 Grey Phalarope (Steve Culley) Grey Phalaropes are chunky little waders that breed in the high Arctic and pass our coastlines in autumn, usually after strong gales. They are well-named for their winter plumage in British English and Welsh (Llydandroed Llwyd), but known as Red Phalaropes in North American English, which better describes their breeding season look, especially of females which are more colourful than the male. That’s because males incubate the eggs alone and have to blend in with their tundra nest sites.
Last year saw the highest Grey Phalarope total in Wales since 1960 and, while this autumn has been fairly standard by comparison, including one past Rhyl on Sunday, a bird on Shotwick Lake provided an opportunity to see this smart bird at close quarters, thanks to sailing club members who welcomed birders through the gates. The bird pecked insects off the water’s surface and occasionally conducted a ‘spin’, creating a vortex to pulls invertebrates and tiny crustaceans up the water column. A few birders even got to hear it, an infrequent experience away from their breeding areas. It’s really not what I expected! Most waders whistle or have a piping call, but Grey Phalarope sounds like the contact call of a warbler such as a Chiffchaff. Alex Jones recorded the Shotwick bird – have a listen and see if you would have identified it. Strong winds also brought Sabine’s Gulls to the Great Orme and Bull Bay, and a Black Tern to Rhos Point. A few Yellow-browed Warblers were seen at the weekend, singles at Bala (an unusual inland record) and Aberlleiniog, and several on Ynys Enlli/Bardsey where a Red-breasted Flycatcher was ringed last week. A Surf Scoter was on the sea off Old Colwyn, the first Lapland Bunting of autumn flew over the Great Orme, Cattle Egrets were at Cefni reservoir and RSPB Conwy, and a Black Redstart in Little Orme’s upper quarry. Whooper Swans from Iceland dropped into several sites, including Cemlyn and Foryd.
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 Chough (benporterwildlife.co.uk) October’s sunny start saw me on the Great Orme, where more than 50 Choughs probe for plentiful invertebrates in Parc Farm’s fields. The record count of the red-billed crows on the headland shows the National Trust’s grazing regime is clearly to their liking. Patient observation enabled us to note coloured leg-rings on more than a dozen, which showed that as well as multiple generations of birds that hatched on the Orme, others originated up to 50 miles away, west and east.
The Cross & Stratford Chough Project has collected data on Choughs in North and Mid Wales for more than 30 years, relying on birdwatchers’ and public reports of colour-ringed birds. Their study highlights the importance of grassland management close to nest sites and, in autumn and winter, at sites such as the Great Orme where gatherings are an important part of their social learning. Bird-ringing, licensed by the British Trust for Ornithology and conducted by dedicated and highly-trained volunteers, plays a valuable role in our understanding of bird populations and movements. Last week came news of a Woodcock ringed near Newborough in January 2025 that was shot by a hunter in Russia, between Perm and Yekaterinburg, a few weeks ago. It had probably already started its autumn migration and, although still 1200 km east of Moscow, may have bred much farther east. It is one of the most easterly British-ringed Woodcocks ever reported in autumn, and a reminder that any shot in Britain since the hunting season opened last Thursday are almost certainly from our declining breeding population. The Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust recommends not shooting Woodcock until after 1 December. Weekend sightings included Grey Phalarope on Shotwick lake, Dotterel in the Rhinogydd, and Black Terns in the Menai Strait off Llanfairfechan and Fort Belan. Yellow-browed Warblers were on Bardsey, Great Orme, Porth Meudwy and Flint Castle, where 11 Curlew Sandpipers fed on the rising tide. Turtle Doves were in a Holyhead garden and reported near Penmon, four Spoonbills are on the Foryd and two off Flint Castle, and a Surf Scoter returned to the coast off Old Colwyn. A Spotted Sandpiper proved elusive last week on Bardsey’s rocky coast.  Rosy Starling (Steve Culley) Residents of Moelfre may have wondered why birdwatchers were paying close attention to the village’s tv aerials and power cables at the weekend. The answer lay in a flock of Starlings that contained a visitor from distant lands: a young Rosy Starling that has yet to gain the pink-and-black plumage from which it derives its English name. This first-winter bird, with pale underparts and dark wings, stands out among its sparkly brethren, and looked at home feeding by the lifeboat station, even though it likely hatched no closer than Ukraine.
Heading home from Moelfre on Saturday, I called in at Glan-y-Môr Elias nature reserve near Llanfairfechan to catch the high-tide roost, just as a Baird’s Sandpiper was found. This high-Arctic breeder should be on its way from northern Canada to winter in Chile and Argentina, and is one of around 20 found in Britain & Ireland in recent weeks. It fed with Ringed Plovers and Dunlins before flying into the Menai Strait as the tide dropped. Other scarce visitors include the first Yellow-browed Warbler of autumn at Uwchymyndd, Red-breasted Flycatcher on Ynys Enlli/Bardsey and a Hoopoe found by a farmer near Llandudno last week. A Pectoral Sandpiper was on the Clwyd estuary and more than 200 Pale-bellied Brent Geese are on the Foryd near Caernarfon. Hard work by Denbighshire council wardens and volunteers is evident in the report on the Little Terns at Gronant, shared by North Wales Little Tern Group. They found at least 140 nests in the colony, which fledged at least 153 young, amazing considering losses from two major high tides, sandblow from strong onshore winds and a significant predation event early in the season that forced many pairs to lay replacement eggs. Ringed Plovers and Oystercatchers also nested successfully inside the protective fences on the beach.  Wryneck (Nick Hopkins) Walking the coast path at Pen Cilan, south of Aberdaron in Sunday’s sunshine, I scoured every bush and field for autumn migrants. Wheatear and White Wagtails pausing en route to the continent were the best I could find, although Clouded Yellow and Painted Lady butterflies were doubtless heading in the same direction. The trill of Skylarks passing overhead suggested they too were on the move. It’s September days like this that birdwatchers hope to find something unexpected, such as a Wryneck found at RSPB South Stack last week, a woodpecker with intricate barred plumage that helps to camouflage it in scrubby habitats. More surprising was a North American Red-eyed Vireo that landed in a ringers’ net at Kenfig in South Wales at the weekend.
For the second consecutive week, blustery winds brought Leach’s Petrels to Liverpool Bay. Birders along the North Wales coast totted up almost 150 in total, some of these diminutive seabirds fluttering close to shore over the breakers at Pensarn, while at the mouth of the Dee estuary, seawatchers counted 131 from Hilbre Island on Sunday alone. Numbers passing beyond the range of telescopes can only be guessed at. Other passage seabirds included Sooty Shearwaters, Pomarine Skuas, Black Terns and Little Gulls, with Sabine’s Gulls from Point Lynas and Ynys Enlli/Bardsey, where the island’s Bird Observatory recorded the rarest bird of the weekend, a Laughing Gull. The first Redwings of autumn were reported over Gwytherin and a Honey-buzzard over Gronant dunes. Hen Harriers had a successful year on RSPB Cymru nature reserves, with 17 chicks fledging from five nests at its Lake Vyrnwy reserve alone, and another seven youngsters from nests at two other sites, including one in the Migneint area of North Wales. Including other territorial pairs, wardens at Lake Vyrnwy estimate that more than 20% of the Welsh breeding population hunted for voles and pipits over its moorland this year.  Leach's Petrel passing Bull Bay (Steve Culley) Bat-like as they fluttered into the teeth of a storm, Leach’s Petrels that passed the coast last week are truly marine animals. For a few hours on Tuesday and Wednesday, a northwestly wind pushed these little seabirds close to shore as they left Liverpool Bay: the weight of just five £1 coins with the wingspan of a Mistle Thrush. Around 65 Leach's Petrels were reported between Point of Ayr and north Anglesey, the majority from Rhos Point where 47 flew west in three hours. They are heading south to tropical waters in the South Atlantic for winter. Their tiny feet won’t touch the ground until they reach a breeding colony next May.
Leach’s Petrels are, globally, in trouble. Vulnerable to extinction, those we watched last week come from Iceland, Norway or Scotland, where they nest in burrows on a handful of islands. Alarmingly, numbers at one of the largest east Atlantic colonies, on St Kilda in the Outer Hebrides, declined by 68% in 20 years. More than a million pairs have gone from the world’s largest colony in Newfoundland. Predation, including by non-native rodents on their nesting islands, artificial lights, marine energy installations and climate change are contributing to the global collapse. Liverpool Bay has long been a place to see Leach’s Petrels in autumn, but for how much longer? Several Sabine’s Gulls were seen from Bardsey last week, a Mediterranean Shearwater passed Port Amlwch and a Turtle Dove was at Cemlyn. Falling water levels on Cefni Reservoir continue to attract passage waders, with six Spotted Redshanks and four Curlew Sandpipers among the highlights. Spotted Redshanks are scarce in North Wales, but others were at Cemlyn, Llyn Llygeirian, RSPB Conwy and Morfa Madryn in recent days; Curlew Sandpipers were seen at Trwyn Cemlyn, Malltraeth and Point of Ayr, and a Little Stint on the Clwyd estuary. Last autumn in Wales was the best for sightings of Grey Phalarope in 60 years; scarcer this year, one was close to the seawall at Malltraeth on Saturday.  Wood Sandpiper (Steve Culley) Low water levels in the region’s reservoirs are a worry for water companies, customers and anglers, but the muddy edges have attracted waders migrating overhead, to which they look – and perhaps smell – like a coastal estuary. Cefni Reservoir, in central Anglesey, is one such example, with birders reporting that it’s the most exposed mud they have seen in years. Among the avian visitors to the east end, near Bodffordd, in recent days have been three Little Stints and Green Sandpipers, a couple of Wood Sandpipers and Spotted Redshanks, and up to a dozen Ruffs and Black-tailed Godwits. Elsewhere on the island, Curlew Sandpipers are on the Cefni and Alaw estuaries, while on the Dee estuary a Little Stint and Purple Sandpiper were good finds among the high-tide roost.
Waders seen from Ynys Enlli/Bardsey included Little Stint, Curlew Sandpipers and an early Jack Snipe, with Mediterranean and Sooty Shearwaters, and a Black Tern among the seabirds. A handful of Arctic Skuas and a couple of Great Skuas have been seen from coastal watchpoints, but it will take a stronger northwesterly blow to bring more to our shores. September is the main departure month for summer migrants that have not already gone south. Sand Martin and Reed Warbler at Llyn Llywenan, Whitethroat at Aberdaron and Little Ringed Plover at Morfa Madryn, may be among the last of the year in North Wales. Meanwhile, around 40 Pale-bellied Brent Geese have arrived on the Foryd from their breeding sites in eastern Canada and the first Fieldfare was seen near Aberffraw at the weekend. Winter is coming! Great Crested Grebes have started to gather in Conwy Bay, where 57 Black Guillemots were counted on Sunday, and the first Red-throated Divers of autumn have arrived from the north, still in rich-tones of their breeding plumage.  Ortolan Bunting (Steve Stansfield) A small songbird, the subject of numerous court cases in France, made appearances across Britain and Ireland last week, with six of the 15 records in Wales, including one on Ynys Enlli/Bardsey. Ortolan Buntings, bound for West Africa after leaving their breeding areas in countries around the Baltic Sea, were grounded after being caught in a weather-system moving north across Britain. Ortolans have become genuinely rare in Wales in recent years, part of a trend that has seen far fewer recorded in Britain as its global population has fallen. Numbers recorded in Wales each decade are half what they were in the 1960s and until last week’s six, only three had been recorded since 2020.
The Ortolans' misfortune is to be considered a gourmet delicacy in France, where tens of thousands were trapped and killed each autumn in the southwest of the country. Hunting was on a scale that contributed to a decline in the European population. Arguments raged for decades after Ortolan Buntings should have been properly protected under EU law, with successive governments accused of ignoring the practice. Eventually it committed to enforcing a ban in 2017, but it is not known whether trapping continues illegally on a damaging scale. Bardsey Bird Observatory also recorded a Western Bonelli’s Warbler at the weekend and seabird passage on Monday that included Sabine’s Gull, several Grey Phalaropes and Sooty Shearwaters. Other highlights around North Wales include a Dotterel that proved popular with birdwatchers on the Great Orme for a week, Black Terns at Rhos Point and Cemlyn, and a Turtle Dove at Y Foryd. Falling reservoir levels attracted a range of passage waders to exposed mud, including Wood Sandpiper at Llyn Cefni and Trawsfynydd, with a Little Stint also at the latter. Curlew Sandpipers and Little Stints were also seen on several of the region’s estuaries. Strong passage of southbound Swallows was evident last week, with many tens of thousands making an in impressive sight and sound as they roosted each evening in reeds at Llyn Maelog near Rhosneigr.  Jay (Derek Moore) A walk in the Lledr valley on Sunday, accompanied by the calls of Swallows swooping low over the uncut meadows, feeding up before heading south until next April. The Rowans are bright with red berries and Sycamores hang heavy with ‘keys’, the seeds at the centre of the flat ‘wings’ that will carry them beyond the mother-tree. But noticeable by their absence were acorns. Last autumn’s oak mast was among the most significant in living memory, resulting in huge numbers of seedlings this spring as the production was more than the rodents and birds could eat.
Looking at many hundreds of oaks here, I couldn’t see a single acorn, and I predict that one consequence will be that Jays – the one member of the crow family in the UK that shuns black feathers – will move far and wide. This is most noticeable at the coast, where Jays gather in numbers reluctant to venture out to sea. The largest such movement ever recorded in Wales was in autumn 2021 when daily counts of up to 300 were made at single sites, mainly in the south although Holy Island and Pen Llŷn both saw groups of more than 70 Jays in the second week of October. For a deeper dive, I wrote this blog about the phenomenon for the Woodland Trust Nature’s Calendar project. Watch out for a repeat performance this autumn. Wader passage has picked up this week, with a count of 400 Ringed Plovers at Llandanwg, several Knots and 10 Greenshanks below Porthmadog Cob, Spotted Redshanks at RSPB Conwy and Malltraeth Cob, and Wood Sandpiper and five Ruff on Cefni Reservoir. This week started with a Spoonbill on Anglesey’s Inland Sea while last week saw Black Tern off Afon Wen near Criccieth, a Great Shearwater from the Holyhead ferry, seven Roseate Terns passed Bardsey and a Mediterranean Shearwater from Cemlyn. To the east, a Garganey was on Shotwick lake, eight Ruffs at Gronant and the first Pink-footed Geese are already back from Iceland on the Dee estuary.  Swallow (Dave Parry) Signs of autumn proliferate across the parched countryside, not least from drought-stressed trees already dropping leaves. Stepping on to Ynys Seiriol, usually human-free, we surprised many dozens of Woodpigeons that were used to gorging undisturbed on ripe and juicy elderberries. We were there to check the network of monitoring stations now that the island’s seabirds breeding have fledged. Relieved there was no evidence of rats having returned to the island, we could enjoy the groups of Cormorants, Kittiwakes and Shags that remain on the cliffs for a few more weeks, and the first Turnstones already back from Greenland.
Most Swifts have already departed; the last I saw over our village was during the recent partial eclipse, when gulls streamed overhead as though to roost. Dozens of Swallows gathered on power lines at Llyn Celanedd and others swept low over the heather on Mynydd Hiraethog, collecting insects that will power them towards South Africa. A Wood Sandpiper on the margins of Llyn Trawsfynydd, and Little Stints at Cemlyn and Morfa Madryn last week were already well into their journeys from northern Siberia to West Africa, as are Yellow Wagtails on the Foryd and Clwyd estuaries. Other birds move shorter distances: hundreds of Meadow Pipits, Linnets and Goldfinches over the Great Orme on Monday morning, for example. Feathered migrants are not the only creatures to fly. Painted Lady butterflies, previous generations of which hatched in the Sahara earlier this year, have been numerous, and warm air currents have also brought Clouded Yellow butterflies. A migrant Red-veined Darter dragonfly was found by staff at Bardsey Bird Observatory at the weekend, a Ruddy Darter at RSPB Conwy recently shows this species is expanding its range farther, as were Small Red-eyed Damselflies on Anglesey for the first time this year. But dragonflies need freshwater, so drought conditions can be bad news for our resident species.  Pectoral Sandpiper (Chris Jones) A Pectoral Sandpiper drew visitors to RSPB Conwy last week, one of only half a dozen of these waders in North Wales in the last decade. Although sometimes elusive behind vegetation, its early autumn arrival meant that it retained some breeding plumage from the high Arctic tundra in Siberia and North America.
The majority of Pectoral Sandpipers migrate through the US interior en route to the pampas of Argentina each autumn, even those that breed in northern Russia; a return journey of up to 30,000 km comparable to Arctic Tern in distance. Some ‘Pec Sands’ follow the Atlantic seaboard of North America, others the Pacific seaboard to Australasia, and it’s even possible – though unproven – that there is a regular flyway through Europe to Africa, meaning that individuals seen in Britain could come via Canada or Russia. Two Cory’s Shearwaters were over flat calm seas off Bardsey at the weekend; a seabird usually associated with a southwesterly gale. Other scarce sightings include a Little Stint at Cemlyn lagoon, Quails singing at Morfa Aber and Gwalchmai, and a Garganey reported in Bodnant Garden. Short-eared Owls were unseasonal at RSPB Cors Ddyga and Point of Ayr. Most auks have left their nesting cliffs, but recent boat trips around Ynys Seiriol/Puffin Island report up to 30 Puffins on the sea, another encouraging sign of ground-nesting seabirds responding to the removal of Brown Rats. Further to news of the expanding population of Black Guillemots in North Wales came confirmation of nesting near the mouth of Anglesey’s Dulas estuary, a site with no confirmed breeding for many years. As the seabird colony at Cemlyn quietens, North Wales Wildlife Trust reports that 1735 pairs of Sandwich Terns nested, alongside smaller numbers of Common and Arctic Terns, and four pairs of Mediterranean Gull. |
Bird notesA weekly update of bird sightings and news from North Wales, published in The Daily Post every Thursday. Archives
October 2026
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