Birds confused by cold weather

Staff at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust Centre in Llanelli have been dumbfounded by the effect the cold weather has had on birds' migratory cycles.

In recent days the centre has seen "unusually" large numbers of birds arriving "abnormally early" at the wetlands. According to the centre's website this has included over 800 curlew, 3 whimbrel, 10 greenshank, 100 redshank, 90 oystercatcher and 190 black-tailed godwits. These are birds that would normally only be seen in Carmarthenshire in either Autumn or Winter.

They suggest that this change in migratory patterns is because of the poor weather in Iceland, and the failure to breed amongst the birds.

Pamela Styles, a learning assistant at Llanelli, has written a blog documenting the peculiar movements of the birds. She says: "We have heard chiffchaffs singing autumn calls in May, the flamingos have laid their eggs two weeks late, the gull-billed tern showed up having been blown off course."