Red Kite - North Anglesey

Gus Wilson had a Red Kite over the main road just east of Cemaes late morning yesterday (Thursday). Around lunchtime my mother-in-law Rachel Williams was walking between Hen Borth and Carmel head and had either the same or another bird circling with two buzzards.

Black Redstart at South Stack and Black Redshank ( well almost) at Malltraeth Cob

No sign today of the Avocet at Malltraeth Cob but a Spotted redshank moulting into its black breeding plumage was with c.35 Black tailed Godwits. Nearby as usual the Red Squirrels are showing well in Newborough Forest at the Llyn Parc Mawr car park, and Crossbills were seen gathering grit in the nearby car park at the start of the path to the cob pool (per DW). Cettis were calling at Llyn  Cerrig Bach  as usual. The LT Ducks were still on the inland sea yesterday but I couldn't spot them from the anchorage today. I did see TK who had just come from South Stack. He'd had a female type Black redstart on the steps going down to the lighthouse (only c. 12 steps down). Other news Ken Croft had a Ring Ouzel near South Stack plantation and singing Blackcap. Singing Blackcaps were also at Llyn Parc Mawr and I just had a nice male in my back garden in Cemaes.
A Twite was photographed at South Stack yesterday by David Cottam (NWBAWS- FB page).
Also yesterday on the 8th April John Baker had a late Redwing near Llanfairynghornwy.

Avocet at Malltraeth

Rhys just gave me a heads up. Jesse had an Avocet on the Cob Pool Malltraeth at 7.20 this evening. Might be worth a look tomorrow as it's a good bird for North Wales.

Cemlyn update

Things have definitely taken a turn for the better yesterday and today. Yesterday small groups of sandwich terns had returned to Cemlyn adding their noise to the background noise of Black headed gulls and the occasional mewing of the Mediterranean gull. The 50 plus Golden Plovers are moulting into breeding plumage now and the Whimbrel was still on the Trwyn. Migrant wise it was good to see a flock of 25+ Sand Martins on Tyn Llan pool, with small groups of Swallows moving through all day. Brian Iddon also had House Martin and there had been flocks if upto 400 Meadow Pipits in the area. There are also a few Little egrets on site. Greenshank was still around on Saturday. There were also upto 5 Willow warblers and 5 -  10 White Wagtails yesterday (DW and BI). This morning was even better. I had an early Common Sandpiper on the lagoon inlet. I had at least 1 House Martin with a group of 50 mixed Hirundines. There was at least 10 Willow Warblers and 10  Chiffchaffs around Tyn Llan farm and scrub. Tyn Llan fields held c 500 Meadow Pipits, 3 Skylarks a fine male Ring Ouzel and there were 3 close White wagtails  on the Trwyn beach. As well as lots of Mippets moving through, there were also around 50 Carrion crows and a few Siskins and Redpolls going overhead.

Cemaes Med Gull

My Tree Sparrow is still here.
But I think a cat's had it's tail!!!!!!

Reed Bunting - new back yard bird!

Cemlyn Ring Ouzel!

Over-wintering  Whimbrel

Returning Swallow

Jackdaw with neck collar (Holyhead Tesco)

Cemlyn is good for Hares!

50 Goldies still at Cemlyn

Cemlyn White Wag

Willow Warbler

Willow Warbler

Chiffchaff

Shellduck and Common Sandpiper

Ring Ouzel

Mippets are moving through en-masse

RSPB Conwy sightings board

April has certainly got off to a better start than March finished, with daily arrivals of summer migrants. We heard our first willow warbler this morning, a bit earlier than usual, and our first white wagtails too.  No blackcaps so far, so that's another species that should arrive in the next few days.

Sand martins have been more numerous in the last few days, now that the cold northwesterly winds have dropped, and there have been a few swallows , and our first house martin on Friday (3rd).  Wheatears have been sporadic, but there are now lots of chiffchaffs holding territory around the reserve. Our first osprey of the year was spotted by Rob Hughes this afternoon, sending all the gulls into the air as it headed northeast over the lagoons.

Read more recent sightings on the reserve blog.

Cemlyn today

Still quite quiet, but I had my first two Swallows of the year (Tony had 4 yesterday and two at RAF Valley on Tuesday) and my first Sandwich tern. The overwintering Whimbrel was still on the Trwyn today, There were 3 RT Divers in the bay earlier this week. No Wheatears today but Tony had two yesterday. Martin had 4 ad, 1 second summer and 2 first summer Meds yesterday. Two Chiffchaffs were singing but no Willow Warblers yet. There's still about 50 + Goldies around and there were 30 Oystercatchers yesterday. A stoat was a nice surprise as I headed home.

North Wales Twite Project

The project has for some years been colour ringing Twite in the Snowdonia breeding grounds and at the wintering grounds on the Dee estuary and various other localities along the North Wales coast.

The results are beginning to indicate that our small relic breeding population migrate eastwards during the autumn and winter on the Dee.  Larger numbers of birds join them, from the Pennine breeding population and further afield. Some of the Pennine birds continue east and winter on the Norfolk coast. In the second year of the project it was suspected that a Nant Ffrancon bird has been seen in the company of some Pennines birds at Titchwell, however the ring combination seen was not sufficient for a 100% identification. This last winter a bird ringed in Nant Ffrancon in April was seen in a Twite flock on the Norfolk coast.

In 2010 a small flock of Twite were present on Pensarn beach one of which had a BTO metal ring. This flock was caught and the ringed bird was found to be from near Lochinver in north-western Scotland. In December 2014 another one of this flock was recaught at Askham, Cumbria.  The small flock which appeared at Cemlyn last autumn also contained a ringed bird. When she was eventually caught she was found to be from the 15 miles south of the original Pensarn Scottish bird. 

For the past two winters we have been very lucky to have Richard Beckett join the Twite team, and Richard has spent many hours recording ring combinations and the comings and goings of the Deeside birds.  This winter a reasonable number of Twite have been feeding regularly at Deeside Naturalist Society reserve, and with their continued permission a further 68 have been colour ringed. Also caught have been a number of birds originally ringed at the Mull of Kintyre. The Mull of Kintyre have a small breeding population but also has a marked passage of autumn birds passing south and reasonable numbers have been ringed there. 

                                                              Photo Richard Beckett

We are initially proposing that the coastal wintering birds here in North Wales may well be birds from the north west of Scotland, with our Welsh birds from Snowdonia venturing eastwards and mixing with Pennine birds on the Dee, some of which will continue eastwards with their new mates.

Due to Richards’s diligence last year we knew when the Deeside birds began their spring dispersal and a few weeks later the first of the Nant Ffrancon birds were back in the Ogwen valley. From Richards’s recent observations the flock at Deeside has now begun to disperse. Over the next few weeks the critically low Welsh breeding population will be making their way along the North Wales coast back to Ogwen. Can I ask all North Wales Birders to be aware of this and keep an eye and an ear open for them on passage? We have about two and a half weeks and it would be very interesting if we could plot some of their traditional staging points along the coast.

Thanks and happy hunting.

Please report any sightings to kelvin.jones@bto.org.

The North Wales Twite Project is a collaborative project between, Kelvin Jones, Ian Spence, Richard Beckett, RSPB Cymru, BTO Cymru, National Trust, Snowdonia National Park, Deeside Naturalists Society, North Wales Wildlife Trust, and Flintshire Council