Pembs Bird Group

Our next meeting is a presentation on Tuesday 2nd February 2010 – ‘Birds of the Sub Antarctic’ by Anna Sutcliffe.
The meeting will be held at our usual location of The Patch Community Centre, Furzy Park, Haverfordwest commencing at 7.30pm. We look forward to seeing you there

Whooper swans in Abercastle area during TTV counts in SM83

A longish walk from Aber Mawr along coast and then inland to Mathry continuing south-east to Treffynnon area produced typical common winter birds including quite good numbers of fieldfares an redwings, several thousand starlings (c. 2,000 plus at one farm (Trefelyn)). Ravens were lining a well developed nest at Pwllstrodur and at least 2 small fulmar colonies occupied (around 40 fulmars in total).

One of the interesting things about doing timed-tetrads in an area you don't regularly visit are the unexpected birds. Although numbers of the expected common species were fairly modest (with the exception of starling and thrushes), it was nice to find 7 wigeon and 6 teal on a small irrigation pool in SM83R. Not far away in the same square 3 adult whooper swans were in a field nr the minor road from Mathry to Abercastle. They spent some time flying around between approx Trevine and Abercastle before eventually heading in an approx NE direction towards Fishguard. A Peregrine hunting over Mathry area was about the only other species of note.

A Goose-tastic Afternoon

Rosemoor: no Jack Snipe (a traditional site) but a Woodcock, 3 Snipe, c.10 Canada Geese, 1 Cormorant, 5 Teal & c.12 Mallard.

Marloes: good scattering of ducks across all the wet bits (including 5 Tufties & a Pochard), a ringtail Hen Harrier quartering the far western part of the mere, and best of all was the 16 Greenland White-fronts (thanks for the news Sash) which flew in high from the west, circled a few times, and then landed in a field to the south of the road to Martin's Haven, west of Trehil farm. Agree with Sash - probably 3 juvs, rest adults, some with spanking dark bars across the belly. They were soon disturbed by the tractor ploughing in the adjacent field, which contained an adult argentatus Herring Gull.

Gann: 6 Med Gulls in the roost (5 ads, 1 2ndW), 2 RB Mergansers, 1 GN Diver, 1 Kingfisher flew across the bay and over onto the pool, and a total of 32 Brent Geese including the colour ringed KLWR. (Dave & Paul)

Milford dock

Alloy ringed Med gull still present with 42 B/HGulls

Sunday Afternoon Wanderings 31st Jan.

Started off at the Flagpoles where there 2 Great Crested Grebes today & a good count of 93 Common Gulls with smaller amounts of Herring , Black Headed & 2 Greater Black Backs.
Next port of call was Heathfield where a Woodcock was flushed down the lane & on the pit were 7 Tufted Ducks & 3 Mute Swans of which 1 was a young bird keeping as far as it could away from the 2 Adults.
On the way back through Jordanston a look in the field opposite the Church revealed a flock of between 25 - 30 Stock Doves feeding in the stubble.
Last site for the walk was a quick look below Harbour Village at Goodwick , a Jack Snipe was flushed in the boggy area close to the derelict building which as described in all the books decided it was quite safe to land literally no more than 20 yards away !

Greenland White-fronts at Marloes

16 Greenland White-fronted Geese in the Trehill Farm fields to the NW of Marloes Mere this morning. 4+ were seen to fly out of the Mere onto the fields, so they may have roosted on the Mere. The birds comprised 2 (possibly 3) juveniles, the remainder adults. They were feeding on a different field to the 200+ Canadas, but were disturbed by ploughing, and were last seen c.1030. Well worth looking at all the fields between Marloes and Martin's Haven since the feeding is clearly pretty good there for geese at present.

Sat afternoon & Sun morning on the Teifi Marshes

Great Grey Shrike still present, seen from the Kingfisher hide on the bushes / willows towards the back.

No sign of any Bittern.

Sat - female Gossander and two Otters by Priory Bridge

White-Fronted Geese

Two White-Fronted Geese (Greenland race) were with Canada Geese on the banks of Penberry res at lunch time today no sign early evening think they may have been disturbed as there were people with bins standing by the gate.

The Gann

A fairly brief foray late this afternoon produced 2 birds I`ve never seen there before, Kingfisher & Greenshank. I`d like to say it was cold & I was shivering, or the wind was rocking my tripod, or the light was poor - the sad truth is my digiscoping is pathetic!
Anyway here they are, don`t click on them, it makes matters worse!
Usual other stuff, 3 Shelduck, Wigeon, Teal, etc.
25 Brent, inc the ringed bird. No Meds, Mergs, or Otters.

Marloes Peninsula

Picking up on Sash's post we also saw at least 30 Gadwall on the Mere (cannot remember ever seeing so many before) and two flocks of Skylarks on two fields near the mere totalling around 150 birds.
There are still loads of Reed Buntings in the stubbly field just past Treehill too.

Velvet & Harriers

A fine 1st year/female Velvet Scoter showing quite close in with 11 Common Scoter at the north end of Newgale this morning. Further south in the bay around 65 Common Scoter scattered at Broad Haven relatively distant by comparison. Both sites held a Red-throated Diver.

This evening Paul & I ventured to view the Plumstone Starling spectacle, and whilst not as voluminous as of late perhaps (still several hundred thousand I would guess), it was still fantastic, and the site of 3 Hen Harriers (2 males & a ringtail) quartering the heather was a sight to behold. One male even perched for a few minutes on a fence post for us. More than an hour later, I can again feel my toes (tip: wear 2 pairs of socks in wellies, or ignore Paul's advice and keep your walking boots on!).

Martin's Haven: Woodcock and raptors

A good morning, with a lovely male Merlin (the same as Derek's?) huting down the valley, a female Kestrel and a stunning immature ringtail Hen Harrier that worked its way in a leisurely fashion from the direction of Skomer, over the Deer Park and towards Marloes Mere.
In the garden this afternoon we flushed 2 Snipe and 2 Woodcock. Apart from a resident (ringed) Robin, the only smaller birds in evidence are several dozen Song Thrushes in the gorse and scrub. With the vegetation all having died down recently, it is very apparent how many snails the Thrushes have been eating: piles of over a hundred shells in many places along the paths.

Carew & The Garden

A quick walk round Carew after the snow produced 2 Greenshank, 30 Redshank and 2 Little Egrets.

Birding at home was, perhaps, the better option and a few Goldfinches on the Niger seed gave a nice photo opportunity.

Westfield Pill & The Garden Birdwatch

From Woody and Wanda Woodward - Our regular walk today at Westfield Pill was noticable by the abscence of smaller birds. No sign or sound of any Goldcrests (we normally see or hear a few) and no long tailed tits or Wrens either.

However a good show of Dunnocks (at least 12 along the length), a pair of Teal by the weir, where we also heard a Great Spotted Woodpecker drumming. We saw the blue flash of the Kingfisher at the far end as he went across the water . All three Heron there and 8 Little Grebe. Resident (?) Canda Goose still there.

From Dean Maiden - I didn’t really need to sit there for the whole hour as the usual suspects visited the garden backing onto the rugby ground in Pembroke Dock. Robin, Blackbird, Song Thrush, Greenfinch, Starling and undoubtedly king was the Chaffinch with up to 16 at a time. Very pleasant to see the return of a Redwing (up to 30 in the rugby field behind the house) in the garden but highlight for me was the lone female Blackcap. Feeding on the fat feeders we haven’t seen her for a while.

Strumble Head

An hour at a very cold Strumble produced 4 Common Scoter ( 1 female ) & small no's of Gannets , Auks , Fulmars & just a sgl Kittiwake.
A near summer plumage Great Crested Grebe from the flagpoles earlier on & the Barwit still present.

A quite tame Fox by Pontiago on the way back from Strumble.

Marloes mere

My first visit for weeks - 4 raptors. 1 Ringtail, 1 female Kestrel, 1 male Peregrine & the icing on the cake, was a male Merlin. Nice.

Ringed Black tailed godwit

Whilst doing the WEBS count on the Upper Cleddau a couple of weeks ago, I came across a small flock of black tailed godwits, one of which was colour ringed. I have submitted the details, but Nuno Cidraes-Vieira (IWSG SPEX for Black-tailed Godwit) has not been able to link the details to any ringer.

It is possible that I missed a ring. If anyone else comes across this bird could they let me know the details of the rings so that I can correct my report if necessary.

Thanks.

Peter Royle

Cilgerran Gorge

A female Blackcap in the garden this morning and seven Siskins down by the river.

Movement along the A40

Yesterday morning as I lay in bed pondering on the minor miracle of continued survival and staring out of the window, what appeared to be a flurry of snowflakes swept along the valley. Reaching for my bins (dosen't everyone sleep with their binoculars handy by?) At 10x mag' The last of the snowflakes became blackheaded gulls, .
A couple more flurries passed by and then I decided it might be worth counting them , as you do. Between then and when the dogs howling for their breakfast and chickens agitation for liberation forced me to abandon the comforts of the pit and the cause of ornithology, (10 mins) upwards of 600 had passed by in groups rangeing from 30 -100.
This morning much the same occured so presumably these birds are travelling from their roost in the Fishguard area to feeding grounds (Rudbaxton landfill?)
It occured to me that this might be a whole lot of birds from a multitude of breeding grounds or one whole colony...any thoughts ?

Cilgerran Shrike

From Alan/Wendy - shrike & otter seen breifly from kingfisher hide this afternoon at 3.30

The Gann this afternoon

It was always going to be hard to follow on from Graham Rees' wonderful sighting yesterday afternoon. And I didn't: no otter, but slightly more birds in evidence.
On the sea two red-head Mergansers and a pretty good build-up of gulls for the roost. I counted 300 Lesser Black-Backs and a similar number of mixed Herring, Black-headed and Commons.
On the pools: 5+ Goldeneye, c.10 Dabchicks, 17 Brents (including the colour-ringed individual), good numbers of Teal and 5 Wigeon. Waders included 2 Curlew, 3 Redshank, 1 Grey Plover, at least 5 Snipe and a Little Egret, and about 50 Oystercatchers in a tight roost on the far side of the Bay.

Grey geese over Deer Park

I saw 4 large grey geese flying (pretty slowly, obviously) North into the wind over the Deer Park this morning at about 1030. They appeared relatively plain and uniformly coloured overall, and certainly compared to the Canadas that regularly commute between Skomer and Marloes Mere, with noticeably dark heads and contrasting paler necks and what appeared, at range, to be dark bills. The 4 birds were of two different sizes: two were very large (close to Canadas in appearence), the others distinctly smaller, but still substantially larger than, say, Brents. The necks were all distinctly long and thin (initially in silhouette and at distance I thought that they were swans), and the heads and bills pretty delicate (i.e. not the massive, chunky, look of a Greylag). The bodies looked heavy and the wings long.
Based upon their size and colouring my guess is that these could have been Bean Geese: given the slow pace they were making against the wind it might be well worth checking likely staging areas further up the coast.

Long-tailed Tits

A flock of 13 Long-tailed Tits on the birdtable at home this morning ,it started with 4 about a fortnight ago and the numbers have increased slowly since.

Gann magic

At mid afternoon a large Otter fished the length of the Gann lagoon apparently oblivious to dog walkers on the seawall and me on the opposite bank. The enjoyment of such close and prolonged views somehow made the general lack of birds inconsequential.

Teifi

The Great Grey Shrike and Bittern were seen from the Kingfisher hide this afternoon.
A drake and 2 redhead Goosander were on the river in the reserve.
Also a white ringed Med Gull from the Gull view point and 2 Goldeneye at Jewsons.
(Paul G and Wendy J)

Firecrest - Blackcap

From Allan Hansen - A Firecrest at Honeyborough,Neyland early afternoon.

From Janet A - Female blackcap still in Felindre

Wednesday

Glynaeron Woods

Crossbill 4 male 1 female feeding by gateway
G.S. Woodpecker 2

Rosebush Res

Scaup female
Tufted Duck 2 pairs
Goldeneye 1 male 3 females

Amroth

Red Throated Diver 25
Red Breasted Merganser 25
Common Scoter 40+

Firecrest Goodwick Moor 28th Jan.

The Firecrest seen this morning around the last buddleia on the left hand side of the path by the 5 Bar Gate.
From the Flagpoles the Barwit seen this morning.

Sea Empress.

Hi Bob and Annie,

I have to say that having weeks of wet cold work dismissed by so called experts at the time was extremely annoying. As I remember one chap from Durham was particularly strident in his opinions, based on the completely incomparable Exxon Valdese spill.

I felt (as did many of us), worn out, angry and depressed at the end of that sad episode. I hope and pray we never have to go through that again.

For me there were many memories but the worst was the pathetic sight and smell of thousands of scoter smothered in stinking bunker oil washing up on Pendine Beach. Each wave of obscene stinking oilsaturated water deposited pathetic doomed ducks at our feet. A single oil bespattered vet in a shed next to the cafe, overwhelmed and incandescent with the outrage of it all.

And yet the response of the general public and all the people who came to help was magnificent. We figured it was humans that caused the mess and we had a duty to do what we could.
We reckoned that if even one survived it would be worthwhile.

This news is really reassuring and points to the value of not merely rescueing oiled birds but ringing and processing them before release, many thanks for passing this on!
allthingsgood, cliff

Kite marked!

From Shirley Matthews , "on my way in to work this morning I saw a red kite over the gravel pits by Castle Morris - definite". I also had one on Sunday afternoon flying over my house above Goodwick...

"Sea Empress" scoter ringing recoveries - what have we learned so far?

Back in those dark days of Feb 1996, some 4,571 common scoters were found dead/dying in and around Carmarthen Bay as a direct result of the "Sea Empress" oil spill. However many oiled scoter were rescued, cleaned and released, even though the sceptics said it was a waste of time - they were unlikely to survive long.

Back in 1996, next to nothing was known of the origins of scoter wintering in the Bay. By ringing the cleaned birds (later released from rehab centres in cleaner waters off the Welsh coast and in southern England) it was hoped that at least something positive would come out of this disaster. So what have we learned so far?

About 70 scoters were recovered shortly after being released around the coast of south-west Wales and southern England. But one unlucky victim was oiled again by the "Tricolor" spill off the Dutch coast in late January 2003 having survived seven years after release (this one was among 60 scoters found oiled).

Now, almost 14 years on, it is interesting to note that there have been three "Sea Empress"-ringed scoter recoveries in Russia (one west of the Urals and two further east in the province of Yamalo-nenets) the most recent of these being found (shot) in June 2009 - thirteen years after being cleaned and then released.

So all the effort put in by volunteers in Milford Haven and around West Wales and elsewhere, to try and help these birds recover from their ordeal, was certainly worth it. For more information go to www.btoringing.blogspot.com

1 Barn Owl

Quartering a field at "Greenland" Clarbeston Road. Good close views by Peter Horton, for 10 minutes or so, around 5pm this evening.

marloes Peninsula

This morning on fields just west of Trehill :-
22o Canada Geese (and that Snow Goose again!) with another 100 or so on Midland
Probably 100+ Reed Buntings feeding amongst stubble - very difficult to count as constantly on the move. Virtually no othere species mixed with them.
6 Chough on the Deer Park but no sign of a stonechat anywhere there or on Tenby Golf course where they were present through the cold spell - at elast until the snow arrived.

Blackpool Mill

A Green Sandpiper was in a ditch opposite the mill this morning.
(Paul G)

The 11 Bewicks swans are still just across the border in Carmarthenshire between Cenarth and Newcastle Emlyn.(SN283412)

Pen Anglas

I saw a Light-bellied Brent Goose fly west past the point close inshore at 13:30.

Flagpoles 16.00

The one 1st W Great Crested Grebe & two Mute Swans ( Distant in the bay then appeared to fly into Fishguard Lower Town ) were the major things of interest. The latter of interest as is the case in recent years , the next eleven months will probably if it's a good year only just see the records reach into double figures for the Harbour , so i am always pleased to see them.

Black Redstart

News from Mike Jones - A female Black Redstart has been in Blackbridge Drive, Milford, most of the day today.

Marloes Mere

Still 8 Tufted Ducks present, also 4 Pochards. At least 50 Teals, about 20 Shovelers and 10 Gadwalls. Two Buzzards were the only raptors seen in two hours.

Dowrog - this evening

One, male Hen Harrier + a ringtail, a Barn Owl, Peregrine & Sparrowhawk.

Airfield

A male Hen Harrier has been hunting on St.Davids Airfield last couple of mornings, and a male Blackcap was feeding on our garden feeder today.

birds losing their heads

Cliff - your headless mystery bird posted last Friday
a Fieldfare, very beautiful markings
good photo of one on Ceredigion bird blog today
http://www.ceredigionbirds33.blogspot.com/
sometimes owls decapitate their prey

Bar Headed Goose Cilgerran, Hen Harrier Marloes

From Julie Mears - Hi there, we are on holiday in Cilgerran, and today by the river at Llechryd bridge, we saw a bar-headed goose with a group of canadian geese at approx 1.30 .p.m today.

Also info from Drew Buckley for Marloes Mere yesterday - Pretty quiet afternoon/evening but did see the wing tagged female Hen Harrier, it came very close to the hide on one pass. Also male Sparrowhawk cruised across the mere towards the direction of the farm opposite.

South Pembs birding

Highlights of a tour around the south today
Garron Pill - 1 Jack Snipe and 1 Greenshank
Between Amroth and Wiseman's bridge - around 120 Red-throated divers, 12 Red-breasted Mergansers, 4 Great-crested Grebes and at least 40 Common Scoter.
Tenby, on St Catherines island - 3 Purple Sandpipers.
Castlemartin Corse - 1 drake Pintail, 8 Shoveler and more Teal and Wigeon than recently. Despite watching until dusk there was no sign of yesterday's Marsh Harrier.
Angle bay - 26 Light-bellied Brents.
(Paul G and Wendy J)

Med gull

The alloy ringed Med was at Milford dock yesterday. (Sunday)

Newport Mon pm

Highlights: a red head Goosander & a Green Sandpiper upstream from the bridge. 2 Barwits on the mud. Still c55 Dunlin & Herring Gull blue BHS - the 10th time I've seen it here since Oct 08.

Raptor delight & Penberry count

Our quest to compile a January species list is almost over. In deep mid-winter we find that kicking off the year "listing" a fun activity and a useful re-acquaintance with local birds, their calls and the sites where they can be found. Dave A, please note... the Willow Tits at the northern end of Llys -y-Fran survived the freeze.

Our target area today was west of St Davids and upon alighting from our car at St Justinian we were greeted with the sight of a Merlin chase. Minutes later a Peregrine flew by, and near Point St John we found 2 Kestels close to their old nesting site. A little later, at Trefeiddan Marsh, we witnessed a ringtail Hen Harrier upsetting the local Snipe population just as 2 Buzzards and a Sparrow Hawk flew overhead: not a bad start to the day and it was only 10.15. Early PM we sighted a second r/t Hen Harrier close to St David's Rugby Club.

A Penberry wildfowl count yielded:- 1 Pochard, 14 Teal, 13 Mallard, 11 Tufties, 17 Shoveler, +135 Wigeon, 10 Coot, 4 Moorhen, 3 Little Grebe and 2 Canada Geese.

A noticeable absentee from today's walkabout in an area with a wealth of gorse scrub and heathland, was Stonechat. We have visited this region in all months during recent years, and today, not one.

Conversely, we were delighted when we came upon a field on Treleddyn Farm that held all four species of thrush, particularly because the Fieldfare outnumbered the other species.

St Florence, Freshwater West and Points West

At Freshwater West this morning 32 Grey Plover on the rocks with a few Turnstone and Dunlin.

There seem to be a lot of Snipe around at present - 20 in one field in St Florence.

Yesterday on the return leg of a Cetacean survey with Sea Trust on the Ferry there were 9 Black Guillemots in Rosslare Harbour - 4 of them well on the way to summer plumage. Also there 2 Med Gulls. Plenty of Auks most of the way across - mainly Guillemots with a few Razorbills and, unexpectedly, a Puffin quite near to Strumble.

9 Brents flew past heading west when we an hour or so out from Fishguard - I wonder if our Brents commute back and forth across the Irish Sea?

8 or so Gannets seen altogether which did a great job in circling over and giving away the position of two large pods of Common Dolphins - 200+ altogether, an amazing number for January.

Teifi Marsh

The bittern was seen briefly at 08.30 as it flew across the Bass lagoon. Water rails heard along with "teacher-teacher" gt.tit, & other small birds enjoying the early morning sunshine. A little egret was in front of the Creek hide.

Saturday tetrad-bashing and Sunday Castlemartin Range

On Saturday out doing timed-tetrads on N coast in SN04, noted red kite hunting near Moylegrove (an untagged bird); on the coast a female kestrel escorted the observer along the coastal path for at least 6 km, always keeping about 100 metres ahead perching on fences. Other coastal birds included 30-40 fulmars on the cliffs in 3 small separate colonies and a few guillemots in breeding plumage coming and going from the cliffs. Winter thrushes were fairly numerous and small flocks of golden plover and lapwing on inland fields. Large numbers of gulls were feeding on a coastal field immersed in slurry - several hundred herring,couple of hundred black-headed, 20+ common noted.

There was a notable absence of both chough and peregrine between Ceibwr and Newport. Fresh otter-prints on the coast path above the cliffs however was a bonus as were not less than 4 harbour porpoises feeding off-shore from Careg Bica.

On the beach on Sunday at Frainslake, there were more than 300 dunlin, at least 54 grey plovers, about 30 curlews and oystercatchers, several sanderling, knot and ringed plovers; offshore a single red-throated diver. There were also several wigeon and at least 9 little grebes on the Frainslake millpond.

Today

Fishguard Outer Breakwater;-
7 Purple Sandpipers seen today on the Pembs Bird Group visit.
Castlemartin Corse;-
1Marsh Harrier this am.
(Karen via Rich D en route to Heathrow)

news from a neighbouring county

It would seem that for most Pembrokeshire birders, crossing the county boundary into Carmarthenshire is a formidable task, and best attempted at a minimum speed of 60mph with enough momentum to carry them safely out the other side and down the M4. But it does have a few really good sites well worth a visit occasionally. The bit of Carms that I've spent most time in is the Taf estuary and Ginst point where I've done Webs counts for the last six years. Usually in January there are 10,000 to 15,000 Golden Plovers but after the cold snap this year they have all gone. Lapwings too are thin on the ground with only 200 instead of 1200+. Egrets are also down from 20 or so to 2.
It's a really good site to see pintail with regularly 100+ and at the moment duck numbers in general are higher than usual, especially shelduck. Other interesting birds seen recently were Spotted Redshank, Jack Snipe, Firecrest, Spoonbill, Red Kite, Merlin, Peregrine, Kingfisher, Water Rail, Common Sandpiper and at least 15,000 Scoters at Pendine.

Marloes Peninsula on Frieday

About the only notable on Marloes Mere were eight Tufted Duck and possibly more Teal than of late or it could just be that in the calm and warm sunshine they were busy in the open water. Have only seen one Little Grebe here since the freeze.

A bit of a raptor mecca though - 2 Merlin, 2 Buzzards, 2 Kestrels (one caught a Mipit almost be accident as it floated away from a fence post at low level and disturbed the bird as it passed over it - a quick 180 degree overhead loop and it caught its meal for the day), a Sparrowhawk and 2 Peregrine. 470 Lapwings in the fields towards Martins Haven with c.100 Skylark and various flocks of linnets and Chaffinches. Still quite a lot of Fieldfare around but most of the Redwings seem to have left.

On Saturday around 50 Snipe off the Gann and a Partridge of some sort seen briefly on the fields to the east of the estuary.

Elvis Has Left The Building!

For those that don't know Richard Dobbins - Pembrokeshire Birder & top contributor to the Blog - is now en route to New Zealand where he will, no doubt, indulge in a little leisurely (?) birding in between other activities. This means an intensive effort is required by all other Pembrokeshire Birds Bloggers during Richard's absence. Meanwhile here's wishing Rich a great trip!!!

Llys y Fran

This afternoon, 1 Black-necked Grebe, 4 redhead Goosander, 8 Great-crested Grebes, 1 Goldeneye, 2 Goldcrest and 2 1st w Med gulls.
The gull roost was very small with hardly any Lesser Black-backed gulls.
(Paul G)

Swans and Shrike

11 Bewick's Swans seen today in field near Cenarth.
At the Teifi Marshes the Great Grey Shrike was seen at 15.15 from the Creek Hide also Kingfisher and Water Rail.

Flagpoles 16.00 Sunday 24th Jan.

At last my first Med. Gulls of the year , 2 Adults & a 2nd W , Gull no's have picked up slightly . Also 6 Ringed Plover , 1 Dunlin & usual no.s of Oycs , Turnstones , Redshanks & Curlew. Not seen the Barwit for a few days though. 1 Great Crested Grebe .

Angle Bay

40 plus Grey Plover
20 Brent Geese

Crossbills and Skylarks

3 Crossbills were finally pinned down in Glynaeron forest this morning after an hour of frustrating distant calls. They were in the clearing at the top of the track from the entrance.

On a sheep field between Newchapel and Llechryd there was an unusually large flock of over 80 Skylark feeding.

Winter casualties??

Re John M's comment about lask of small passerines in the woods at Glynaeron, we have just done two Atlas tetrads in an area which is usually swarming with Wrens - but recorded only 1 in one tetrad and 2 in another. OK so the Wrens may not have been very visible - not singing much yet - but it will be interesting to see what we pick up in the summer surveys.

There were, however, huge numbers of Blue Tits and a couple of flocks of Long Tailed Tits as well as Chaffinches everywhere, so there does not seem to be a general problem.

Greenfinches were postively rare though - one in one tetrad and 2 in another. We are currently seeing more Bullfinches than Greenfinches.

Rosemary

Yesterday...& help?

St. David's Hd;-
1 female/ juv Merlin.
Brawdy;-
9 Red-legged Partridge.
(Karen)

Following Dave's super posting on a few species that he would like to re-aquaint himself with in Pembs, Jon yesterday...mentioned that he would like to catch up with some Red-legged Partridge... for his Pembs Life List...!!

Tesco & back

A brief excursion to Milford today - 1 ad Med gull at the dock. (unringed) Following the possible Bonaparte`s in the week, had me looking hard at all the Black heads though.
On the way home, some 50 Ravens above & around Rickeston, 30 of which were soaring with 6 Buzzards.

St. Brides Bay

Off Broad Haven;-
2 G N Divers, 15 Red-thd Divers & c100 Common Scoter.
Off Newgale;-
10 Red-thd Divers, & 25 Common Scoter.
(Paul G.)

Glynaeron Forest

Earley afternoon,
7 Crossbills on edge of forest, noticeable there were no small ground birds calling inside
forest were they wiped out by the snow?

Bittern & GG Shrike (Teifi marshes)

Both the Bittern and Great Grey Shrike were seen well from the Kingfisher Hide ~11.00 am.

Bewicks swans

11 this morning in riverside fields near Cenarth as yesterday.
(Rich D)

Blackcaps

Llangwm;-
2 Females in garden today,
(Merv)
Newport;-
1 Male in north Newport garden today-new site,
(Tony L.)

Dowrog this evening

3 Hen Harriers 1 male & 2 female and a cracking view of a male peregrinne from about
20 yards

Strumble Head 22nd Jan.

A seawatch for approx. 2 hours this morning between 09.45 & 11.45 produced 6 Red Throated Divers , 12 Common Scoter & 4 Risso's Dolphin , 1000's of Auks , a few Gannets , Fulmars & Kitties.

Prob. Bonapartes Gull -- Aberystwyth

sorry it's Ceredigion, but it's quick to get news out on Fri .night.
Chris Bird saw what he thinks was probably a Bonaparte Gull, amongst the gulls at College Rocks at 16:30 today.
(via John Davis)

Teifi -- Bewicks, GG Shrike, Firecrest & ....

Teifi Valley;-
Actually Carms, between Cenarth & Newcastle Emlyn in roadside fields. A group of 3 ad's & 3 juv. Then c1/2m closer to N. E. a group of 5 ad's. All birds unringed. Will be news early in am.
(found by Jon)
Great Grey Shrike;-
Seen briefly in flight at dusk, but elusive this pm.
(Jon G.)
Firecrest;-
1 in gorse behind the visitor centre, seen whilst dipping the shrike.
(Steve B.)
No sign of the Bittern, but Common Sandpiper & Goldeneye at Jewsons.

Plumstone

tonights highlights;-
1 male Hen Harrier, 1 fem. Goshawk, Merlin, & an estimate of 1.5 million Starlings.
(Paul G. & Merv.)

Spring in the Air?

A decided change after the recent hard weather..........from Natalie Jones - GS Woodpecker busy drumming somewhere in the garden early this morning, Blue Tits in and out of the nest boxes . . Chiffchaff in full song near Strumble along with countless finches and tits and a pair of Ravens on the Marine Walk at lunchtime, one of which aerial displaying!! What a lovely day!! Please keep it up!!

Great Grey Shrike

News from Tommy Evans - The shrike was showing again this morning about 9.30 exactly where it was seen by Wendy yesterday.

2010 Target Species

Completion of annual bird records provides an opportunity to note birds that were NOT seen, as well as those that were, during the year. I've looked through my County list for the last 3 years and noted down species that are usually present in the County at some point during the year that I have seen in only one of the last 3 years or not at all - and there's quite a few! So I now have a target list, some of which I can look for over the next few months, others will have to wait for spring, and others late summer and autumn. I don't want to embarras myself too much but: let's just say I need to go to Strumble for a seawatch or two for the first time in many years, I need to visit some deciduous woodland in May, and if anyone could put me on to a Jack Snipe, Green Woodpecker, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Willow Tit or Tree Sparrow I'd be grateful! Variety is the spice of life, as they say.

Garden Blackcap

A male this morning in my back garden in Haverfordwest, only the second record as far as I can recall - certainly not annual anyway!

headless mystery bird

The severity of this winter has inevitably been the cause of casualties but the fact this birds head was missing when I found it beneath a tree in the Ocean Lab car park suggested a more violent demise at the claws of some predator , possibly a sparrowhawk?

None the less it was extremely thin , its breastbone prominent under the gorgeous covering of its breast. Sadly it would have been a paltry meal for its captor but whatever that was had dropped it and I was the only one to get minimal benefit. It is in my freezer at the moment if anyone wants it.

It always surprises me how small birds in the hand are and this was no exception. The subtlety of its plumage makes it one of my favourite winter visitors.

Not a difficult one to ID but it might amuse any newcomers to our hobby trying to guess it...

Pembroke River strays?

There were 66 Black-tailed Godwits feeding on the mud at Church Lake, Llanstadwell, this afternoon, which I speculate would normally be in the estuarine Pembroke River. I've seen Dunlin flocks commute between the two places in the past.

Great Grey Shrike

The Shrike was again showing well this morning from the river viewpoint on the Teifi Marshes reserve, Cilgerran.
From the picnic area, scan the trees in the direction of the Kingfisher hide. It seems to be favouring trees not visible from the hide so better views are likely from here or from the Badger trail.

Gulls at Tenby

I haven't had a chance to look carefully but in the Giltar Point basin at the end of South Beach there have been lots of gulls feeding during the last three weeks. Today as the tide receded at a guess there were c. 600 birds there so worth scoping I reckon - golf gets in the way of such mundane activities!!!!!!!!!!

Plumstone raptors

Another raptor fest at Plumstone at dusk.
As the starlings started to arrive, a female Goshawk, male Hen Harrier, Peregrine, Merlin, Sparrowhawk and at least 3 Buzzards were seen.
(Paul G and Wendy J)

Great Grey Shrike

The Great Grey Shrike showing from the river view point (and possibly from the Kingfisher Hide), Cilgerran at 4:30 this afternoon. The bird was not seen at all yesterday so is clearly pretty mobile.

Whooper swans - near Angle bay

John Medwell and Ian Bennett (NT) today reported 2 whooper swans in a field near a small pool near the minor unclassified road to Angle Bay off the Angle/Pembroke B-road. They were noted after doing their slightly late WeBs count at Angle Bay. With the international Whooper/Bewick's swan survey in mind, are there any others likely to be lurking around any of the other small, possibly less well-watched, farm pools etc elsewhere in the County?

Plumstone 19 Jan

6 Buzzards, one sparrowhawk, one peregrine and one goshawk at Plumstone this evening

with the starlings, an amazing specatcle in the high wind

Marloes Mere

A late WEBS count - rather fewer ducks than expected but must be the highest count of coot for the site in recent years with 13 and 19 reported a few days earlier. Less than 30 of any duck species although as normal I bet there were more teal in the vegetation.

476 Lapwing in a nearby field with another c.500 at Winterton Farm near Marloes. Also on the famr fields near the Mere 370 Canada Geese - the field is starting to look like a bowling green and the farmer is getting a bit frustrated!!!!!

A femal Peregrine took a Jackdaw from underneath near the Mere and then got chased towards Gteholm by another pair which then doubled back towards Musselwick and resumed hunting
over the fields in typical high and low bird strategy. really fast and spectaular to watch.

There has been another Hen Harrier, not the wing tagged bird, around the Mere in recent days (per Andy Davies)

Carew/Cresswell 19th Jan

Goodish numbers of waterfowl including more than 200 shelduck, 350+ wigeon, 335+ teal, six pintail but record numbers of shoveler (92)(see graph of max winter population trends - click to enlarge this) - a species that has been increasing over the last couple of decades or so.

Other species were present in rather lower numbers than expected - very few dunlin (less than 200); curlew (no more than 20); grey plovers (only a handful).

South..ish Pembs

Amroth;-
31 Red-td Divers,1 Gt. Cd. Grebe.
Wiseman's Bridge;-
2 Red-btd Mergansers, 3 Great Ctd. Grebes.
Milford Docks;-
Ad. Med. Gull.
Pembroke Mill Pond;-
27 Tufted duck, 3 Pochard,
Castle Pill;-
1 Common Sandpiper,& Greenshank.
St. Catherine's Island, Tenby;-
5 Purple Sandpipers & 1 Turnstone.
(Paul G.)

Great Grey Shrike & Bittern !!

Kingfisher Hide, Teifi Marshes;-
15;40 this afternoon, Janet interrupted my conversation with a prod ! to point out a Great Grey Shrike standing on top of a Willow in front of the hide. The bird moved about, often out of site but was enjoyed by Janet, myself, & a breathless Wendy! The shrike was last seen at 16:40.
Then the Bittern showed briefly a couple of times flapping above our ringing ride to the right of the hide.
The shrike will be looked for early tomorrow.

Bittern !!

Whilst enjoying lunch today at Fortune's Frolic, to our amazement and delight, a bittern flew past the car park heading upstream. It reached the road/rail bridge and promptly turned back,
eventually landing out of sight in the field behind the opposite bank. Blimey !

Bosherston waterfowl count

Today's complete monthly count of the lake system produced a nice mixture of birds:
35 moorhen; 129 coot (numbers up on a count made about 10 days ago); 26 little grebe (2 short of last winters record of 28 but they are so hard to find tucked away under bank-side vegetation so there could be more); tufted duck 33 (the highest winter count since January 1997 (34) but still some way below the 60 recorded in the cold spell of Feb 1986); Gadwall 31 was the highest recorded since regular counts began back in 1969; wigeon 15; mallard 35; teal 4 (very low numbers); goosander 25 (21 on eastern arm (11 males) and 4 (females) at head of central arm - one short of last winters record of 26; pochard 1 male only today; scaup 1 (adult female) with 23 goldeneye; shoveler 2 (both males but one a sub-adult looking very female-like). Two kingfishers present and at least one chiffchaff was calling along western arm, so these have survived the cold snap ok. A flock of c. 100 fieldfares were feeding in pasture near Home Farm. Otter family still present in eastern arm plus large pike behaving as if spawning in the shallows - frightening the life out of coot and little grebes!

Green Woodpecker a male in full "yaffling mode" today and being answered by another calling but not yaffling. So all is not quite lost yet for this species in Pembs., but surely there must be more in Pembs somewhere?!

Yesterday, like today, was another very spring-like day with numerous "residents" in song. Out tetrad-bashing - blackcap noted in Clarbeston Road (only a few metres away from where one was seen last winter. Dippers noted along a minor stream nr Clarbeston Road (a tributary of Rudbaxton Water) and on the Syfynwy (nr Bletherston)where one was in full song perched on the water level staff-gauge near the well-flooded ford.

Maybe help some birds which nest in buidings

Please click on the link below to confirm your signature on the
> petition at the bottom of this email.
>
> http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/BirdsBats/B4aGdUBLqhSfDLQTcdArEsL
>
> The petition was created by Alastair McKie and reads:
>
> 'We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to make
> provision for bird and bat species mandatory within new and
> existing building developments.'
>
> [ Please do not reply to this email, it will not confirm your
> signature. This email has been automatically sent by the Number
> 10 petitions system. ]

Harrier Roost monitoring

Plumstone;-
1 m Hen Harrier, 1 Merlin.
(Paul G.)
Dowrog;-
1 m Hen Harrier, 1 rt Hen Harrier, 1 Barn Owl
(Rob Davies)

WEBs and today etc

The hard weather has produced a better than normal WEBs count around St Davids including 100+Snipe 4xWoodcock 3xJacksnipe 14xTufted Duck 2xPochard and 450xLapwing

The large numbers of Thrushes and Redwing have now left this part of St Davids having consumed all the snails and totally rotavating our gardens – if only they had left the lawns alone!!

Rosebush & Llys Y Fran 17th Jan.

Rosebush - Scaup still present along with Tufties , Goldeneyes , Teal , Coot , Mallard.

Llys Y Fran - Approx 3 Goosander , Black Necked Grebe , Great Crested Grebe (6) , 13 Cormorants , 1 Heron , 105 Canada Geese , 2 Dabchicks , a maurauding Peregrine , approx. 4000 Gulls which included an Ad. Yellow Legged , BUT compared to recent years there must be at least 2000 Lesser Black Backed missing .

Woodcock flew along in front of car on way home not far from Lodor Fach.

St Brides bay

One Velvet Scoter was with a flock of around 70 Common Scoter near Little Haven. Further Scoter were seen from different viewpoints north up to Newgale with a total of around 150.
15 Red-throated Divers were together in Goultrop Roads with at least another 15 scattered along the coast.

Spoonbill

One Spoonbill still on the Pembroke river early afternoon
(Rich D)

Hasguard Cross

ps - on the way down to Dale stopped to scan 2 fields at Hasguard Cross - around 500 Lapwing, 26 Golden Plover, and a bonus Med Gull (adult)!

Bramblings & Brents

Highlight of WeBS count at Hook/Sprinkle this morning: drake Pintail, 2+ Brambling with mixed finch flock in stubble fields adjacent to Sprinkle Pill, Snow Goose in with 235 Canadas, 4 Greenshank.

A fruitless search across the Gann saltings for Jack Snipe preceeded 23 light-bellied Brents at the Gann (including ringed bird KLWR - K right leg L Left leg, White right ring, Red left ring), 2 Red-breasted Merganser, 5 Great-crested Grebes, 1 Greenshank, 10+ Redshank, 7 Goldeneye, 2 Little Grebe, 4 Wigeon & around 30 Teal. Most surprising was a Great Northern Diver on the river above the wooden bridge.

In the gull roost 9 Med Gulls (1 1stW & 8 ads) but little else (around 400 gulls in total). Even better was the offer of a cup of tea from the owners of Townshend Cottage, which was a surprise!!

The Gann

14 Brent - inc the colour ringed bird KLWR.
2 Merganser, 4 Gt/C/Grebe, 1 ad Med + Goldeneye & Teal (which I didn`t count)
c8 Snipe, 2 Dunlin, 5 Ringed Plover.

Strumble (17 Jan 10)

Black Redstart this morning on rocks in Pwlluog (Seal Bay).

Angle Area

At Kilpaison this morning as the tide dropped good numbers of birds on the waters edge - 15 Light Bellied Brents including a colour ringed bird (red left leg with letter I, white right leg with letter K), Wigeon 200+, Pintail 4, Shoveller 2, Teal 8, Knot 17, Barwit 36 , Dunlin 300+ , Redshank 8, Grey Plover 1, Curlew 20.
Angle Harbour - 1 Greenshank, 20+ Turnstone, 3 Shoveller. In the bay 6 Great Crested Grebe and a distant Diver sp.
On the rocks at Freshwater West 42 Grey Plover.
Castlemartin Corse was alive with birds - Lapwing 4000+, Wigeon 600+, Shoveller 55, Pintail 2, Tufted 1, Mallard 40, Teal 18, Little Grebe 2, Moorhen 38, Coot 1, Snipe 250+, Woodcock 1, Black Tailed Godwit 9, Curlew 100+, Golden Plover noticable by their absence. Raptorwise, 1 Peregrine, 1 ring tailed Hen Harrier, 2 Sparrowhawks, 1 Buzzard, 1 Kestrel. Small birds - 500+ Skylark, 100+ Linnet and a few Goldfinch and Chaffinch.
Rich C and John Best

Newport Sun am

Ideal weather & tide for Webs.
All the longish stay regulars looked in. Immediately 2 redhead Goldeneye at the Bridge. Then on the retreating tide 2 Knot & 3 Bar T Godwits plus 58 Dunlin but only 9 Ringed Plovers.
13 Redshank is low. Just 1 (one) Curlew & the large nos of Mallard & Teal have virtually gone.
Only 1 Little Egret also, but 108 Wigeon, including part of the flock on a field, which I haven't seen before.
Lastly 2 Shelducks, 22 Oystercatchers (including the roost) & 3 Little Grebes.

International Bewick and Whooper Swan Census 2010

Please don't forget to look out for these birds. All records for this weekend are needed.

More information on Earth News

Llys y Fran

Highlights of a walk at Llys y Fran this afternoon were a Black-necked Grebe (presumed returning bird - 3 successive winters?) and a red-head Goosander. Also 7 Goldeneye, 2 Tufted Duck, 3 Great-crested Grebe, 7 Coot, c.20 Mallard & 2 Cormorant. Decent gathering of gulls by the time I left just before 4.30, included a single Yellow-legged Gull, around 20 Common Gull, 50 Black-headed and several hundred Lesser Black-backs with slightly less Herrings (the latter mostly juveniles).

back after snow

16 lapwing flying SE over Tegryn earlier. Are they heading back inland now the snow has mostly gone!

Tresinwen (16 Jan 10)

A walk around the fields around Tresinwen this morning revealed 1 Woodcock, 5 Snipe and a scattering of Redwing and Lapwing.

3 Bullfinch and a Reed Bunting in the garden.

Bosherston and Carew

At Bosherston this morning a good collection of wildfowl now that the ice has melted - Tufted Duck 16, Pochard 5, Goosander 21, Wigeon 12, Gadwall 14, Teal 6, Goldeneye 8 (Dave Glanville reports 23 a couple of days ago), Coot 98, Little Grebe 8. Also 1 Kingfisher, and from Dave, a Green Woodpecker calling. Wonderful close views too of the Otter family of mother and 2 cubs.
At Carew yesterday afternoon a Peregrine flew over putting up 200 Lapwing from the fields. On the river 1 Greenshank, 1 Black Tailed Godwit 20+ Redshank, 60 Wigeon and 3 Little Egrets.

Strumble Head 9 - 11a.m. Sat 16th Jan

5 Red Throated Diver
1 Gt Northern Diver
2 Common Scoter ( Both Male )
1 Black Guillemot ( Winter Plumage flew East into Fishguard Bay )

Approx 1000+ other Auks 90% of which were Gillies the rest Razorbills.
Also Fulmar , Gannet , Kittiwake .

Siskin & Redpoll ( Lesser ) in garden this morning.

Coots

2, on the sea at Monkhaven this afternoon.

Woodcock

4 Woodcock together at Cwm Yr Eglwys this morning by the marshy area near to caravan site.

Bittern, Teifi marsh

At 15.40 a Bittern flew from near the Kingfisher hide to reeds under the Badger path (midway between the car park and the river).
An otter was walking around on the ice in front of the hide.
3 Goldeneye on the river.

Pembrokeshire Breeding Bird Atlas available by post

We still have some copies of the atlas available, but for anyone who would like to get a copy by post, it is available on-line from here for £10 plus postage

starlings and kites

The journey back from witnessing a gathering of 120 red kites in Carmarthenshire (<1km from pembs border!) coincided with the flight time for starlings travelling to their roost. At efailwen there were large flocks heading west, the same nr llandysilio. At Narberth the picture was less clear, with several flocks heading roughly west followed by several heading almost south, the last of which was when almost dark (5:10pm). This suggests that there are still at least two roosts on the go one of which is quite small somewhere south of narberth.

Hen Harriers --

St David's Airfield;-
A male & a ring-tail Hen Harrier this late pm, also Merlin.
Nine Wells;-
Brambling in field with Chaffinches by BT building.
(Paul G.)

Teifi Marshes

Bittern seen in flight landed out of sight near kingfisher hide around 3 pm
Goldeneye female by bridge
Little Egret 1

Strumble Head Sightings 2010

After a successful first attempt in 09 i will again be collating a Strumble Head Seawatching spreadsheet in 2010 to aid the collection of records , ALL records greatfully received via the blog & hopefully another exciting & successful year will be had as in 2009.

Thanks.

Garden Narberth

A male brambling in the garden this morning, first this year.

Deer Park and Jack Sound

Just a quick visit - very quiet around the Deer Park except a few thrushes - mainly redwings, a few meadow and rock pipits.
In Jack Sound (running south) around 150 mixed gulls mainly BHG with some Kitts and HG's plus at least four Med gulls - all apparently adults and one of which had an almost full hood.

On Midland at least 170 Canada Geese - no sign of any auks or Fulmars.

Teifi

This afternoon, 6 Goosander on the river (4 drakes, 2 red heads) upstream of Cardigan bridge.
From the railings, a pair of Red-breasted Mergansers, c60 Dunlin and 6 Ringed Plover (1 ringed).

Starlings - Henry's Moat

I've only just caught up with the postings on starlings. For the record, we have successive flocks of starlings flying over and just north of the house mainly from the north-west (Letterston) direction and heading down to Farthings Hook, with a few stopping off to visit our bird feeders. Today, the fly past started just before 8.00a.m. ending about 45 minutes later, with the main concentrations between 8.15 and 8.30.

Water Pipit -- Newport

A Water Pipit reported today above the iron bridge at Newport, seen at c13:20 today.
Nice if some-one could look & confirm tomorrow?
(Karen)

A "possible" bittern in Bosherston Lakes area and other winter observations

Today a local regular Bosherton Lakes fisherman came into my office puzzled by a live, large streaky brown heron-like bird he had seen this morning, not at the lakes but on the roadside verge near Coed Melyn (St Petrox)! He described the bird pretty well as being large and heron-like but more or less brown all over with streaky markings - noted on the breast. It had a substantial/stout/straight, yellow-ish brown beak. He thought it might be some kind of "brown heron" species. He is of course familiar with all the normal lake birds including the local herons. He had a quick flick through my office bird book and immediately thought "bittern" seemed to fit his bird most closely.

If it had been on the edge of the reed bed I would have had no doubt, but along side the road on the verge next to a hedge is a bit unusual for this species! If it was a bittern, I wonder if might have been disturbed from the stream valley below St Petrox, or perhaps stunned by a vehicle during the stormy weather the night before? We may never know, but he said that he met a birder with a camera near the lake who went off in search of it to try and photograph it - so was it seen by anyone else I wonder? I could not relocate anything when I checked.

Although the worst of the freezing weather may be over, I have had reports of more than 60 redwings being found dead on the beach areas around Tenby area over a 48 hr period by someone who regularly walks the dog there (source Maria Evans). There have been similar high death rates reported in the news in similar locations along the Somerset an Devon coastline. The theory is that they are seeking water to drink and with the ground being frozen are drinking seawater which, of course, eventually kills them. Anne Bunker (a CCW marine biologist) the other day witnessed a song thrush prizing off a boulder, a quite hard-shelled winkle on the beach in Angle Bay, and apparently smashing and opening it successfully! I wonder how often they do this - perhaps they were finding it difficult to locate hibernating frozen in terrestrial snails? Hopefully the thrush found a suitable freshwater supply to follow up with!

Pen Anglas

I saw an adult Med Gull fly east past the point close inshore at 13:00.

International Bewick and Whooper Swan Census 2010

The weekend of the 16/17th Janaury is the international Bewick and Whooper Swan census. For those doing WeBS counts, just record any swans on your site as normal.

For swans anywhere else, please do record them. The Wetland Trust don't have any on-line data entry for this, but have issued paper forms.

I've tried, unsuccessfully, to put in a link to the forms online, so anyone who wants to go looking for swans, please email me (rushmoor1 at tiscali.co.uk) for a copy.

Cilgerran-Cardigan

On the river at Cilgerran this morning 2 male and 3 Redhead Goosander (2 Redheads yesterday) on the edge of the Teifi Marshes 5 Red Deer and by the main bridge at Cardigan 3 Otters and a single Coot.

Snow Watch

Should be ok on digital TV, it's only people who can't get digital in Wales that will miss it.

Snow Watch

Tommorrow, BBC2, 8pm - though doesn't appear to be in Wales on digital?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qcjzh

I was at Gigrin Farm yesterday when they were filming the Red Kites for this programme. Not sure if the cameraman got the Black Kite on film or not.

Mid Pembs meeting on the 19th

A modest increase in waterfowl numbers at Bosherston Lakes

Despite a noticeable thaw today, Bosherston lakes still have significant sheets of ice cover. As usual, most waterfowl are concentrating at the shallower head of the eastern arm where constant flow has kept an area largely ice-free.

This afternoon coot numbers were only in the upper 90's (somewhat surprisingly) having shown absolutely no increase in numbers at all since the cold snap set in. Numbers of some species have increased, if only moderately, including for example: little grebe 21, gadwall 28, wigeon 9, tufted duck 10, pochard 5 (all males); the earlier reported count of 6 being the largest count here for a few years - where do they go now during hard weather? There were at least 15 goosanders still present but they come and go and so numbers fluctuate quite a bit, as probably do goldeneye, about 21 present in the lake system late this afternoon but their numbers have not really increased at all since mid December.

There were still plenty of thrushes (mainly redwings and song thrushes)in the woodland - quite a few piles of feathers too, following predation of some less fortunate ones. Lapwings and golden plovers are scattered over the Castlemartin peninsula. Small flocks of long-tailed tits quite noticeable today (I wonder if this may be the species seen at fat-balls in a Goodwick Garden?). It was also pleasing to see a couple of blackcaps and a firecrest going to roost before darkness fell.

Bramblings, Spoonbills etc

The highlights of a tour around some sites in the south of the county today

Westfield Pill - 3 Goosander (2 drakes and a redhead) and a Goldcrest (very few around this year).
Pembroke River - in addition to the 2 Spoonbill and birds listed on Sundays blog, 1 Great Northern Diver, 20 Knot, 3 Great-crested Grebes, 7 Grey Plover, 1 Greenshank.
Kilpaison - 11 Pale-bellied Brents, 3 GC Grebes. 5 Pintail
On the road down to Kilpaison,1 Brambling was with some Chaffinches. In a copse of trees beyond a field of cattle to the north of the B4308 going towards Angle there were at least 4 more Bramblings.
Angle village - 1 Greenshank
Bosherston - 9 Goosander, 6 Pochard
Pembroke millpond - 20 Tufted Ducks, 4 Pochard
Pembroke castle pond - 1 Common Sandpiper

(Paul G and Wendy J)

Bearded tits in Pembrokeshire?

I have received the following record -

Last week we had two visits on consecutive days from bearded tits (I couldn't believe my eyes!) On the first day there were three, mainly feeding on the fatballs but also the peanuts. On the second day, they brought friends and there were six or seven. Having had a good feed, they left and did not return.

Presumably these were birds forced out of their regular patch by the cold weather.

The location is near Goodwick, if anyone would like to try to confirm it. But the birds may have moved well away by now.

Annie

Newport Mon am

Of interest; Still c70 mallard & 20 teal. c100wigeon on the Parrog rocks & c30 at the bridge.
1 barwit on the mud as were 58 dunlin (a huge no for this time of year).
The 2 m gadwall with mallards by the Boat Club.
Redshank & ocatcher & gull nos well down.
Another jack snipe, a kingfisher & the now obligatory scattering of lapwings.
(But I havent seen any golden plover yet. Despite the obvious influx of song thrushes & redwings Ive seen very few mistle thrushes & only 1 fieldfare, poking the high tide debris a couple of days ago.)

Trefasser- (Pen Caer)

An unusual site for a Pembs cliff top field, but a Red Kite feeding on dead Lapwings.
c300 Wigeon on the sea off the cliffs, & a walk around the fields at dusk this evening yielded 17 Woodcock.
(Rob Johns)

Spoonbills -- Pembroke River

The ad & juv still on Pembroke River, showing from Bentlass at 13:00
-- more from Pembroke River later

More garden birds

As the Mole was enlarging its ‘hill’ with earth flying in the air, the Thrush had a feeding bonanza. Like the Moles in MI5 this one would not show itself. A great garden tick this morning was a Snipe on the front lawn.

Pembroke Area -- Spoonbills, Dipper

Pennar;-
birds of note today on the north bank by Pennar
spoonbill 2 one juvenile
goldeneye 2
dunlin circa 1000
wigeon circa 1500
greenshank minimum 10
shelduck circa 50
reedbunting small group
black tailed godwit circa 30
redwing many some in poor condition
lapwing up to 50
great crested grebe minimum 6
mallard circa 100
teal up to 50
plus all the commoner stuff
(Barry Potter)

Dipper seen a few days ago on the Millpond Pembroke.... not a regular site?
(Abbey Warren)

Out & about in the light snow

Broad Haven: 2 Velvet Scoter, c.80 Common Scoter, 1 Pochard, 4 Red-throated Diver, 1 Great Northern Diver (plus Redwing, Fieldfares, Song Thrush & random Lapwing scattered about the coastal fringe)

Sandy Haven: 3 Tufted Duck, 1 Goosander, 2 Greenshank, 1 Little Egret, 2 Bar-tailed Godwit, good selection of gulls including 30+ Great Black-backed.

Milford Haven docks: adult Med Gull (with metal ring).

Docks to Cellar Hill & Castle Pill: adult Med Gull, 10 Turnstone, 1 Tufted Duck, 1 Greenshank.

records from today

Westfield Pill;-
A pair of Goosanders on the only unfrozen part of Westfield Pill this morning
(Allan Hansen)
Newport;-
The? 4 Whoopers were seen to fly over the Nevern c10:30.
The Gadwall pair still present.

Blackcaps;-
Felindre, 1 female (Janet)
SA61 garden, male & female Blackcaps this am.(Mark Cherry)
Llangwm, female still present.(Merv)

Tresinwen (10 Jan 10)

The 4 Whoopers reported by Rob Johns over Trefasser at 10am were subsequently seen over Tresinwen. However, they had changed direction and were heading East into Cardigan Bay.

Also a lone Lapwing feeding on the back garden most of the day!

Teifi Waders

This morning, viewed from Patch railings:
31 Dunlin, 2 Sanderling, 1 Knot
Goldeneye viewed in the distance near St Dogmaels moorings.

Intertidal Feeders - Solva Harbour

We walked down the Harbour at Solva yesterday afternoon (9 Jan) and noted several Lapwing among the Redshanks, Oystercatchers and Turnstones feeding on the intertidal area. More unusually, they were joined by Blackbirds, Redwings, Fieldfare, Song Thrushes and Robins all, with the exception of the Fieldfares of which there were only a couple, in good numbers. Interestingly and again unusually, the only gulls present were Black-headed. A single Little Grebe and the usual lone Little Egret were also to be found.

Brambling. St Ishmaels.

Had a phone call from Mike Pritchard earlier this afternoon - "There`s a Brambling in my garden, come down & take a look" "I`m just taking the dogs out" I replied. Realising that I could look down 300 metres into his garden from our lounge, I quickly set up my scope, & found it in his apple tree. Happy me, happy dogs. Here`s a picture his son took.

Winter Thrushes

Both Redwing & Fieldfare have become " On the deck " garden ticks for me in the last two days , the latter although in a small party of four aggressively detering all the other species from feeding apart from our recent resident Pied Wagtail who defiantly gave as good as he got and was tolerated.

Spoonbills -- Pennar

The 2 Spoonbills seen again early this afternoon.
(Barry Potter)
(more details later)

Pembrokeshire Wildlife Trusts Annual Dinner

This years annual dinner will be held at The Mariners in Haverfordwest on the 30th January. If you would like to see the menu and details for booking etc please click here

Trefasser, Pen Caer-- hard weather - whoopers

4 Whoopers flying NW c10:00, -- to S Ireland, likely?
Also 50 Wigeon new arrivals on unfrozen piece of a pond.
Woodcock & Snipe abound, & diving ducks,(Pochard?) on the sea,(Pwllcrochan Bay)
(Rob Johns)

warblers

Blackcaps today.
Fishguard, Adrian's garden still- male
Felindre, Janet's garden still- female

Firecrest & Goldcrest, Goodwick Moor.
(Adrian)

Gann

At the Gann late afternoon: 10 Brent Geese, 17 Goldeneye (14 on the river, 3 in the bay), 2 Red-breasted Merganser (bay), 10+ Little Grebe (1 in the bay), 1 Grey Plover, 1 Bar-tailed Godwit, 1 Dunlin, 9 Turnstone, 2 Little Egret, 9 Mute Swan (4 usually), 6 Shoveler, c.20 Teal, c.15 Wigeon. Virtually nothing on the pool which was more or less froze solid - pretty impressive for a saline lagoon! A few Lapwings buzzing around & a scattering of thrushes of various types was further evidence of the hard weather.

Angle Area - Red Crested Pochard

At Kilpaison this morning a fine drake Red Crested Pochard (rather distant record shot) in amongst some 500+ Wigeon. Also 2 Pintail, 15 Gadwall, 50+ Teal, 16 Tufted Duck (Rich D) and 3 Brents. On the wader front there were 200+ Dunlin, 40 Barwits, 22 Knot, 25+ Ringed Plover and 8 Redshank. A Sparrowhawk flew along the beach and it was odd to see Redwing, Fieldfare and Song Thrush feeding on the beach.

At Angle Harbour early afternoon 1 Greenshank, 40 Dunlin, 10 Redhank, 20 Turnstone and 9 Shoveller. Also, from John and Marion Best, 20 Brents, a pair of Pintail and a Kingfisher.
On Freshwater West beach a lone Sanderling and on the rocks there 8 Grey Plover.

I had a very quick look at Castlemartin Corse but apart from a few Lapwings there appeared to be very few birds.

Echoing Lyndon's post below plenty of Thrushes along the road edges throughout the area with Lapwings on the verges too.

N.B. The road back up from Kilpaison beach is very icy - it took me 3 attempts to get back up the hill!

hard weather movements

Fortune Frolic;-
5 Tufted Duck, & 12 Goldeneye.
(Paul G.)
Trefasser, Pen Caer;-
c1000 Lapwing on cliff-top fields, 9 Little Grebe sharing un-frozen water on small pond, 2 Pintail resting on ice.
A very pale Buzzard seen on carrion c 4 days ago ---- needed a second look as was so pale!
(Rob Johns)
Nevern Est;-
2 Gadwall.

Llandstadwell

Llanstadwell,midday:-
A drake Goosander,and 5 Tufted Ducks are the first I have seen at this location, less unusual, an adult Med Gull,and a Great Crested Grebe.
Allan.

Hen Harrier -- Marloes Mere

The Irish wing-tagged Hen Harrier was active on the Mere this lunchtime.
(Andy Davies)

Red-necked Grebe - Amroth

1 reported offshore c13:10 today.
(BG etc)
Amroth,15;00-16;00;-
5 Gt. Ctd. Grebes, 5 Red-breasted Mergansers, 2 Red-thd Divers.
Also c500, mainly Herring Gulls around the outflow.

SNOWY OWL

A posting appeared on Birdguides this morning, reporting a Snowy Owl seen at Cilau Moor, Goodwick, between 8:30 and 8:55 on 2nd January. If anyone knows anything about this sighting, please contact either myself or Richard with further details. As far as I can tell, there has never been a Snowy Owl recorded in Pembrokeshire, and only 8 in Wales - the last in 1976 and the last 'twitchable' in 1916!! There was a long stayer in Cornwall last winter, but birders in Wales would be keen if it was still present, as would a good number of Pembrokeshire birders!!!

Puffins????

Shirley Matthews was on the breakwater at fishyguard talking to a "local birder" whose name she does not know. He was talking knowledgably about Divers, Grebes etc and then asked her if she had heard the "local news"
Apparently he hardly dared say... "but a flock of Puffins were seen flying around Llanwnda"... Probably Crested eh?

voluntary wildlfowling ban

As from yesterday (8th January) a voluntary restraint on waterfowl and wader shooting was requested across England and Wales. If the freezing weather continues, a statutory ban on wildfowling should come into force next Saturday (16th January) - source CCW/JNCC (and also see BASC website for more info). For more background info about the cold weather wildfowling situation I have extracted this from the BTO website:

"Since 1983, an alerting system has been in place enabling statutory agencies and non-governmental organisations to work together to minimise the level of disturbance to waterbirds in frozen conditions. This includes mechanisms for the voluntary restraint (after 7 days of frozen conditions) and then statutory suspension (after 14days) of wildfowl shooting. Under the criteria by which the number of days are calculated see www.jncc.gov.uk/page-2894 for details. This website also includes a downloadable form allowing you to report any observations you make on the condition of birds in your local area".

For those birders who are getting out and about, it is worth being aware of these important conservation measures and to make sure that our own actions to watch flocking/feeding/roosting birds don't cause unnecessary disturbance at this time of extra stress on the natural environment.

Should anyone become aware of significant bird (notably waterfowl/waders etc) mortality or bird concentrations then it would be useful to have records. RJH is trying to collate records that might help inform the statutory conservation agencies of the effects of the hard weather on birds in Pembs. Also, although a bit grim, if you do find any dead birds don't forget to check for rings and report these via www.ring.ac or send to: recoveries@bto.org

The Freeze

Both yesterday and today the gardens in the City and the lanes around St David’s are ‘infested’ with Thrushes of all types particularly Redwing. They are clearly really struggling now to survive. It seems as though every House Sparrow in the World is coming to roost in my neighbour’s ivy on the side of their house

sNOw go area

Pen Caer

A melt earlier in the week turned our steep lane into a stream which subsequently froze into black ice. A couple of inches of powder snow on top has now made it look more like the Cresta Run. On my last attempt to break out I reversed about 3 yards out of our drive onto the road and got stuck.

What a great excuse to wander around the fields and see whats about!

Most noticeable has been a steady flow of small numbers of Lapwings all heading for the coast with none returning so probably hard weather movement in search of warmer climes. I tried to photograph them and failed miserably, excuse the sad image.

Along with the Lapwing, a few Golden Plover and a steady stream in ones and twos of winter thrushes,Redwings odd Fieldfares but the majority being Mizzles. Odd Snipe and a Woodcock were put up in a boggy corner, whilst a calling Curlew came in to land as I passed by. Meadow Pippits,Robins and Rooks were extremely tame, probably all suffering and loath to waste energy.

Raptors included Buzzard, Sparrowhawk, Peregrine, Merlin, and Kestrel, but star birds were three Chough feeding around our neighbours slurry pit which flew over our house and became garden ticks ! Its not often we see chough away from the coastal fringe but I have seen them hereabouts a couple of times over the years.

Notes from a Fishguard garden

Hi,
Redpolls & Greenfinches disappeared a week ago & only an occasional Siskin visiting - but at least 2 dozen Goldfinch hanging about.
HOWEVER today a first sighting of a [solitary] BRAMBLING on the niger-seed feeders & also about 6-8 Redwings rootling about. Two Kites circling overhead & a nice fly-past of a few Lapwings. So a most enjoyable time spent washing the dishes & staring out of kitchen window!
[Agree that there are far fewer Chaffinches, sparrows & tits about - ordinary seed & peanuts quite slow going ]
Bethan

Teifi marshes

With all of the pools on the marsh now frozen, birds have moved on to the river which is also now starting to freeze. They were mainly concentrated on the section near the river picnic site on the reserve so the place to keep an eye on over the next few days. There were over 250 Teal, a male Goosander, Water rail and a Snipe.
Near the Creek hide a Cetti's warbler was singing. The hide itself is well used as an owl roost and fresh pellets, feathers, bird legs and even half a snipe have been in there recently.

Ramsey - cold weather movements

These last few days have seen infuxes of lapwing and golden plover to the island, between 50-100 of each. The ground is frozen over here too for large parts of the day so some of the lapwing seem to have given up and carried on west to Ireland, there was a steady stream of them heading that way this morning. A few have even ventured in to the farmhouse garden to root in the veggie patch.

Fieldfare and redwing numbers have jumped up considerably too. Around 70-100 of each. A mistle thrush today is quite a rarity out here.

In addition, 20+ common snipe, 1 jack snipe and 4 woodcock. The fulmars have been absent throughout the cold spell and chough numbers are very low. If their feeding grounds aren't frozen they are saturated!

A cold Gann

With the pools mostly frozen, the river and foreshore was packed with birds - a good mix of the usual 22 Brent Geese, Oystercatchers, Redshank, Curlew, Ringed Plovers, a few Dunlin, 5 Turnstone, a few Golden Plover, one Grey Plover, Ringed Plovers, about 30 Wigeon, 7 Goldeneye, 2 Shovelers, 8 Dabchicks, sundry gulls including 7 Greater Black Backs, a Kingfisher and about 95 Teal - the latter being a good number. Out on the sea were 3 Great Crested Grebes and a rather distant large brown duck which looked a bit like a female Eider but was probably only some kind of cross-bred Mallard. Two very tame and small-lookings buntings got the pulse racing but on reflection I am sure they were only Reed Buntings!

Rosemary

Bird feeding & listing

I would agree with Mark - today the number of birds using the garden feeders & additional food put down is lower than last weekend. Signs of birds succumbing to the persistent cold or moving on?

As a result of collating & submitting my annual records to Jon, I had a chance to update my Pembrokeshire & Welsh lists respectively: 275 & 301 (including recent additions Pacific Diver & Glaucous-winged Gull). What next for Pembrokeshire I wonder? My top tips (or is it desire?) for Pembrokeshire this year are: Bonaparte's Gull, Citrine Wagtail, Radde's Warber, Buff-bellied Pipit & Red-flanked Bluetail. And the good news is that they are all possible in my chosen birding peninsula!

bird feeding

Tegryn: I think that the birds have reduced around my garden & feeding area, & the amount of food eaten has reduced too, just in the last 2 or 3 days. I wonder if some of my birds have moved. This is not a scientific point, but a judgement. Minus 5 at 11a.m. & thick snow must have significant effects!

Hen Harrier -- N Pembs

This male flying fron Beddmorris towards Myndd Dinas at 13:30 today.
(Karen)

Monkhaven water treatment works

Just thinking about all those Chiffchaffs & Firecrests that many of us saw this time last year, this is what awaits you now & for the next few weeks!

Around St Ishmaels in the snow

1 Ringtail at the Bicton junction. 1 Redshank - landed briefly on the road in front me.
1 Razorbill on the sea at Monkhaven. I could see Dale from the cliff path & close inshore, I could just about make out what looked like 3 divers, Great Northerns perhaps?
Lots of Lapwings, Redwings, Song Thrushes & a few Fieldfare.
In the garden 1 male Blackcap & a Goldcrest passing through, ignoring the feeders - too many Chaffinches for comfort!

Newport Thurs am

Still lots of Mallard & Teal.
Also still the pair of Merganser & the Knot. Now 3 Bar T Godwits. 30+ Dunlin. Usual 10-15 ea Redshank, Ringed Plover & Oystercatcher. A smattering of Curlews & Lapwing. c75 Wigeon
Very few Gulls.

Chiffchaffs

Two Chiffs calling to each other yesterday (6th) morning in and near the conifers at Mullock Bridge. Haven't seen or heard a Goldcrest for weeks though.

Snow.......

I though others might like to see one of the two fieldfares that have come in to our garden in Penybryn with the recent snow.
Tommy

Teifi Tufted Ducks

Opposite St Dogmaels quay, the fields are attracting large numbers of Lapwing, Redwing and Golden Plover. Downstream, the unusual sight on the Teifi of 1 m and 2f Tufted Ducks.

On the river by the hospital a red headed Goosander and a Goldeneye.

Barn Owl 6th Jan

Barn Owl quartering fields at Hayscastle this morning at 9 a.m.

North Pembs.

Felindre;-
Brambling in Janet's garden today.
Flagpoles;-
2 Gt. Ctd. Grebes on the sea.
Goodwick Moor;-
c6 Siskins, 1 Kingfisher, & several Bullfinches.

Teifi;-
Ad Med. Gull, & 1 Coot ! & Moorhen at Jewsons.
1 Bar-tailed Godwit opp. St. Dogmael's Quay.
1 pair Red-breasted Mergansers off The Webley.

St.Davids

Black Redstart showing well in the Cathedral grounds this morning. The groundsman said it's been around for a couple of weeks. There's been a huge influx of Lapwing and Golden Plover in and around St.Davids, also Thrush species are everywhere.

Starlings

Further to Grahams post last Saturday - a small flock of c200 birds flying North from Milford Haven, roughly in a line from Tesco, over Lower Priory (just West of Thornton Ind estate) & appeared to be following the railway line to Haverfordwest. Around 1600hrs today.

Commuting Avocet !!

Hi folks

Just to add info to the commuting Avocet discussion, a single bird circled the Pebbles Car Park, Newgale flew north up towards Newsurf/Duke of Edinburgh and then returned flying purposefully south along the coast at 16.15 hrs on Sunday 3rd Jan.

regards
Trevor Theobald

BIRD GROUP MEETING TONIGHT CANCELLED

Due to current conditions and the latest forecast we have decided to cancel tonight’s Bird Group meeting. I am sending emails and phoning etc but please let others know because I may not ‘reach’ everyone.

Lyndon

starlings

Monday evening at Walton East between 16.20 & 16.35 steady stream of starlings (many thousands)heading due west. It is 12 km from there to the Plumstone roost. Interesting to see the roost getting those few minutes later each day; spring is in the air!

A New years challenge to folk in south Pembs - can you add any of these missing species to the winter atlas?

With the harsh weather continuing, hopefully there will be a chance to add to the winter atlas species so far unrecorded in the current survey period that were recorded in the early 1980s atlas survey. We have previously listed species in coastal 10 km squares SM71, SM81, SM84 and SM94. So now its time to look at the south coast squares SR89, SS09 and SS19 - it might require a trip to Caldey to help find species in SS19. But here they are anyway - a New Years challenge!

Little Grebe SS19
Slavonian Grebe SR89
Black-necked Grebe SS19
Grey Heron SS19
Gadwall SS19
Pochard SS19
Eider SS19
Common Scoter SS19
Kestrel SS19
Coot SR89 SS19
Grey Plover SS19
Lapwing SS19
Snipe SS19
Woodcock SS09
Redshank SR89 SS19
Turnstone SS19
Little Auk SS19
Stock Dove SR89
Collared Dove SR89
Barn Owl SS09 SS19
Little Owl SS19
Tawny Owl SS09 SS19
Short-eared Owl SS19
Green Woodpecker SS09
Black Redstart SS19
Fieldfare SS19
Blackcap SS09 SS19
Chiffchaff SS19
Marsh Tit SS09
Nuthatch SS19
Jay SS19
Brambling SS09
Yellowhammer SR89

Yesterday (4th) at Stackpole Bosh Lake still partly ice-covered but there are not less than 18 goosanders still present, also a couple of male pochards and a few tufted ducks (seems strange that pochard are still so scarce). Quite a lot of snipe scattered across the warren,seeking soft sandy areas to feed. Several woodcock noted feeding out in the open in broad daylight (1400 hrs) in some less frozen grassland areas. Last time I noted this at Stackpole was during the severe cold snap in the mid 1980s but it was much colder then with hundreds of golden plover and lapwing dying across the peninsula. Yesterday in excess of 500-700 redwings estimated with many other thrushes feeding in the shelter of the wooded areas on the NNR.