By DPW West
CITRINE wagtails are rare visitors to Britain, and even rarer in Wales, with just three previous records, including one at RSPB Conwy in 2008.
Usually breeding in western Russia, the male has a striking, lemon-yellow head and front.
Remarkably, RSPB Conwy hosted another earlier this week, with one feeding busily on the muddy edges of the lagoon.
Another sighting was made at Cemlyn, Anglesey, on Tuesday.
Several other scarce birds were at Conwy this week, including the second wood sandpiper of the spring and a smart snow goose that stayed for just a day, though many will suspect its origins are not wild.
Visitors watching the spectacular nesting seabirds and tumbling choughs at RSPB South Stack last week had the rare opportunity to hear a corncrake calling in the long grass, though seeing it proved a challenge.
Corncrakes declined dramatically in the 20th century as farming changed, but they have been recovering in western Scotland thanks to crofters and conservation groups.
There are now more than 1,200 singing males there, though they have nested only rarely in Wales since the 1960s.
“Rare” is, of course, a relative term. While coots are common on lakes and even ponds across North Wales, when one turned up on Bardsey Island last week, Observatory staff had to raid the archives to find the last record.
It was in 1969, and this week’s bird proved to be only the sixth ever to make the sea crossing.
Across the Dee Estuary, a broad-billed sandpiper was a great find among an impressive flock of 10,000 dunlins at Hoylake and Meols, a Russian wader that is rare on western coasts and even rarer in spring.
More locally, a great northern diver and Manx shearwaters were off the Great Orme, while a hobby and a green woodpecker were in Pentraeth forest.
