Christmas to New Year Winter Atlas "roving" tetrad recording" - some general observations

During the last 10 days, Annie and I have made a determined effort to try and visit as many under-recorded (or under-reported) tetrads that we could manage in daylight. We've walked many kms along roads, country lanes, paths etc through more than 60 tetrads (about 15% of the tetrads in the County). In all, we visited nine individual 10km squares, mostly covering inland rural Pembs.

It is interesting to reflect back on the high-lights (and low-lights). It was relatively easy to find some species and in good numbers, during the snow/cold snap - such as woodcock, snipe and song thrush for example. But as soon as it got milder these species in particular also more or less melted away into the background! With more effort we did still find them in many tetrads visited at the turn of the year.

During the last 10 days, we attempted to examine most of the range of habitats accessible to us. It was generally easy to find 20-30 species in a 2km x 2km square, but really not so easy to get above 30 species - bearing in mind that for the most part we did not visit coastal or estuarine habitats, just normal inland rural Pembs countryside. With some wetland/open water and good woodland present the tetrad species list did go above 30 fairly quickly but not much beyond 35-40 species at most.

Away from village gardens and farmyards, often rich in species - including woodland birds at numerous artificial feeders -or along good sheltered woody lanes or in wet valley bottoms, much of the open countryside was often devoid of birds. The term "green desert" certainly applies!

Lapwings though, and of course redwings and fieldfares, were found in several locations on open farmland - particularly damper fields rich in animal dung or where slurry had been applied. Starlings were simply everywhere! Without their presence it might have been even more quiet and dull along country lanes with mile upon mile of heavily manicured (seed and fruit deficient) hedges bordering mono-culture grasslands. There were very few stubble or root crop areas in places we visited.

However we did manage to find some species that are around, if only sparingly and in limited locations - eg yellowhammers (found in just 3-4 tetrads at most). Even reed buntings were pretty hard to find but we noted them in several tetrads (including along forest edge and in hedgerows). In one area several were associating with a small flock of bullfinches on a forest edge. Crossbills were found in at least three or four Preseli zone tetrads with afforested areas, where they were predicted to be.

It was also nice to find a pair of willow tits a couple of days ago feeding in a hawthorn tree along side the road on the fringes of the Preselis in SN03 (also nice to see good quantities of the scarce bearded lichen Usnea articulata in nearby roadside trees in this area). The most rewarding species was a lesser-spotted woodpecker, found yesterday near Llanfalteg (but just in Carms in SN11P) a tetrad that straddles the Pembs border. It was in classic habitat for this species, willow carr with pollards, bordering a bird-rich swampy-wetland zone with other species such as willow tit and reed bunting. It would probably have been missed but for picking out its very distinctive contact call from a great-spotted woodpecker also calling from the same patch - both were seen well, if not in the same field of view. Despite our efforts we have not found any LSW in Pembs so far. There have been plenty of great spotted woodpeckers (in most tetrads visited) but sadly no green woodpeckers anywhere.

It has been noticeable just how relatively widespread and numerous red kites have been compared with last winter - almost on a par with buzzards. Most kite records were close to farms with huge numbers of starlings feeding. The kites seemed to be hunting along hedgerows but definitely concentrating their efforts along hedges radiating around starling-rich zones. None of the kites seen so far have been tagged. We also recorded kestrels, sparrowhawks, peregrines and goshawks but they have not been anywhere near as numerous as kites and buzzards.

There have been hundreds/thousands of starlings around farm buildings. Various bird-scarcer devices are clearly being deployed in a number of places in an effort to try and deter them. One example noted included amplified loop-recordings of peregrine/other raptor calls and alarms. The impression gained was that these sounds may actually have drawn in various species into the area, investigating the location of this strange but invisible raptor! Apart from an occasional flurry of starling flying activity when "raptors" were calling, they simply resumed feeding during the quieter phases.

Several folk have also been out adding records recently, Janet Atkinson and Terry Allen for example. Thanks to all for your efforts so far. But there are still many tetrads left to cover in this the last winter Atlas period where, we are sure, there will be at least 20 - 30+ species to be found in each tetrad.

For example, apart from Ramsey, most of the Pembs Islands are still deficient in winter bird records - can we get out to these places? Peter and Rosemary Royle, by adding grey plover, have managed to tip SM81 into the above 90% of predicted species category but this has not yet been achieved in SM84. Here there is only one tetrad ("Strumble") but it still has comparatively few winter species logged compared with the first winter atlas! Is Strumble really that poor in winter these days?

No barn owls have been recorded yet in SM81, or SN04 - surely they must occur somewhere in these 10km squares, or have they disappeared since the last winter Atlas? Records of all owl species in general are somewhat deficient.

With everyone's help we should be able to get a more complete picture for Pembs. Once the Atlas fieldwork is finished, all the collated records will be available to the Bird Group. So if you can, please try to make your winter bird records count towards it this New Year.