 Shorelark (Ben Porter) I’ll raise my hand as a keen birdwatcher who rarely goes high into Eryri in autumn or winter. I tell myself this is because there are few birds on the higher slopes outside the breeding season (which is true), but it reflects my laziness that I spend the shorter days on the coast and at wetlands, which are more productive in terms of bird per mile. Upland species such as Meadow Pipit, Stonechat and Hen Harrier move downhill in winter, where there is more to eat and the weather is better.
Those who explore the hills can find some special birds. Snow Buntings, for example, are found on Welsh mountains each year, often by hardy walkers who have snapped them on a smartphone. Birds that breed in the Arctic Circle have encountered few humans so can be surprisingly tame, happy to approach hikers who stop for a sandwich. Two Snow Buntings, and even more unusually, a Shorelark were unexpected for birder Ben Porter on Sunday, trekking through the snow in the Glyderau. Only a handful of Shorelarks have been seen inland in Wales, most being coastal such as one on the Great Orme for its fourth week. On my comparatively easy walk through the dunes at Gronant, I watched a Marsh Harrier quarter over the saltmarsh and a pair of Snow Buntings present for several weeks. A couple of Whooper Swans were an odd sight among 5000 Common Scoters in waves rolling ashore at Pensarn and Llanddulas, where others reported a Surf Scoter and eight Velvet Scoters. Five Scaup remain on Anglesey’s Llyn Llygeirian and a Red-necked Grebe in Holyhead harbour, while new finds included a Wood Sandpiper on Llanengan floods and a Black Redstart near Point Lynas. A Water Pipit was at Pontllyfni last week, a Common Scoter on Llyn Tegid and four Slavonian Grebes in Beddmanarch Bay. A Swallow was at Gronant on November’s last day. Blatant bit of advertising now... I do go into the mountains in the summer, and one of the most enjoyable days is a Birds in the Mountains course that I run with outdoor and environmental trainer Mike Raine. We have an enjoyable time walking through a wooded valley and up into Crimpiau, learning to identify a typical range of species by sight and sound, usually including Pied Flycatchers, Redstart and Wheatear, and sometimes more unusual birds too. The course is designed for Mountain Leaders, but is open to anyone and assumes no prior knowledge. The next one is on Friday 22 May 2026, and there are places available for booking now. Visit Mike's website for details - and have a look at the wide range of other events that he organises.
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 Manx Shearwater (Steve Stansfield) While we shiver in shorter days, Manx Shearwaters that left their nest burrows on Ynys Enlli/Bardsey just 10 weeks ago are rafting off the South American coast. The Bird Observatory reports one breeding bird made its final voyage this autumn, found dead on the shoreline at Punta del Este, Uruguay, an upmarket holiday resort nicknamed the ‘Monaco of the South’. The shearwater’s uniquely-numbered leg ring enabled the finder to trace it to the North Wales island, where it had been ringed as an adult in May 1990. It easily racked up half a million miles on its 71 migrations, probably double that since Manxies make the spring journey in a loop via the east coast of North America. Add feeding trips from Bardsey and in the South Atlantic and I wouldn’t be surprised if FC48044 (as its ring was inscribed) had flown 1.5 million miles – all by a bird that weighs the same as three large bananas. Several Manx Shearwaters ringed on Bardsey have lived more than 40 years after ringing, with the oldest still alive after almost 51 years!
Last week’s brief blast of wintry weather pushed winter ducks to North Wales in search of ice-free waters. Wetlands on Anglesey held good numbers of Goldeneye for November, with Scaup and Pochard at several sites too. The counts would have barely been worth a remark 30 years ago, but all three species have declined in Wales as the warming climate has reduced their migratory journeys from the frozen east. The latest Wetland Bird Survey results, gathered by hundreds of volunteers every month, show that Goldeneye and Pochard counts in Wales are at their lowest since monitoring began in the late 1960s. Five Slavonian Grebes and three Great Northern Divers are in Beddmanarch Bay with a Red-necked Grebe nearby in Holyhead harbour. A Hooded Crow probes for food at Llandudno’s West Shore and Water Pipits are at RSPB Cors Ddyga and Conwy reserves. A Shorelark remains on the Great Orme, a Black Redstart was at Kinmel Bay and five Snow Buntings at Gronant last week may well be the same seen at RSPB Point of Ayr on Monday.  Whooper Swan (Tony Pope)  As ‘flockdown’ rules require keepers of birds to introduce strict biosecurity measures in Wales, increased deaths of wild birds have raised fears that it could be the worst winter yet for bird flu victims in Europe. The latest assessment from Defra reports that Mute Swans and, increasingly, Whooper Swans are particularly affected. It shows multiple outbreaks around Liverpool Bay since the start of October, while across mainland Europe, thousands of Cranes have died on their migration route between Scandinavia and Spain. Ornithologists in Iceland report that the population of Gyr Falcon, the largest falcon in the World, have fallen from 2000 to around 500, while the British Antarctic Survey found that numbers of female Southern Elephant Seals breeding on South Georgia fell 47% during 2022-24.
The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) has urged birdwatchers to report all dead and sick birds of any species to Defra (online or 03459 335577) and to BirdTrack online or via the free app. Defra will decide whether to collect the dead birds and test them for the disease. It has also reminded people not to touch dead or sick birds, and to keep dogs on leads to prevent the further spread of disease. Storm Claudia’s deluge flooded parts of the Cefni Valley, attracting thousands of ducks and waders to RSPB Cors Ddyga, including Whooper Swans and a flock of Pink-footed Geese. A Water Pipit, Cattle Egrets, Great White Egret and Scaup were also on the reserve at the weekend, with another Scaup in Foryd Bay. Red-necked Grebes, now scarce visitors to Wales, were in Holyhead harbour and off Llanfairfechan, perhaps seeking shelter from the storm. At least five Slavonian Grebes are in Beddmanarch Bay and another is off Morfa Harlech. A lone Shorelark continued its stay on the Great Orme, joined briefly by three Snow Buntings, with another at Abermenai Point, and two each at Gronant and Mynydd y Gwyddel at the end of Pen Llŷn. A Ring-necked Duck at Llyn Caer Euni is almost certainly a returning bird; this scarce visitor from North America has been on this small lake north of Bala – or on Llyn Tegid or Llyn Brenig – each winter since 2020. A Black Redstart was at Mynydd Bodafon, a Sandwich Tern in Pwllheli harbour and a Firecrest in a Bangor garden last week, and a Hoopoe was reported on Parys Mountain.  Shore Lark (Steve Culley)  Numbers of Shore Larks recorded in Wales by decade, accepted by Welsh Birds Rarities Committee up to 2025. The black-and-yellow stripes of a Shore Lark were a welcome surprise on the Great Orme at the weekend. It is the only lark to have colonised Arctic tundra and alpine habitats – I have seen them in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco and grasslands in North America, where the population has fallen by 70% since the mid-1960s. In much of the world, it’s known as Horned Lark because of two feathery ‘horns’ that grow on its head during the breeding season.
Shore Larks in Britain occur in winter or on migration, moving southwest from Norway and Finland, but it’s becoming far rarer. Numbers breeding in northeast Europe have fallen sharply since the mid-20th century, a combination of overgrazing of lichen by Reindeer herds and increasingly climate change, which may also reduce their need to move as far south in winter. In Finland, the population has fallen from 10,000 pairs in the 1950s to as few as 10 pairs today, a reduction of 99.9%. The trend is reflected in numbers seen in Wales, where it is more than 25 years since anyone saw more than three together; a count of 35 at Point of Ayr in 1999 now seems unreal. Sadly, with the current trend, the chances of the next generation seeing many Shore Larks in Wales seems slim. Other recent sightings include a Lesser Yellowlegs on Anglesey’s Inland Sea, where a late Sandwich Tern was seen on Monday, a Black-necked Grebe in nearby Beddmanarch Bay and Long-tailed Duck on Llyn Traffwll. A couple of Snow Buntings are in dunes at Gronant, a Lapland Bunting was at Cemlyn at the weekend and at least two Black-throated Divers were off Llanddulas. Bull Bay’s Hoopoe and the Dee estuary’s Glossy Ibis were reported again, having passed unnoticed for a couple of weeks. The annual conference of Cofnod, the environmental records centre for North Wales, held in Bangor last week, celebrated the organisation’s 20th anniversary. The diversity of wildlife recording supported by Cofnod was illustrated by a range of talks that included bird-ringing, Anglesey plants and sea slugs in the Menai Strait. Did you know that 3% of the World’s bryophytes (mosses and liverworts) have been recorded in Eryri, some on just a single rock that are just a slipped walking boot away from being wiped out? Cofnod holds almost eight million wildlife records, of which over half are birds, with more records added every single day. Their monthly e-newsletter is an excellent way to keep in touch with nature matters across the region. Finally, a post-script to last week’s story about Woodpigeon migration: Saturday proved to be the peak day for movement this autumn. Matt Hobbs (reporting on BlueSky) recorded 242,160 birds over Goldcliff Point on the Severn estuary, the second highest count ever recorded in Wales (and quite possibly Britain). The largest count ever was on 4 November 2022 when more than 287,000 flew over Portskewett, a few miles to the east.  Woodpigeon (Annie Haycock) As I stepped into Sunday morning’s sunshine, a flock of several hundred Woodpigeons flew overhead, following the coast. It’s not something I see frequently, unlike on the South Wales coast where huge movements are recorded in late autumn. One day last October, for example, more than 230,000 passed a single watchpoint near the Severn Bridge. Such movements through the English Midlands were noted by amateur ornithologists prior to the First World War, but the scale seems to have increased in recent years.
No-one knows for certain from where these Woodpigeons originate - or where they are heading. They may be Scandinavian birds heading for the Cork Oak forests of Iberia, as there is good evidence of migration from ringed birds but perhaps their visits through southern Britain are so rapid that no rings are recovered. Just another of nature’s mysteries we have yet to unravel. I imagine the sight of huge Woodpigeon flocks must be akin to the millions of Passenger Pigeons across the Great Plains of North America in the early 19th century, so huge they reportedly took several days to pass. A reminder that abundance is no guarantee of a species’ survival. The last wild Passenger Pigeon was shot in Ohio in 1900, and 14 years later, the death of the last captive bird in Cincinnati Zoo saw the species’ global extinction. Clear, slightly breezy, conditions triggered the pigeon movement and encouraged late Swallows to feed in eastern Anglesey. Summer migrant Sandwich and Arctic Terns were seen at Black Rock Sands and Aber Ogwen respectively. Scarce visitors include a couple of Slavonian Grebes and Glossy Ibis in Beddmanarch Bay, Long-tailed Duck on Shotwick Lake, and Firecrests on the Great Orme, at Penmon and Bethesda. Richard’s Pipit and Snow Bunting were seen on Bardsey as Bird Observatory wardens pack up for the season. Snow Buntings were also on the Great Orme and Point Lynas last week.  Greenland White-fronted Geese (Mark Eaton) With the autumn pulse of migration over, much of what is seen in North Wales over coming months will depend on weather conditions across northern Europe. A brief stop at Llyn Trawsfynydd en route to the Welsh Ornithological Society (WOS) annual conference was my first encounter this winter with large numbers of Fieldfares, while a couple of Scaup fed on the reservoir among similar but smaller Tufted Ducks. Both signs of the year turning. Scarce visitors elsewhere included Curlew Sandpiper and Spotted Redshank at RSPB Conwy, a Spoonbill up the Conwy estuary and Snow Bunting on the Great Orme. Autumn’s Yellow-browed Warbler passage dribbled to an end with singles near Pwllheli and, unusually, inland at Betws-y-coed. Evidence of proper winter came with the first half dozen Purple Sandpipers at Rhos Point, back from a summer in western Greenland. From the same area came small groups of White-fronted Geese flying past Pen Llŷn and Bardsey, heading for the Dyfi estuary or the Irish Republic. A paper in the journal British Birds reports the global population of Greenland White-fronted Geese has fallen 58% in 25 years, with repeated spring snowfall the most plausible explanation of breeding failure. The problem in their northern breeding areas is localised cooling, a vivid example of the challenge posed to migratory birds of the differential chaos of a changing climate. Weekend storms brought a handful of Pomarine Skuas and Little Gulls to our coasts, Leach’s Petrel past Rhos Point and Sooty Shearwaters off Bardsey, Porth Ysgaden and the Great Orme. While many hundreds of Great and Cory’s Shearwaters passed Pembrokeshire, one of each past Tonfanau were the sole reports in North Wales. Late Sandwich and Arctic Terns were seen from watchpoints around Anglesey with a Common Tern off Rhos Point; a Long-tailed Duck is on Shotwick Lake. The weekend’s excellent WOS Conference encouraged delegates to use their skills to help monitor birds in Wales and celebrated the efforts of many who do, including several from North Wales. Geoff Gibbs from Llanfairfechan was given the coveted Lifetime Achievement Award; Dave Parry from Denbighshire won a week at Bardsey Bird Observatory for his image of a Cuckoo chick on Mynydd Hiraethog being fed by a Meadow Pipit; Coleg Cambria student, Daniel Gorton from Rhyl, won the Young Photographer of the Year for his shot of a Snow Bunting, which featured in BirdNotes at the start of the year. Bangor University’s Fraser Masterston won the Derek Moore Student Award for his post-graduate study of Shags and Guillemots on Puffin Island.
Both photos, and 11 others from across Wales, feature in the 2026 Welsh Ornithological Society calendar. If there are any copies left, you can have these prize-winning images on your own wall for a year - click here to order one.  Little Bunting (Steve Stansfield) Bardsey Bird Observatory staff are kept busy in October with daily census and ringing effort. Large numbers of birds migrating over the island last week included over 1000 Chaffinches counted on one day. A recent highlight was Little Bunting, a visitor from northeast Europe that should have been well on its way to winter in southern China. Of the 39 accepted Welsh records, 16 were from Bardsey.
But rarity is a matter of perspective. Bardsey’s 17th Little Bunting makes it far more common than the island’s fourth Cetti’s Warbler that also landed last week. The explosive call of Cetti’s Warbler is familiar to birders visiting wetlands on the coastal fringes of North Wales, although it is a hard bird to see. The chestnut-coloured bush-warbler is unique in Europe, the other three members of the family all live in south or east Asia. Although the first Welsh record was also on Bardsey, in October 1973, since Cetti’s Warblers don’t migrate, it took more than 25 years for the breeding population to spread from Kent to Anglesey, one wetland at a time. It’s a bird taking advantage of habitat restoration and the warming climate; on holiday in Brittany, I noticed they are now common away from water. Will that be the case here in a few decades? Other highlights on Ynys Enlli/Bardsey were Siberian Chiffchaff, Lapland Bunting and several Yellow-browed Warblers, with others across the water near Uwchmynydd and at Holyhead’s Breakwater Country Park. Bird of the week on Anglesey was a showy White-rumped Sandpiper at Malltraeth Cob, while a Hoopoe was seen at Llanfachraeth and a late Arctic Tern at Porth Cwyfan. On the mainland, a Dartford Warbler reported at Sealand on Monday is the first Flintshire record for decades; a Glossy Ibis fed in fields near Aber Ogwen and a possible Central Asian Lesser Whitethroat foraged in bushes at Porth Meudwy. Finally, I was honoured to be awarded the British Trust for Ornithology’s Dilys Breese Medal at a ceremony in London last week for, among other things, communicating the world of birds and the work of the BTO, including through the Daily Post BirdNotes column over the last 17 years. More information in this post.  Last week (16 October 2025), I spent a wonderful evening in London at the British Trust for Ornithology’s Awards evening, held at the Society of Wildlife Artists’ annual “Natural Eye” exhibition at the Mall Galleries. The evening celebrates the fabulous work of painters, sculptors and illustrators from all over Britain and the efforts of ornithologists and enthusiasts in support of birds and the BTO. The BTO makes up to six awards each year: Medals for communicators, contributions to the Trust’s scientific work and for outstanding commitment to the BTO, and three awards in conjunction with the Marsh Charitable Trust for Ornithology, Local Ornithology and Young Ornithologist. I was deeply honoured to be awarded the Dilys Breese Medal “for outstanding communication of BTO activities” by the BTO Chair, Professor Zoe Davis. Dily Breese was a former Vice President and Hon. Secretary of the BTO, and a renowned natural history producer. She was born and brought up in Wales, joining the BBC in the mid-1950s and working in its famous Natural History Unit from 1970. Below are my words of acceptance, but before that, I’d like to pay tribute to all the winners last week:
“I am truly staggered and humbled to receive this Award, especially given the achievements of previous recipients. Getting the email from Juliet [Vickery, the BTO’s Chief Executive] a few weeks ago, while I was out birding on Anglesey, is surely the birding equivalent of a letter from Buckingham Palace.
All I do is bang on about birds, because it's second nature. We all, in some way, share our love of birds. We are surrounded today by the work of amazing artists who use their talents to convey the wonders of nature; I don’t have any such artistic aptitude, but it seems I can do words. I only met Dilys Breese once, at a BTO Conference at Swanwick in the early 1990s. I was there, working with Steve Dudley then of the BTO, to explore ways that the RSPB could collaborate with the BTO to enable more young people to get involved with the Trust’s surveys and studies. I remember her as warm, encouraging and happy to chat about our shared love of birds and the hiraeth, as Dilys was also an ex-pat who missed Wales. I’m very proud to be a member of the BTO, and am especially pleased to see how BTO Youth has developed in recent years, perhaps growing from the seed sown by Steve and me all those years ago. And I’d like to pay tribute to the leadership role that the BTO plays, from Juliet in particular, in encouraging diverse participation from a wider range of people in its work. So, thank you BTO for this Award. And thank you to the various mentors who have shaped my life in nature conservation, and especially Susanne who puts up with me disappearing to wild places at all hours of the early morning or spending evenings in front of the laptop. I'll carry on doing my bit, in my own small way, to give back to birds just a fraction of the life they have given me. Diolch yn fawr iawn.”  One of two Firecrests on the Great Orme today (Marc Hughes) In Holyhead’s Breakwater Country Park last week, I scoured the trees and bushes for migrants. Realistic enough not to expect a lost waif from North America, although Veery, Mourning Dove and Northern Parula are all exotic names to feature from other parts of western Britain and Ireland recently; I hoped for a Yellow-browed Warbler or Firecrest fresh from a North Sea crossing. A copse full of squeaking calls from Goldcrests renewed my flagging hopes: five-gramme balls of fizzing energy are worthy of a second look in their own right.
Head on, their tiny eyes are just a centimetre apart and their black “moustache”, formed by a dark line that runs from the base of the bill, give them a look of grumpiness. Anthropomorphism aside, these Goldcrests may have arrived from Scandinavia earlier that day and are in search of tiny insects in the Sycamores and brambles. If they can’t replace body fat and protein lost during their migratory exertion, they may not survive the night. Weighing less than 20 pence barely causes the tiniest twigs to bend. I found no scarce visitors, although a Firecrest was at nearby Soldier’s Point and others were at Groeslon, Caerhun and Porth Eilian last week, with two on the Great Orme on Monday. Also evident everywhere on Anglesey were Skylarks in groups of up to 30, passing overhead to the southwest. Some were beyond my eyesight, their migration given away only by dry, rolling contact calls to keep the group on track. Bardsey Bird Observatory saw the pick of the rarity action, with Radde’s Warbler, Red-breasted Flycatcher and Siberian Lesser Whitethroat arriving from the east into their ringing nets. Lapland and Snow Buntings, Ring Ouzels, Fieldfares and Redwings were on the Great Orme on Monday after the airflow turned to the east. North Wales Wildlife Trust confirmed last week that 2400 pairs of Sandwich Tern fledged more than 1900 chicks at Cemlyn in the summer. The site had accounted for 60% of all the Sandwich Terns breeding around the Irish Sea in 2024, after the species was hit badly by bird flu. Cemlyn also held 300 pairs of Arctic and Common Terns, two pairs of Roseate Terns and two pairs of Mediterranean Gull. You can catch up on the season's news from Chris Wynne and Nick Richards in this recording.  Leach's Petrel (Steve Culley) Weekend storms brought passage seabirds to North Wales, with hardy birders at storm-lashed watchpoints to see skuas, shearwaters and petrels perfectly at home in these conditions. Sabine’s Gulls were seen from several locations, adding to the record year for sightings of this high-Arctic gull. Leach’s Petrels, pushed into the mouth of the Mersey, made their way west after the storm passed, seen from Rhos Point, Anglesey and Bardsey, with several Long-tailed Skuas and 22 Grey Phalaropes in one day among the suite of seabirds recorded by Bird Observatory staff.
A Wryneck was a great find on the Great Orme’s west side on Monday and a Turtle Dove was photographed in Cemaes Bay. Both species were also on Bardsey last week. A Hoopoe landed in a birders’ garden at Burwen, near Amlwch, on Monday, presumably one reported at Bull Bay recently. Two Slavonian Grebes are off Aber Ogwen, where a Glossy Ibis stalked among the waders and gulls; another Glossy Ibis was behind Porthmadog football club on Monday. As Storm Amy arrived from the west, a few Redwings progressed from the east, crossing the North Sea. Step outside on a clear night this week and you should hear the high-pitched ‘tseep’ of the thrush vanguard using the full moon to head southwest. From the same direction, the first Yellow-browed Warblers were at Holyhead and Bardsey last week and Whooper Swans have crossed our shoreline from Iceland in recent days too. The British Trust for Ornithology has announced that it will organise a Bird Atlas over four years from autumn 2027. It will be the fourth Britain & Ireland atlas of breeding birds and the third undertaken in winter, a 20-year stocktake of birds in every 10-kilometre square. I love ‘atlasing’ as it takes me into places I might never visit, looking and listening for all the birds in villages and towns, woodland and cropped land, coast and mountain. There is much to organise and success will need involvement from everyone able to identify birds. For the first time, the BTO will partner with the Welsh Ornithological Society to help recruit and train volunteers. |
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