A snowball’s chance: rare Redpoll is a Welsh first

Hornemann's Redpoll (Steve Stansfield)

The appearance of a Redpoll from the high Arctic seemed appropriate during a chilly Easter that broke weeks of dry and sunny weather. The bulky finch, nicknamed ‘snowballs’ by some birders, was found by Bardsey Bird Observatory staff on Sunday and still present on Monday.

Redpoll taxonomy has been fluid, and somewhat controversial, in recent years. Current genetic analysis ‘lumps’ Arctic, Common and Lesser Redpolls, the last of which nests in British woodlands. Consequently, the Welsh Ornithological Society recently reduced the three species on the Welsh List to one. Observatory warden Steve Stansfield is confident that this week’s sighting is of the Hornemann’s form that breeds in northeast Canada and Greenland, which would be the first ever recorded in Wales. There have been five Welsh records of the other Redpoll (Coue’s) that breeds in the far north, in Scandinavia and Russia, but none for more than 20 years.

Besides an American Wigeon on Anglesey’s Alaw estuary, sightings otherwise had a more southerly flavour: a Purple Heron at Cors Erddreiniog on Anglesey and a Red-rumped Swallow at RSPB Conwy that came down to feed during Saturday’s rain. A pair of Garganey were at RSPB Cors Ddyga, five Cattle Egrets remain at Valley and a Corncrake was reported on the Great Orme. Lesser Whitethroats, Garden Warblers and Whinchats were seen at several sites for the first time this year and there was a notable arrival of Grasshopper Warblers, including a remarkable 19 between Prestatyn and Gronant.

Ospreys in the Glaslyn valley laid eggs last week, but there has been high drama at Llyn Brenig where two males tussle for the attentions of the nesting female, one of which evicted the two eggs already laid. An Osprey, almost certainly colour-ringed as a nestling in Scotland, caught and ate a fish in the Conwy estuary, delighting visitors to the adjacent RSPB nature reserve.