Dog-owners urged to help protect breeding birds

Chough (benporterwildlife.co.uk)

Into the cold, brisk wind Swallows and Sand Martins flew over Holyhead Mountain on Sunday and quickly headed out to sea. Willow Warblers hovered in gaps among gorse bushes, selecting tiny insects with their tweezer bills, too hungry to sing after a long flight. I missed the Black Redstart at South Stack, but enjoyed watching aerobatic Choughs collect wool and dry grass to line nests in the sea-caves. Territory occupation and nesting success of the red-billed crow has fallen in North and Mid Wales, so every nest counts.

It was good to see dog owners on The Range following the law on open access land, which requires the animals to be on a lead no more than two metres long between 1 March and 31 July to protect ground-nesting birds (and throughout the year around livestock). The Skylarks singing in exultation – a collective noun in use for at least 700 years - above the heath will have been grateful too. Natural Resources Wales and RSPB Cymru issued a reminder about dogs and nesting birds and charity Curlew Action has produced a range of bilingual signs for use where birds are nesting.

Summer migrants reported elsewhere in the last week include Ring Ouzels at Aber Falls and the Great Orme, Little Ringed Plovers on Llyn Trawsfynydd, an early Whinchat on Minera Mountain and the first Pied Flycatcher of spring beside the Dyfi estuary at RSPB Ynys-hir.

A Kumlien’s Gull has been sporadic at Aber Ogwen, where Slavonian and Black-necked Grebe fed in the Menai Strait. A Lapland Bunting has associated with Golden Plovers at RSPB Cors Ddyga all week; at least 1000 of the plovers left via Cemlyn on Sunday, heading for Iceland, or perhaps even beyond to western Greenland. Other winter visitors yet to depart include Twite at Flint Castle and a Long-tailed Duck on the Inland Sea. A couple of Egyptian Geese, not a native but which breed widely in England and nested in mid Wales in 2023, are at Burwen, west of Amlwch.