Third time lucky

My third visit to Ty Rhyg this year was rewarded with very close views of the great Grey Shrike. It was close to the gate and had flown in ...

Iceland Gull - Teifi

No sign of the Glaucous Gull either this evening, or last night, but an immature Iceland Gull this evening from the gull view point.

Rarities

Today I included 2 Great Spotted Woodpeckers in a Bird Track list. I was told, in red, "unusually high bird count".

Pembs Bird Group, Monday March 5th

Peter Royle will be giving an illustrated talk on "Birding in Malaysia and Borneo", at The Patch, Furzey Park, Haverfordwest at 7:...

Cwm Gwaun

16 Ravens displaying & generally enjoying the Spring sunshine.

Goldcrest - Ramsey

First Goldcrest of the year today on the west coast

Chiffchaff

A Chiffchaff was at Cwm Yr Eglwys today, I have not seen any there all winter so may be an early migrant.

Purple Sands - Ramsey

We have a regular winter roost on SE corner of Ramsey but it is very difficult to view from the island itself. Most of my records come from ...

Purple Sandpipers - Skomer

Some figures from Chris (warden) March 1993 -- 22 Purple Sandpipers, and in March 1994 a count of 21. Steve's count of 21 on February...

Newport

Along the Nevern ~5 Ringed Plover, 10 Dunlin, 4 Sanderling, 3 Grey Plover, 3 Barwits, 12 Redshank, 3 Shelduck, 1 Kingfisher. Also noted in m...

Brambling - Boncath

1 In the garden today, with good numbers of finches, particularly Greenfinches and Siskins passing through at the moment.

Wigeon and a Merlin

There were 40 plus wigeon on Penberi pond and a female merlin on the A487 near Panteg, at SM919342, late this afternoon.

Ty Rhyg

The shrike was up near the gate this afternoon. Also of note was a flock of 60 fieldfares on the move and a party of at least 25 goldcrest. ...

Glaucous and Iceland - Teifi estuary

A juvenile Glaucous gull was around for the third day running today. It was on the main sand bank from the " gull view point ". It...

Water Pipit

There was a Water Pipit on Newgale Marsh this morning. No sign of the Whoopers at Castlemorris but yesterday's Velvet Scoter was again o...

Saturday off Skokholm (and a couple of other islands)

Echoing Steve's comments from Skomer, the cliffs and seas around Skokholm were notable for really very large quantities of Guillemots an...

Sunday on Skomer

On a flat calm day managed to spend a couple of hours on and around Skomer. Not much on the island plateau except for a woodcock, a couple ...

Grassholm Research

Dr Steve Votier and his team from Plymouth University have been carrying out research on the foraging and migration patterns of Grassholm...

Glaucous Gull -- Teifi

The 1st w was on the mud opposite Curlew Hide at 17:15 this evening. It then flew off over the town down the river. We couldn't relocat...

V-tastic: Velvet & Slavs

A nice afternoon out with Paul G. First stop Broad Haven where, amongst some 118 Common Scoter, a Velvet Scoter was present (looked like a ...

Glossies at Marloes Mere

Still at the Mere around 4.30 -5.00pm, when they vanished in the sedge, perhaps settling down to roost. I wonder if they left the Mere at al...

Tresinwen & Gwent (26 Feb 12)

At least one Short Eared Owl hunting fields behind the house this afternoon and showing well. [Outside of region, I know, but if anyone is t...

Crossbills

At least 10 Crossbills at Glynaeron this afternoon also 5 Fieldfares which I have found thin on the ground this winter,very little on Rosebu...

St. David's Hd.

Following in Mike's footsteps, we plodded out to St. David's Head this morning and scouted round for the Snow Bunting. We eventually...

Glossy Ibis/ Marloes Mere

Still 3 this morning, in front of the North hide, looking smart with the sunlight on their plumage.

Iceland Gull

An adult Iceland Gull was circling low with Herring Gulls at Merlin's Hill at about 1300hr. Watched while waiting for the traffic lights...

Plumstone

Still plenty of starlings at the roost, along with three sparrowhawks, a 1stW goss, a peregrine and two ring-tail hen harriers.

Glaucous & Iceland on the Teifi

From Jon G. news of 1st yr Glaucous Gull and a 1st yr Iceland Gull on the sands at the Teifi pre-roost at 17:07 this evening. 15 minutes l...

Glossy Ibis /Short Eared Owl

At Marloes Mere, SEO, being mobbed by Crows (which I lost track of as my dog went awol) However, the 3 Ibises flew in from the East, landed ...

Fulmars

Plenty of activity amongst a small group of Fulmars at Broadhaven South this morning. Pairs on ledges with much bickering with interlopers f...

St David's Hd

A Snow Bunting present near the Burial Chamber also 2 ad Med Gulls and 3 Red-throated Divers Whitesands Bay. The Snow Bunting was another Gr...

Whoopers

Present this morning at Castlemorris but down to four.

Glossies at Marloes Mere

Took off as I arrived - 8am, flew East for a minute or two & landed South of, & quite close to, James Marloes Court House.

Glossies at Marloes Mere

3 Glossy lbis,still at the Western end of the mere around 5pm this evening.

Bittern

A Bittern flew along the west side of Goodwick Moor this am, dropping in near the secret pool. In the harbour: a Black Guillemot and ad Med ...

The Gann

A quick walk around the foreshore and pools. 27 LB Brent Geese on the tideline and 7 Great Crested Grebe out in the bay were the best of th...

Puffin in the Haven

A Puffin still in winter plumage off one of the refinery jetties today. (Paul W)

niger

In all that rain yesterday we had the usual goldfinches on the niger seed, & the 4 redpolls are still pretty regular. However we also ha...

Brief Strumble visit

AT Strumble today between 10 and 11 am approx: a Black-throated Diver pitched in and there were 4 Red-throated. The Whooper Swans were still...

Skokholm

This is a bit of a late post as i managed to get out to the island on 14th. Greeting us at South Haven were two overwintering Whimbrel again...

Red Kites.

Two near the water tower at Neyland this lunchtime.

Newport Mon pm

Numbers of the regular waders quite low, but there are still 5 Sanderlings, 3 Barwits & 3 Grey Plovers.

Whooper Swans - Castlemorris

The 5 swans still present this morning. (Janet)

Teifi Marshes, a thank you & sightings

Firstly a massive Thank You to John Thomas, Tommy Evans and the rest of the Tuesday work party on the Reserve. Whilst some of the Ringing Gr...

Iceland Gull - Llys-y-fran Reservoir

1 1st year Iceland Gull present at 1615 when I arrived. 10 Goldeneye (5m) and 1 pair of Goosander too. Gulls numbers still only numbered c3...

20th Feb Mid Pembs Section meeting

Please use the link to The Pembrokeshire Bird Group Blog for more info

Glaucous Gull Abermawr.

A large very pale gull flew into the bay from the Pwll Deri end at 12.30 , giving reasonably close views identified it as a Glaucous Gull ...

Barn owl

A barn owl, between Frenni Fawr & Frenni Fach, last night.

Glossy Ibis @ Marloes

Also saw the 3 Glossy Ibis at the Mere, twice in flight and once on the ground, feeding in a grassy field at the W end (not at all marshy). ...

Glossies at Marloes Mere

3 still present, at the far end of the Mere - wouldn`t have seen them if it was wasn`t for a Kesrel hovering, which I assume put them up. Af...

Ramsey - Manxies

Did a quick half hour seawatch this afternoon and had 2 Manxies, the first of the year. Good numbers of gannets around too (17 in 30 mins). ...

Rosebush Reservoir and Ty Rhyg

Rosebush Res. GC Grebe, 2 Goldeneye (pair), 9 Tufted (7male,2female), 5 Little Grebe, a Pochard (male), 2 Canada geese. Man walking his dog ...

Lesser B B Gull

Sadly the Severn Est Gull Group decided 1700 km in 3 days was impossible & rejected the earlier sighting but had forgotten to update the...

Ruff at the (truncated) Flagpoles

There was a ruff feeding among the oystercatchers, redshank, dunlin, turnstone and sanderling at the flagpoles late this afternoon.

Porthlysgi

Turnstones doing what turnstones do on Porthllysgi beach this morning. Also present were 4 grey plover and 3 sanderling.

Yaffle

Carole had a one fly across in front of her on the new bit of the A40 just beyond Spittal on the way to Haverfordwest this morning. Her seco...

Bullfinches

I think of Bullfinches as rather solitary birds - see one & you'll probably see its mate, but that's it. So a party of 8, includ...

Angle Bay

At Kilpaison this lunchtime there were 30 pale-bellied Brent Geese and two Little Egrets, with a partial s/p adult Mediterranean Gull in the...

Migrant Chiffchaff?

There was a Chiffchaff at the Crossroads in Porthmelgan Valley, St Davids Hd this am. A very strange spot for a wintering bird. The 5 Whoope...

Lesser B B Gull

Yesterdays Lesser BB at Newport had indeed led a more interesting life. Ringed on a Gloucester landfill site in May 08, it was still in the ...

Carew

At Radford Pill (off the Carew River) this afternoon 2 Green Sandpipers, 47 Black-tailed Godwit, 12 Redshank, 1 Little Egret, 30 Teal, 1 Pin...

Newport Wed am

Well, just the bridge really. As well as the Dunlin (I had 37 too) there were 5 Barwits & 3 Grey Plovers which have been around c 10 day...

Ibis...origin Spain

From Derek Moore - There is little doubt that these Glossy Ibises wearing white plastic rings originate from the Coto Donana, Spain. Check...

The Glossy Ibis Jigsaw

Following on from Dereks post - a search of the web for ringed ibis turned up a bird on Scilly at the end of last year that appears to sport...

Re Glossy Ibis

photographed by Richard Crossen on 1/Feb, just had an email from Mark Grantham at BTO. He has tried to match a ringed bird seen at Ceredigio...

Ibises Down to 4......?

From Richard Ellis - A group of 4 flew over Carew Cheriton on the usual flight path at 17.16. I hung around briefly to see if there was ano...

Pembs Bird Group Meeting ~ 13th Feb 2012

Please use link to Pembs Bird Group Blog site Lyndon

Newport

Parrog 15.15 ~ 10 Ringed Plover, 37 Dunlin, 5 Sanderling, 1 Grey Plover, 1 Kingfisher.

Gupton Farm and Freshwater West

The Ruff was still present at Gupton Farm this morning, again feeding among the Lapwings and Golden Plovers in the cattle-poached field abov...

Strumble Shorties (12 Feb 12)

As promised a few pictures from yesterday.....

3 Ibises

The 3 Glossy Ibises were reported this afternoon flying into Marloes Mere so they are till around.

Weekend Waterfowl counts - Carew/Cresswell Rivers and today at Bosherston Lakes

Despite a general return to milder weather, numbers of most waterfowl were still holding up over the weekend. Within the Carew/Creswell comp...

Fishguard Harbour

A summer plumaged Black Guillemot on the ferry side,an adult Mediterranean Gull and 13 Dunlin by the flagpoles this afternoon.

Castlemartin Corse

Late morning at Castlemartin Corse there were a few ducks on the flooded area by the reedbed - 14 Shoveller, 120 Wigeon, 3 Pintail, 17 Malla...

Whooper Swans

Five still present near Castlemorris this morning.

Iceland Gull ...........

Pwllgwaellod:- 08:00 this morning, a 2nd winter Iceland Gull (Andrew Crowder) Not seen later, but 1 Great Northern Diver offshore. (Karen ...

Airfield Owls

I recall working at St.Davids Airfield when it was fully operational, and being treated to some great aerial displays, but nothing to compar...

Sewage works bird table

Yesterday at the Monkhaven sewage works there were loads of birds hopping around and feeding - just like a bird table. In the short time we ...

Tresinwen (12 Feb 12)

I had a stunning male Hen Harrier fly through the fields behind the house at 1330 - it then disappeared towards Llandre. The Short Eared Owl...

Pantmaenog and Ty Rhyg

Pantmaenog Despite the drizzle a few birds in song made it feel more spring-like. Crossbill calling in the tall stand of trees. Whilst watch...

Angle Bay and Bosherston

This morning, a Slavonian Grebe and Little Egret were on view during the high tide period from Kilpaison.  At Bosherston, a flock of 15 Tuft...

Short - eared Owls - St. David's Airfield

Quartering the fields just north of the airfield, 3 short-eared owls, at about 16.00 hrs today. 15 -20 lapwing flying around, also. We h...

Glossy Ibis - Carew Cheriton

At last! Got 'em on my garden list. They flew high and fast over Carew Cheriton at 17.22 precisely. So fast, and my field of view bein...

Tresinwen (11 Feb 12)

No sign of the Shorties this afternoon but I did flush a Ringtail Hen Harrier from a hedgerow below Tresinwen.

North Pembs

The 5 Whooper Swans were in a roadside field just outside Castlemorris on the Letterston road late morning. Black Guillemot, 1 breeding plum...

Broad Haven

High tide and calmer conditions revealed 60+ scoter, c.10 Red-Throated divers, a GC Grebe, tight flock of wigeon, 3 Grey Plover on the rocks...

Whooper Swans

The 5Whoopers Whoopers are still at Castlemorris. Can be viewed distantly froom nr Priskilly GC turning

Whooper Swans

The Whoopers still present Castlemorris.

Glossy Ibis

Sorry, Jill, but they were seen yesterday; flying low past Carew Cheriton church at 5.20 p.m.

Glossy Ibis

At 5.08 they came over Carew Cheriton church heading towards the Carew River as we watched from the roundabout, flying fast, almost seemed t...

owls

A barn owl between Frenni Fawr & Frenni Fach, & a tawny owl in Tegryn last night.

Tenby

Yesterday a fine male Black Redstart in the centre of Tenby.

Whooper Swans

5 Whoopers are in a field just the Letterston side of Castlemorris. Parking awkward. Update: the swans are in a roadside field with lots of ...

Goosander

3 male and 10 redheaded Goosander on the river at Cilgerran this morning my highest count of the year so far, also a Kingfisher here. Heard...

Bittern - St. David's Airfield

1 Seen at the pond, where Shoveler and Teal feeding on open water. The Bittern seen at c14:50 today. (Robert & Jenny Briggs)

Ramsey Sound - six hrs in the freezer

The usual gull feeding activity in the sound to day (kittiwakes, c. 100 black-headed gulls, several common gulls, a single 1st winter little...

Newport

On the mud at the bottom of Long Street, as well as the usual sprinkling of Redshanks, Curlews & Oystercatchers, there were 55 Dunlin, 1...

Fishguard Harbour and Fort

At the Flagpoles: 19 Dunlins, 2 Sanderlings, 4 Ringed Plovers and a Grey Plover. From the Fort: 2 Black Guillemots, Great Northern Diver, 3 ...

Lapwings

On the Trehill fields on the other side of Marloes Mere yesterday morning was probably thebiggest flock of Lapwings I have even seen -about ...

Glossy Ibis

Yes ---- We cracked. Today we joined the list of Glossy Groupies and waited dutifully at Carew Cheriton roundabout for the fly-past. At 5:13...

Black Redstart

The male at Pembroke Dock yesterday. (Monday)

Glossy Ibis and Owls

13 Glossy Ibis seen coming into roost near Carew and on journey home saw a Barn owl around Boncath cross roads and a Tawny Owl in the car he...

Dowrog

Visited Dowrog in the vain hope of stray Glossy Ibis` and no luck--- Never mind, we parked in usual place and saw a Shortie straight away, h...

Glossy Ibis

Thirteen flew over Carew Cheriton at 17:20 this evening in the direction of Carew River / Radford Pill to roost.

Out West

At Porthlysgi Bay (West of Porthclais) at low tide this morning there were 10 Sanderlings, a Grey Plover and 4 Curlew ---not much of a bay ...

Bird Group meeting Tonight

Unfortunately tonight's meeting has to be cancelled. We do apologise to everyone as the meeting was for us all a special one. We have...

Glossies and more

I was watching from Carew Mill and saw the 13 Glossy Ibis drop in to roost on the east bank of the Carew River just downstream from the mout...

Just a thought.....

The colour ringed Ibis that Richard photographed in the week, came from (as everybody realises) Spain. Mark Grantham at BTO tried to jigsaw ...

Marloes Mere

Early this morning - 1 Ringtail Harrier. Later this afternoon, I met Sue & Alun Lamb, while we were talking a female Merlin flew past, t...

Glossy Ibis

Thirteen Glossy Ibis flew over Carew Cheriton at 17:06 this evening on their way to roost. They followed the usual pattern of descending as ...

Newport Sun am

A good selection. 74 Teal (my 2nd highest ever here), 84 Wigeon (should be >100), a flock of 5 Sanderlings, another of 6 Barwits, 3 Grey ...

Lapland Bunting at Broomhill Farm

A Lapland Bunting was feeding with the Skylark flock (100+) in a field at Broomhill Farm this morning.  The Skylark flock was viewable from ...

Llys y Fran

Broad Haven early - 18 scoters Llys y Fran - 348 Canadas with a Greylag in amongst them 8 Wigeon, 10 Goldeneye

Broad Haven

Diver sp. and Slavonian grebe on north side of bay viewed from near Lion Rock, about 30 scoter scattered in groups of 5-10 and a peregrine.

Angle & Freshwater West

Regular readers of this blog will know that over the past 5 years or more I have spent a good deal of time in the Angle area watching and ...

Black Redstart

News from Paul Warren of a male Black Redstart this morning at Popton.

Hen Harrier

Not often I bump into a Hen Harrier away from the regular roost sites, so it was nice to see a stunning male float across the A487 at Pelcom...

Ibis

News from Dave G: also saw the 13 Ibis from Carew Cheriton taking the 'normal' flight path at 17.25.

Thirteen ibis observed from Milton this evening

Annie and I watched from behind the Milton Brewery this evening. A couple of grey wagtails came into roost along the stream, just as they di...

Ibis and Bosherston

I waited from 08:00 to 08:45 at the bottom of Radford Pill, behind the Milford Brewery pub this morning but no sign of the Ibis. Another guy...

The Ibis

Have done some searching of UK records and it looks like the Carew flock of 23 is the second largest flock ever, following 25 reported in Ca...

Couldn't resist the temptation to witness the amazing fly-over

Matt Sutton and I managed to watch them fly over us, behind Milton Brewery, heading (as Dave suggests) towards Carew River somewhere beyond...

Carew Glossy Ibis x23

The birds were seen again this evening flying to roost over the A477 at Carew Cheriton (Dave G), Paul G was further north on the footpath th...

Whooper Swans

There were two Whooper Swans on Penberi Reservoir this morning at 9:45: unfortunately they didn't hang around and flew noisily east. The...

Marloes Mere area

Actually this dates from Tuesday when there were still around 1200 Lapwing around the Mere in groups of 200-400 birds in most visible fields...

An icy Gann

The pools were pretty well covered with ice this morning, so no birds there apart from two Crows enjoying a big fat mullet which had somehow...

Mid Pembs and Bird Group Field trip Sunday 5th Feb 2012

Sunday 5th February 11.am Fishguard Harbour –. A walk along the outer breakwater. Please use the link to the Pembrokeshire Bird Group Blog...

St Davs Glossy Ibis

Just an update. They were not see after 10.30 yesterday morning nor this morning as yet.

Plumstone

Starlings seemed to appear in numbers from soon after 5pm until we left around 5.30pm. We didn't witness any exaggerated gyrations with ...

More of the same....

At lunchtime I decided to take a drive around the area between Milton and St Florence, in the hope that the Ibis flock had dispersed into mo...

Dowrog and Fishguard

The 2 Glossy Ibises were in the usual Dowrog field at 9:35am, also a Little Egret dropped in nearby. This afternoon both the Black Guillemot...

Ibis............again

The 23 Glossy Ibis again flew over Carew Cheriton this evening. Same details/flight path as yesterday although a little earlier at 16:53. Th...

Gotcha!

To quote that well known phrase from the Falklands "I counted them all out and I counted them all back in"! Having watched the ast...