BRITAIN'S birders flocked to Llandudno.

Byline: WITH JULIAN HUGHES

BRITAIN'S birders flocked to Llandudno last Saturday after the African royal tern - on the Llyen the previous week - was spotted near the pier.

This orange-billed seabird - its Latin and Welsh names both mean large tern - fished for less than two hours off the town's North and West shores before flying west. None of the five seen in the UK has stayed in one place for more than a few hours.

The visiting birders also found roseate terns off Red Wharf Bay, Anglesey, and Llandudno, and an adult Mediterranean gull on Cemlyn lagoon the following day.

Other highlights last week included a great white egret over the A55 at Bangor and a marsh warbler singing in the garden of Bardsey bird observatory.

Common sandpipers have bred at RSPB Conwy for the first time, where an escaped lesser-white fronted goose has joined the Canadas.

Evenings saw swifts swooping low over the rooftops of Conwy. The RSPB is asking for help with a swift survey and calling on homeowners to provide space for these to nest (visit rspb.org.uk/helpswifts).

On RSPB Ramsey Island, Pembrokeshire, wardens have installed 150 life-size model puffins to encourage the real thing to return. The introduction of rats in the 1890s led to the demise of breeding puffins, but eradication in 2000 enabled stormpetrels to recolonise. So far the models have baffled local peregrines.