Forty plus years on - changing breeding bird populations at Stackpole

I recently unearthed a 1968 report of a breeding birds survey undertaken on the Stackpole Estate by Peter Stuttard, then at the Orielton Field Centre, later to work for the Nature Conservancy Council/Countryside Council for Wales. It is interesting to note his comments of some species and compare them with the situation in 2010/2011.

He noted about 74 breeding species in the Stackpole Estate which in itself is quite impressive -currently under 70 species breed. Here are just a few examples of Peter's summary observations compared with the current situation:

Lapwing - one or two pairs breed on Stackpole Head, the odd pair breed in Kilpaison Burrows (extinct as a breeding species on Stackpole Head with no confirmed records here since, although about 15 years ago a pair did hang around on the warren into the Spring. They were breeding at the time on the Castlemartin Range);

Kittiwake - less than 100 pairs breed in the Stackpole Head area (the population increased in the 1970s but they had pretty well all gone by the end of the 1980s);

Puffin - about half a dozen pairs breed on Stackpole Head (much the same today);

Cuckoo - a common summer visitor (rarely heard now and none have bred for several years);

Little Owl - a few breeding pairs mainly in the coastal areas (extinct along the Castlemartin peninsula coast for at least a decade - last bred at Broadhaven);

Kestrel - one or two pairs breeding in the woods, hunt over the warren (one pair breeds in the sea cliffs, not annually, and there have been no woodland breeding records in the last 25 years);

Green Woodpecker - very commonly heard in woodland and must breed in fair numbers (may have gone extinct in 2011 when the last male was predated);

Great Spotted Woodpecker - probably a few breeding pairs but not often seen or heard (in 2010 at least 6-9 breeding pairs nested at quite a locally high density);

Tree Pipit - found in small numbers in open wooded areas (now a scarce fly over migrant);

Starling - a very common breeding species (no longer breeds - last bred in the sea-cliffs at Stackpole about 20 years ago);

Yellowhammer - quite a common breeding species in certain woodland and scrub communities (no records in last 20-25 years at least).

Hopefully a fuller comparable report will be produced some time. Thanks to Chloe Hudson for transferring the information to a spreadsheet so that the records can be added to the Recorder database.

Are there other archive gems from other localities in the County that would be interesting to compare with today?

Bob