House Sparrow leads the pack in garden birdwatch

House Sparrow (Ben Andrew, rspb-images.com)

The RSPB is urging participants in last weekend’s Big Garden Birdwatch to submit their results. Records of 6½ million birds have already been submitted, with Denbighshire and Flintshire neck-a-neck for participants in North Wales. From the numbers so far, House Sparrow is the most abundant species in the region but Blue Tit has put in a strong performance in many areas.

As usual in January, most scarce visitors are long-stayers: Lesser Yellowlegs on the Clwyd estuary, Black Redstart at Kinmel Bay, Snow Buntings and Water Pipit at Gronant. A Bufflehead was refound in Foryd Bay, three Surf Scoters showed from Old Colwyn promenade on Sunday and a Red-necked Grebe in Beddmanarch Bay is presumably one seen earlier in the winter in Holyhead harbour. A ‘tristis’ Siberian Chiffchaff at Amlwch and Yellow-browed Warbler at Morfa Madryn may have similar origins, while a Green-winged Teal at the latter site crossed the Atlantic but could be the same bird at the Llanfairfechan nature reserve last winter. Huge flocks of Pink-footed Geese grazed in fields east of Abergele at the weekend.

The latest in a raft of reports from Natural Resources Wales assesses the status of the nation’s special wildlife. Of 61 habitats reviewed, 59 are in unfavourable condition; of these, an astonishing 48 are in the worst situation – formally described as “Unfavourable bad” – including all those that make up the country’s wetlands, woodlands, grasslands and heathland. Pollution and agricultural-related practices were assessed to be the most significant pressures. With just four years to meet its global nature commitments, it is sober reading for whoever sits in Welsh Government from May.

A Seabird Conservation Strategy, published last week by Welsh Government, identifies the priorities to help Wales’ marine birds, but lacks dedicated funding to implement them, says RSPB Cymru.