Enjoy the dawn chorus, it’ll soon be over

Wood Warbler (Bob Garrett)

With most breeding summer migrants back in North Wales, many people enjoyed listening to their songs on Sunday, International Dawn Chorus Day, alongside our resident birds. If you missed it, any calm morning in the next two weeks should be suitable, providing you’re in good habitat from 5am – deciduous woodland and wetlands offer the best experiences. For me, the rapid, “shivering” trill of a Wood Warbler is synonymous with Welsh woodlands, so my spring of anticipation is over as I began monitoring in my Conwy Valley study area. Last year I recorded almost 130 of this summer visitor.

Always the last to get here, the first Spotted Flycatchers should arrive this week. An early Hobby was at Llanfair DC on Monday, and I'd love to imagine it's the one I watched on Friday power determinedly north over the Spanish plains, just a few metres above the ground, ignoring the range of larks and swallows as potential breakfast as it ate up the miles. A satellite-tagged Merlin, Europe’s other small falcon, that wintered around Ynys Enlli/Bardsey, returned to northeast Iceland last week, where it will hopefully nest.

Northern latitudes are the destination of other migrants passing through North Wales in early May. A group of 44 Whimbrels at Morfa Aber on Sunday will be heading to Iceland, as might a large, pale Redpoll seen on the Great Orme. An unusually large flock of 460 Bar-tailed Godwits paused at RSPB Point of Ayr last week but still have at least 3500km before getting to their breeding areas in the Siberian tundra. Wood Sandpipers at RSPB Conwy and Cors Ddyga may not be going quite so far, but will at least get to Scandinavia, as may up to 20 Dotterels in the Carneddau. Other scarce sightings last week include two Cranes up the Conwy Valley, a Hoopoe singing on Ynys Enlli and Garganey at Talacre.