Yellow Browed and a Red Squirrel at Wylfa

Tony  found a Yellow browed Warbler yesterday morning at Wylfa Head Car Park. I popped over to have a look for it this morning and although I had no joy with the Warbler I had my first Red Squirrel in the "Greater Cemaes" area. I also had a Common Sand flying over calling and 3 Jays. Last Sunday on the 18th I had a late-ish Sand Martin at Llanfachraeth by the Alaw Estuary and yesterday I had 15 Chough in Cemaes Bay.

RSPB Conwy sightings board

Bird of the week was the second pectoral sandpiper of the Autumn, found and identified by call (but not seen) by Mike Duckham on Monday (12th) evening. It was seen on Tuesday morning, but not again. Photo by Marc Hughes from Twitter (@marcbuzzard).

Thursday (15th) proved a good day for waders, with little stint, curlew sandpiper, grey plover, knot, greenshank, common sandpiper and 40 dunlins. Several of these remained to the weekend, with two bar-tailed godwits on Saturday (17th).

Our long-staying great white egret was joined by a second bird on Wednesday, so perhaps we've had two for a while, just not together? A spoonbill flew over the reserve on Wednesday (14th) and Thursday (15th), but headed upriver and wasn't seen to land. The flush of small fish into the estuary, featured in last week's blog, brought four Sandwich terns on Tuesday (13th) and 20 on Thursday (15th), plus 44 cormorants, a high count for the south side of the bridge. A guillemot was another unusual visitor to the estuary on Thursday, perhaps lost in the sea fog that enveloped the coast that day. Our long-staying garganey was seen on Wednesday (14th) and Saturday (17th), with a pintail and two choughs also recorded on Wednesday.

For more of this week's sightings at the reserve, visit the blog.

Wryneck - more photos

Showing incredibly well this evening!

Wryneck at Cemlyn

Early seawater from Octel brought a juvenile Long-tailed Skua and three Arctic Skuas.  Whimbrel at Traeth Dulas, then learnt of the Wryneck at Cemlyn.  Great find by Alan Davies.  Anglesey tick for me - last one I had in North Wales was the Conwy RSPB bird on the 03/10/98 - best part of 18 years ago!!

After a short wait the bird showed well and was seen by at 10+ individuals by mid-morning.

Birdguides has another Wryneck at Morfa Bychan this afternoon.

RSPB Conwy sightings board

The long-staying garganey and great white egret remain here, although the latter seems to spend more time in the estuary than on the lagoons now. A male common scoter has frequented the Deep Lagoon since Tuesday (6th), a scarce but annual visitor here. A wheatear was a nice sight on the Paddocks on Wednesday (7th), while this week's waders include spotted redshank and curlew sandpiper (both until 4th only), greenshank, ruff, green sandpiper, knot, whimbrel, green and common sandpiper, and ringed plover. 20 goosanders on the estuary was a high count for the site, while a yellow-legged gull on Monday (5th) was a good find, as was a count of 27 Sandwich terns on Saturday (3rd). Six barnacle geese, of unknown origin, were on the lagoons on Wednesday (7th).

For more details, including what lies behind a record site count of little egrets, take a look at the reserve blog. Thanks to Dave Williams for the excellent photo.

Lesser Yellowlegs update

There were plenty of waders on the Alaw Estuary today at the Llanfacraeth end although I didn't manage to connect with the Yellow-legs despite myself being there from 6.30-7.30 am 12.30 - 2.30 at high tide and again this evening from 6.30 - 7.30. The light was best this evening (less so earlier in the day). I did have a Curlew Sand, Ruff, 3 Green Sands and a calling fly-over Wood Sand this evening, and 9 Greenshanks early afternoon. The Lesser Yellowlegs was last reported at 11.15 am.

Lesser Yellow-legs at the Alaw Estuary (plus bits and bobs).

Ken found a Lesser Yellowlegs at the Llanfachraeth end of the Alaw Estuary last night. I went down there early-doors today but unfortunately I couldn't see it. There were 8 Greenshanks, 1 Green Sandpiper, 5 Redshanks, c.60 dunlin, a male Kingfisher and a fly-over Tree Pipit. There was nobody else around so I'm sure it's still around somewhere (hopefully). Other recent records included a Green Sandpiper over my house in Cemaes on the 29th Aug and a Kingfisher was along the river in Cemaes on the 2nd Sept.

RSPB Conwy sightings board

Highlight of the Autumn so far was a pectoral sandpiper, the fifth reserve record but the first since 2008. A nice find on Wednesday (31st) by visitors on holiday from Scotland, lots of people had the opportunity to watch it feeding close to Tal-y-fan Hide before it disappeared early that same evening. The same patch of mud has hosted a curlew sandpiper since Tuesday (and still present today, Friday), and a garganey is also still here, having been an almost constant feature here for the last couple of weeks. A juvenile spotted redshank was another good find on Thursday 25th, and has spent much of its time feeding in the mud close to Tal-y-fan Hide, and it too is still present today.

For more of this week's sightings, read the RSPB Conwy blog.