Well the light nights are here at last, and at the time of writing Avocets, our insignia bird have come and gone three times since mid March and the end of May, and the RSPB Skinny Dippers range of toiletries have been launched.

Photo by A. Foster

During June, July and August there will be evening guided walks, led by our volunteers Ken and Eldyne. Taking place on Wednesday evenings, meeting at the Lapwing gate at 7.00pm, these walks are a great opportunity to visit the reserve at a quieter time of day and are free - even better considering the state of finances at the moment! Don't forget your binoculars and suitable clothing for the evening.

Skinny Dippers, the new range of eco friendly toiletries, is on our shelves now. Exclusive to the RSPB and made in the UK, you can now wash for wildlife, smell wonderful and support our conservation work, as 100% of profits from the new range go straight back into our conservation work. Skinny Dippers contain no palm oil, parabans or phosphates and are not tested on animals. With prices starting from just £3.50 a great treat for yourself or someone special without costing the earth.

The breeding season is well underway with this seasons young being seen around the reserve. The reserve is buzzing with activity and the recent warm sunny weather, at the time of writing, all adds to the atmosphere when you visit.

Even though the winter is over don't forget to feed your garden birds as they still require lots of calories during this busy season, good quality foods high in oils and fats that can be obtained from sunflower hearts and suet based feeds are ideal. Take care about feeding loose whole peanuts as they could choke chicks and fledglings, feed these only from a nut feeder so that whole nuts cannot be removed.

Don't forget your binoculars when you are out and about as it is the best and busiest time of year for watching wildlife in general. Make sure they are clean and the strap is secure and in good condition. If you are thinking about new binoculars or a scope call in and see us, we offer great service, stock and demo facilities. You can book your own 1 hour demo - call us on 01492 584091.

We are open every day 9.30 until 5.00 and if you fancy a coffee or light snack our coffee shop has stunning views over the reserve, up the Conwy Valley and down to Conwy, open daily 10.00 till 4.30 during spring and summer.

Come and visit RSPB Conwy you can be sure of a warm welcome and a great day out, signposted from J18 on the A55 Expressway we are easy to get to, just follow the brown RSPB signs with the Avocet on.

..... well, now I have caught your attention, these are just a few of the events I have witnessed on the RSPB's Conwy reserve, a little of which I will tell you about later.

Having always had an overall interest in nature and also at one time being a passionate monochrome photographer, an interest in top quality optical equipment, both photographic and observational developed. Now some thirty years on, I am fortunate enough to work for the RSPB.

So what do I do? I work in the shop and visitor centre at RSPB Conwy as a retail assistant, with a particular interest in the binocular and telescope ranges we offer to our visitors. As part of my retail role I guide our visitors in the choice of their new binoculars and telescopes amongst other retail work.

As we all have different eyes, hands, personal preferences and viewing habits, your choice of new binoculars etc. will be very personal to you. It is not just about buying the most expensive, or the pair that a friend recommended, as they may well have very different criteria from you.

Our aim is to guide and support you in choosing the most appropriate binoculars or telescope, by listening and offering hands-on demos under practical viewing conditions, not just across the road from the door of a dealer. Our 'No Hard Sell' policy and the chance to take your time, means you'll make the right choice.

We are always looking at improving our service and now offer a one hour demonstration service with the dedicated support of one of our knowledgeable and friendly staff. You can book your own demonstration by phoning 01492 584091.

So, as spring moves on and new plant growth along with this years young brings new life to the reserve, it is a fascinating time, watching Bee Orchids sprout and diligent parents tend and defend their young. The opposite, on a bright spring morning - the not so pleasant view of an unfortunate, squealing bank vole being snatched from the grass and swallowed whole head first by a marauding Heron.

In the warm evening light a pair of beautiful Great Crested Grebes were seen performing their head shaking dance, part of their mating ritual, reflecting in the mirror-flat surface of the water. Two Robins, one of our most familiar birds, seen fighting ferociously over territory close to Tal y Fan hide, regardless of early morning visitors passing close by.

The first three of these vivid events and many more brought closer by my trusty binoculars, the fourth while out testing the new RSPB 8 x 42 HD binocular. Was I impressed? Very much so. I recommend trying a pair of the HD's the next time you visit the reserve, the right binoculars can add so much to the experience.

Life and death, sex and violence it's all out on the reserve, what will you see on your next visit?

Throughout Wales, this spring and summer our team of People Engagement Officers will be out showing people some wonderful wildlife spectacles under the banner of our Date with Nature events.

Our Date with Nature events kick off on 21 March with BBC 'One Show' wildlife presenter Mike Dilger leading our first dawn walk to see a black grouse lek of the season. There are still spaces left to see this comical and noisy mating ritual in Denbighshire so get booking! (029 2035 3008).

From the end of March we will be showcasing the only pair of breeding Ospreys in Wales at Pont Croesor, near Porthmadog. The latest updates on the pair will be posted to our website for you to follow through the season. At time of writing, we've got everything crossed that they are winging their way back from Africa to wow us again with their fish-catching prowess!

The only chough nest-cam in the UK will be beaming live images of our pair that have nested in 'Chough Cavern' at Llechwedd Slate Caverns, a very popular tourist destination in its own right, in Blaenau Ffestiniog. For the last two years, we have been privileged to witness the pair raise six chicks. A new edition this year is a microphone that will bring the noisy family even closer to visitors.

Our award winning cruises round Puffin Island on the catamaran Cerismar Two, will make up another of the events in north Wales, with six days worth of trips during May, June & July waiting for your bookings! (029 2035 3008).

Further down the country, we will be showing the wonderful red kites at Forestry Commission Wales' Bwlch Nant-yr-Arian site near Ponterwyd. Fed at 3pm daily, up to 100 can be seen swirling above your head before swooping down to pick up meat on the other side of the picturesque lake.

Finally, at time of writing, the peregrines have returned to Cardiff City Hall Clock Tower and have been tidying the nest. A great sign that we can show these - the fastest animal on the planet - to visitors to National Museum Cardiff by way of the nest cam and also in the flesh from our stand on City Hall Lawn.

A Date with Nature will open up a completely new arena for us to get people closer to nature and enable us to offer visitors a memorable experience while generating support for our conservation work.

Come and join us, and marvel at the wonder of Wales' wildlife!

Click here for further information:

http://www.rspb.org.uk/brilliant

With banks crashing all around our ears, interest rates going up, all the supermarkets offering cheap, cut-price, bargain, discount and value food to keep body if not soul together, pensions plummeting and high falutin' government officials stating that we are due nothing but misery in the future, it's easy to forget about the things that really matter. The continual forecasts of doom and gloom are, at the moment, threatening to overshadow everything that we normally hold dear and important.

Now, I'm not going to deny the fact that money - some money - is important, and quite a few unlucky souls are going to have lost a lot of their hard-earned cash, but, given a reasonable level of income, there's an awful lot more in this world which contributes to our happiness and sense of well-being.

There's a Jamie Cullum track, "I'm glad there is you" which includes the lyrics "In this world of overrated pleasures and underrated treasures, I'm glad there is you" (It's probably a cover version, although I'm far too young to remember who sang the original...) Well, I think it's time to decide what is an overrated pleasure, and what is an underrated treasure - what are the small things in life that we take so much for granted, but would sorely feel the lack of, were they to disappear? For me, those include a decent cup of tea, chocolate, Marmite, the Mamma Mia soundtrack, "The X Factor" and watching birds on the multitude of feeders in my garden.

I remember somebody once describing a bird feeder as "the thinking person's television". It's true. All the dramas of life, love and the daily struggle for survival are played out on that little tube of steel, wire and perspex - squabbling chaffinches, nervous little coal tits, robins fiercely defending their territories and the blink of an eye flash past of a sparrowhawk, hell bent on murder - or is it just lunch? The occasional woodpecker or jay puts in a guest appearance. I have two goldfinches called Phil and Grant, because their bullying ways constantly remind me of the Mitchell brothers from Eastenders.

Feeding the birds is compulsive. For me, it is both addiction and therapy. Addiction, because it is something I have to do, every day, morning and evening, rain or shine. When I get home, I feed the birds before I have fed myself, my cat or my partner. Therapy, because there is a soothing peacefulness about watching the comings and goings, the turning of a world almost oblivious to our own. A balm for the soul, an antidote to our overwrought existence.

Feed The Birds Day took place at the end of October. This annual RSPB event takes place all over the UK, as a reminder to everyone how important it is to keep feeding the birds, especially through the cold winter months. Thousands of people took part, in guided walks, demonstrations, and by buying, making and putting out food. Small fingers were actively engaged in the time-honoured ritual of bird-cake making, or cutting up old plastic bottles to make recycled feeders. But feeding the birds isn't just a day...it's for life. Nip along to RSPB Conwy, just off Junction 18 of the A55, and get hold of some seed and a feeder. Watch the blue tits munch. And, just for a while, forget the credit crunch.

In a very brief introduction, my name is Robbie and I am the new people engagement officer here at the reserve in Conwy!
I have only been here a few weeks as I write this and a thing has struck me, like a great big smack in the face, that I wanted to share!
But first a little about me and what I do.... I talk for a living! I talk about birds (as do we all), I talk about wildlife, I talk about the RSPB and its role in the world of conservation and I talk about how people can support it.

By 'support', incidentally, I mean all ways of supporting The RSPB! Just visiting a reserve or event, Membership, volunteering or generally just getting involved in what we do. Without this support we just wouldn't be able to do the work we do for conservation around here or around the world

Any how, back to the point in hand and that smack in the face!

Last week I dragged one of our volunteers (you know who you are) out onto our grass area behind the visitor centre here at the reserve and forced them to get down on their hands and knees to look at something interesting, well at least I figured it was, it was slime! Ok, yes I know, it doesn't sound that interesting but I am enthusiastic in getting people interested in fungi, mould and slime. With a little more understanding you would realise that slime mould is really very interesting indeed!

During the same week i had been out with a couple taking macro photographs of some interesting fungi we had growing here (they came thinking the only thing they would see here is birds) and i had an amazing conversation about little egrets and climate change with a family. The family in question left with a little better understanding of the real effects of climate change and how it is already affecting the planet and their very own doorstep. They also left with a renewed drive to do a little about it if they could.

During the course of this week it really hit home that the RSPB isn't just about birds its about the enviroment as a whole and we use the birds as the point that generates peoples interest and enthusiasm.

You see that is the thing that smacked me in the face. that if you get enthusiastic about something (even slime) and you share your enthusiasm and knowledge, just like a smile, the chances are you will pass your enthusiasm on and others will become enthusiastic and interested too!

So, I figured that my job is great, that its good to talk and to talk allot! talk about what your enthusiastic about. if that's birds then its wonderful, if its woodlice then brilliant, fungi.... amazing, RSPB membership just fantastic or if its slime mould then your after my heart too!

Whilst I was in the visitor centre the other day chatting to some visitors, a lady brought in a small margarine tub. 'Can you help me?' she asked, 'I can try', I replied. She proceeded to open the margarine tub, and inside, unfortunately, was a dead bird. It was small, about the size of a greenfinch, a dull olive brown colour with a bright white rump and white wing bars, what grabbed my attention first, though, was it's large, thick, black bill. 'It flew into my window*' the lady continued, 'can you help me identify it?' I had a vague idea of what it was, but just to be sure, I took out the RSPB Handbook of British Birds and flicked to the finch section. 'That's what it is' I said, pointing to a bullfinch on the page, 'it's a juvenile', 'oh,' the lady replied 'I get them quite a lot, I thought it would be something more interesting'.

Now, I would be absolutely delighted to have bullfinches in my garden, they're a stunning bird, especially the males, and are now getting quite rare in the UK because of persecution by people (they feed voraciously of the buds of various trees in spring and were once a 'pest' of fruit crops). But the lady's comment got me thinking, what is an 'interesting' bird? A small brown lesser-spotted whatjamacallit may be interesting to many bird enthusiasts, however, personally I find common birds much more exciting. I still get a thrill when I see a blue tit on my bird feeder or a jackdaw hoping by the road and I especially love the family of magpies that were nesting in the overgrown garden behind my house. Many people dislike magpies as they predate many small garden bird nests- however, I find their almost arrogant attitude fascinating. They strut around chattering noisily and are quite acrobatic when they want to be. And when looked at closely, their plain black and white plumage takes on a more alluring hue, with a purplish-blue iridescent sheen to the wing feathers, and a green gloss to the tail.

So next time your out and about, look again when you pass these common birds, and appreciate how beautiful, intelligent and interesting they really are!

* if you want to prevent birds flying into windows try bird window stickers which are available from the RSPB Shop or get them online by clicking on this link

A few days ago I was sitting on top of a cliff in the west of Ireland when my heart started pounding, I started to shake violently and I lost the power of speech. No, I wasn't having a heart attack or even a "funny turn" - I was watching a Little Shearwater, an incredibly rare bird in British and Irish waters that is normally found near the Canary Islands! So you may think that coming back to work at Conwy RSPB Reserve might be a bit tame by comparison. Far from it - we've had some very interesting birds here in the last few days, and they're on my own local patch. Whilst going round the reserve I've enjoyed seeing the wading birds which are arriving from their Arctic homes and stopping off on our reserve to fatten up, before continuing the journey south to their African winter quarters. And among the really good numbers of Curlew and Redshank are much scarcer species like Whimbrel, Ruff, and Black Tailed Godwit, which only visit this neck of the woods much more infrequently. And the beauty is you don't have to be an obsessive twitcher to enjoy this bird spectacle. You don't have to get soaking wet on a cliff top, or travel the world on a record breaking "twitch" - one of the best places that I know to see birds, is from our Coffee Shop over the high tide period when large numbers fly off the estuary to roost and bathe in the lagoon. So you can be enjoying a slice of home-made cake while watching Little Egrets fish outside the window! And no need to worry if you don't have any binoculars - we can loan you a pair free of charge. And if you like them enough, you can browse our selection in the shop and have a chat with one of our friendly advisors. A good opportunity to familiarise yourself with some of the special birds we have is on the 13th September when we are having a Wardens Walk. So come down to see us and before you know it you'll be getting that surge of adrenaline as you spot your first Kingfisher.....but be warned - it's addictive!

RSPB Conwy Nature Reserve is best known for its fantastic bird spectacles, however there is a lot more to see here than just birds, there is a great variety of creatures on the reserve at the moment, the height of summer is the best time to look out for butterflies, moths, bees and much more
Insects like butterflies and moths are valuable early warning systems of changes in the environment. Many species suffered from the cold damp weather we had last year. We've had many visitors comment on the lack of these creatures in their gardens this year. However, now the weather is becoming brighter and warmer we're seeing a lot more here on the reserve. To help the butterflies and moths we've planted plenty of native flowers in our wildlife garden and are managing the grasslands to encourage nectar-rich wild flowers on the reserve. This week, we've been seeing meadow brown, gatekeeper and small tortoiseshell butterflies as well as the fantastic black and red six-spot burnet moth- which are hatching all over the reserve!
Bumble bees are also abundant on the reserve, these too have suffered declines in recent years. Bumble bees are major pollinators, they're vital for the agriculture industry- many crops depend on bumble bees for pollination. Here on the reserve we're encouraging bumble bees with flowering teasels and thistles- if you come to the reserve you'll see these endearing insects buzzing around loaded with pollen!
All these insects are attracting mammals too. After dark, at least two species of bat have been flying, noctule and pipistrelles.
If you want to see any of these fantastic sights, RSPB Conwy are running many events over the summer to show visitors the fantastic array of wildlife on the reserve. For adults, there is a guided walk every Saturday at 11am and Wednesday evening at 7 pm. There are also family events every Wednesday and Sunday to help children and their parents get closer to nature. For more information email conwy@rspb.org.uk or telephone 01492 584091. For more information about our events click here.

Hiding behind the sofa with my brother and sister, a cushion held up against my face protecting myself from the awful spectre, I watched Dr Who every week, terrified beyond belief by the Daleks and Cybermen. Then after that, a quick cup of tea (for there was no Sunny Delight in those days) to calm our shaking nerves and we'd all run out onto the common to dam little streams and watch butterflies emerging from their chrysalis (or is it chrysalii?). We'd know where the birds were nesting and the best place to find blackberries, where the dogs hadn't weed on the bushes. And if there was the odd maggot in the blackberry, it didn't bother us.

We were kids before the era of sell-by dates, of the Internet, even before colour television. We had a huge 'roam radius' (the distance our parents would allow us to wander from the house) , and our curfew was 'be home before dark'. We lived and breathed nature and the seasons, we got dirty and cold and wet, we scuffed our knees and still survived to tell the tale.

Nowadays, according to a National Trust survey, children spend so little time outdoors that they can identify a Dalek for more readily than they can a magpie. Fear of strangers and of abduction, the lure of computer games, reality TV shows, and virtual entertainment have combined to breed a generation of children who rarely venture beyond the garden gate, let alone climb trees and build rickety dens in the woods. They are a generation suffering from NDD - Nature Deficit Disorder. This term was coined by Richard Louv in his book "Last Child In The Woods" to describe the negative effects on children of not experiencing unfettered "nature play" or "nature nurture" (jumping across streams, playing in the mud, getting hands and feet dirty). The symptoms of NDD are clear - ADD (attention deficit disorder), obesity, lack of creativity, independence and/or confidence, feelings of disconnection from the natural world and a disrespect for living things.

This is why the RSPB invests so much into its field teaching programme. We do literally teach in the field - and the wood, and the mud, and the grass, and the pond (well, maybe not so literally in the pond). We teach out in the sun, and the rain, and the fog, and sometimes in the snow. We take children out with their teachers and parents, and show them the incredible world that's right under their feet, all around them and over their head. A world which some of them - most of them - have never seen before. Kids literally jump up and down with excitement on catching a stickleback, or collapse in giggles when a mallard sticks its bum in the air and its head in the water, searching for lunch. They are fascinated by the odd maggot-infested seagull corpse, while parents and teachers recoil in horror.

We're not here to teach them Latin names and classification systems. We're here to show them life in its many forms, and how every living thing is connected in some way. We teach them respect and care for tiny bugs, for worms and bees and earwigs and magpies. We want them to love and appreciate the natural world. It's a pretty tall order, but it's encouraging that so many schools and families visit the Reserve, with numbers increasing every year. Come along if you haven't been here already and see what's going on. I can't guarantee any Daleks, but you will definitely encounter a whole other bunch of amazing and weird life forms! No need to travel to foreign galaxies...just off Junction 18 of the A55 will do. See you soon.