bardsey last week, and immediately reported passage of Goldcrests, Chiffchaffs, Siskins, Firecrest and a Black Redstart, although the rarest visitor to the island was a Treecreeper. On the mainland, remote recording the sounds of nocturnal migration revealed Teal, Water Rails, Skylarks and Common Scoters among the species flying over a Penrhyn Bay housing estate in recent nights, as well as a major movement of Redwings heading back to Scandinavia. Common Scoters were also recorded over central Bangor. Two Siberian Chiffchaffs displayed to each other at Glanwydden, but will also be heading northeast very soon.

Two Lapland Buntings joined Snow Buntings on the Great Orme, Long-tailed Ducks remain in Foryd Bay and on Anglesey’s Inland Sea, where four Slavonian Grebes were seen at the weekend. Another ‘Slav’ Grebe was off Llanfairfechan on Monday, the first Puffin on the sea at South Stack, and an Iceland Gull remains at Rhyl’s Brickfields Pond. A Glossy Ibis flew south over Rhosneigr and a Ring-necked Duck was at nearby Llyn Maelog last week.

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.

Many birdwatchers were grateful, while staying local, to explore a little farther from home at the weekend, and hope that breeding bird surveys – abandoned in spring 2020 – will be able to go ahead. The first Wetland Bird Survey permitted this year recorded 56 Whooper Swans besides the Afon Glaslyn, where the Bywyd Gwyllt Glaslyn Wildlife Project will celebrate World Osprey Week from 22-26 March, hoping to coincide with the return of the local nesting pair.

Two studies published last week used sightings collected during last spring’s lockdown. One in Spain showed that birds’ daily routines changed in response to fewer humans and less noise in cities, with activity patterns similar to birds found in rural areas. In the UK, the British Trust for Ornithology reports that birdwatchers recorded more species associated with towns and gardens, such as Blackbirds and Collared Doves, and fewer waterbirds and coastal species. It showed that BirdTrackers in Wales stayed close to home in every month except September, when restrictions were relaxed.

Winter hangs on stubbornly, and this week’s forecast blast of northerly air will be tough for any arriving summer migrants that depend on flying insects to refuel. Several Manx Shearwaters were seen off the Anglesey coast, fresh from a winter off the South American coast. Hen Harriers were at RSPB Cors Ddyga and Bettisfield Moss, a Firecrest at Llanfairfechan sewage works, and a White-fronted Goose among a flock of Pink-footed Geese at Aberdyfi, where a Glaucous Gull was also reported. An Iceland Gull was at RSPB Oakenholt Marsh on Sunday, and Long-tailed Ducks, Little Gull and a Water Pipit at Caernarfon’s Foryd Bay. Snow Buntings remain at Kinmel Bay and the Great Orme and a Cattle Egret at Valley.

A Great Northern Diver and two Little Gulls were off the Little Orme, where signs of migration included Crossbills, Siskins and Chaffinches overhead. Redwings have been reported on nocturnal passage across the region, returning to Scandinavia, while birders in the Pennines reported hearing Common Scoters leaving the Irish Sea on clear nights last week.

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.

The increased early morning birdsong is a clear sign that the breeding season is underway across North Wales. The Wren outside my home-office window has been alternating between busy nest-building and song so loud that it prompted comment from a government official during a Zoom call last week. This male Wren will build several domed nests of moss, leaves and grass, from which his mate will choose one to line with feathers and lay her eggs.

A pair of Greenfinches has returned to feed in my garden after a winter’s absence, a welcome sight as the BTO BirdTrends 2020 report published last week shows their numbers in Wales have crashed by 71% since 1995. My pair, which I hope will nest in the garden, could have been on a more distant winter break than any of us during lockdown. Greenfinches ringed in Wales in the summer have been found in the Channel Islands and France in winter. Signs of nesting are a reminder that hedgerows must not be cut by farmers between 1 March and 31 August, and that’s good guidance for gardeners too. It’s time to put the hedge-trimmer at the back of the shed.

RSPB Cors Ddyga recorded the first House Martin and Swallows on consecutive dates last week (3 and 4 March), although they were not the earliest ever, as both species were seen in February 2019. The first Sand Martins were there on 6 March. A Common Sandpiper in the Menai Strait has overwintered, but one on the River Clwyd may be a northbound migrant. The Iceland Gull remains at the nearby Brickfields Pond, Rhyl, and a Hen Harrier photographed at Gronant was ringed as a chick in The Netherlands in May 2019.

Six Chiffchaffs, including two of Siberian origin, remain near Glanwydden, and several others have been singing across the region. Four Black Guillemots are off Llandudno’s North Shore, eight Great Northern Divers off Dinas Dinlle and booming Bitterns heard at RSPB Valley Wetlands and Cors Ddyga. Snow Buntings remain at Kinmel Bay and the Great Orme, and eight were below the summit of Foel Grach in the Carneddau on St David’s Day. Last week’s feature on Ring-necked Parakeets prompted further records of a pair around Rhyl, as well as previous sightings in Denbigh and Llandudno.

Just published is the Cambrian Bird Report 2019, covering Anglesey, Caernarfonshire and Meirionnydd, and featuring Wales’ first nesting Savi’s Warbler on the cover. It summarises the sightings by hundreds of birdwatchers and surveys undertaken across northwest Wales, including the records from Bardsey Bird and Field Observatory. Copies are available for £8 each including postage, by cheque or bank transfer. Telephone Geoff Gibbs on 01248 681936 for details.

Finally, and I can’t promise that this is the last time I shall mention it, 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.

Hearing the squawk of Ring-necked Parakeets on tv instantly transports me to the heat and aromas of India, where these bright green, long-tailed birds are abundant. The species is not native to Britain, but has been spreading since the 1960s. Its call still takes me by surprise when I hear them in London, or the Thames corridor and there are small populations in other urban areas of England, but it remains unusual in Wales. Indeed, the latest Welsh Bird Report published this week, has removed Ring-necked Parakeet from the official list of Welsh birds because of an absence of evidence that those seen here originate from the naturalised population and are not escaped pets. A pair bred at Gresford Flash, near Wrexham, in 1979 and attempted to breed there in 1980, but there have been no subsequent Welsh breeding records.

Now a citizen science project by researchers at Imperial College London is seeking readers’ help to map the state of Ring-necked Parakeets across Britain. Two flew over Rhyl last week, and at least one was subsequently at the nearby Brickfields Pond nature reserve. Parakeets are regular visitors to gardens in southeast England, and one has been visiting feeders in Llanddulas since mid-December. If you have seen a Ring-necked Parakeet recently, please report it to paratweets.com.

Less exotically colourful, but more typical for winter in North Wales, four Snow Buntings are on the Great Orme and at Kinmel Bay, with another six on the summit of Carnedd Llewellyn on Sunday. The sunshine encouraged a Redwing into song as I walked my local woods on Sunday, while a Willow Warbler singing at Llanddeusant on 25 February was either the earliest Welsh migrant this century or a rare overwintering bird. An Iceland Gull is at Brickfields Pond, Long-tailed Duck on Cors Erddreiniog and Avocets have arrived at RSPB Burton Mere Wetlands.

‘Tea-cher, tea-cher’ was the strident call on Monday morning, not only from primary pupils returning to school after lockdown, but from Great Tits in my local wood, where a Great Spotted Woodpecker has resumed loud drumming on a hollow tree. This week’s burst of spring-like weather brought out the first butterflies and hoverflies and encouraged more birds into song, and even nest-building. Last week saw the first Wheatear and Sand Martins make landfall in South Wales, and in recent days there has been a Garganey in Cheshire and Swallows in southwest England.

Southerly winds mean that one or two should make it to North Wales this week, but for now a few overwintering ‘summer’ migrants have stirred: Blackcaps were singing at Llanfair PG and Wrexham, Chiffchaff at Amlwch Port and a Common Sandpiper remains on Church Island in the Menai Strait. Several Chiffchaffs have wintered near Penrhyn Bay, including at least one of Siberian origin. Increasing numbers of Lesser Black-backed Gulls, many of which will have wintered in Iberia, are another sign that spring beckons.

Skylarks and Meadow Pipits were on the move over the Little Orme at the weekend, but otherwise the region’s sightings retain a wintry feel: Iceland Gull and Scaup on Rhyl’s Brickfields Pond, Long-tailed Duck in Beddmanarch Bay, Snow Buntings on the Great Orme and at Kinmel Bay. The overwintering Rose-coloured Starling is at Amlwch Port, Firecrest in Gloddaeth Woods and nine Great Northern Divers were in Caernarfon Bay, with another off the Great Orme.

Great White Egrets are on the Afon Glaslyn at Pont Croesor, on the Clwyd floods by the A55 near St Asaph and on the River Dee at Shotton. A Cattle Egret remains near Valley, six Pintails are at Llay Pool and a Marsh Tit reported in Bangor was a rare westerly record. A flock of 90 Choughs near Aberdaron was encouraging to see after the recent ice and snow.

Photographer and sound-recordist Ben Porter has produced a wonderful seasonal audio-visual journey through the nature and landscape of Pen Llŷn as part of the LIVE collaboration between communities on the Iveragh Peninsula in southwest Ireland and the Llŷn Peninsula. If you fancy an escape during lockdown, I strongly recommend five minutes immersing yourself in it!

A Hen Harrier that hatched in Snowdonia in 2019 and returned here to nest last year, is spending her second successive winter in the Navarra region of northern Spain. Nicknamed ‘Bomber’ (as her leg-ring was inscribed ‘B2’), she is part of an RSPB scheme that uses GPS satellite tags to track the birds’ movements. This has found around 10% of British-bred harriers migrate across the Channel in winter. A previous study by Natural England shows that Hen Harriers are ten times more likely to die or disappear on moorland managed for grouse-shooting than other land-uses.

Bomber’s return to the same Spanish valley, after flying over 1000 miles in just two weeks, has coincided with heavy snowfall and the lowest temperatures for 20 years. Last year, she didn’t return to Wales until May, so the team will be watching the data closely to see when she begins her journey north this spring.

There's more about Bomber, and the equally surprising travels of 'Apollo' from Lancashire's Forest of Bowland on the RSPB blog.

Technology has also been deployed by the BTO on Greenland White-fronted Geese wintering on Anglesey. Several have been fitted with GPS tags that send data to local base-stations, enabling their use of the island’s wetlands to be studied. Local birdwatchers have been asked to report any sightings of neck-collared geese via greenlandwhitefront.org.

Last week’s cold weather brought an increase in Woodcock sightings, including several in gardens. Snow Buntings remained at Holyhead’s Soldier’s Point, Kinmel Bay and the Great Orme, Black Redstarts at Amlwch and Beaumaris, and Water Pipit and Firecrest near Glanwydden. Great Northern Divers were on Llyn Tegid and off the Little Orme, and Amlwch Port’s Rose-coloured Starling was resighted after a week’s absence. A Cattle Egret remains on a flooded field near Valley. As the weather warmed on Monday, a Peregrine took a surprise mid-afternoon meal over Llandudno when a bat woke early from hibernation.

Freezing winds and widespread snow are expected to push birds eastward into Wales this week. Hundreds of Woodcocks were found in Yorkshire and Northumberland on Sunday ahead of the cold conditions, including many washed up dead on the tideline. Many have evacuated Norway, with large numbers reported to have died along the coast at Stavanger, and doubtless others will have perished on the journey across the North Sea. The harsh weather will add stress to some birds that are already struggling as a result of avian influenza. Wading birds have been found dead in the Waddensee, Europe’s largest wetland, and authorities have confirmed the disease caused the death of 750 Great White and Pink-backed Pelicans at a nesting colony in Senegal.

On a walk from home on Sunday, it was evident that Redwing numbers had increased overnight, with birds feeding among the woodland leaf-litter, which has not yet frozen. A Firecrest dropped onto a bare branch at eye-level, although this one has been in Gloddaeth Woods above Penrhyn Bay all winter. Look out for Bramblings and Blackcaps at garden feeders this week, and keep water unfrozen if you can.

Snow Buntings are on the Great Orme and at Holyhead’s Soldier’s Point, and Water Pipits at Glanwydden and Llandudno’s West Shore. A Cattle Egret and Green Sandpiper remain on a flooded field north of Valley on Anglesey and other long-stayers include two Black Redstarts at Amlwch, Iceland Gull and Scaup at Rhyl’s Brickfield Pond, and a Long-tailed Duck in Foryd Bay.

A Tundra Bean Goose was feeding among Pink-footed Geese at Ridleywood in the Dee Valley on Monday, and in recent days there has been a small flock of Pale-bellied Brent Geese on the Clwyd estuary, two Great White Egrets in the Cefni Valley and over 20 Velvet Scoters off Shell Island, near Llanbedr.