Skokholm

The first Firecrest of the season today

Newport Beach 8/3/26

 Thanks to very calm sea, seven dots about 300m off the beach, turned into seven Great Crested Grebes in my telescope.

Newport - Fishguard coast

A Great Northern Diver at Aber Rhigian yesterday and at Aber Bach today.  Also a pair of quite magnificent Cormorants displaying, on Carrig Duon.

Strumble

Fran had wheatear beneath the lookout at Strumble head @17.00 brief view, I missed it watching dolphins!

Castlemartin Corse cont.

 Further to Richard's note below, a couple of photos of one of the harriers, a lighter coloured bird. The other was very dark, probably a 2CY bird. 

Re Merlin

I have just come back from a holiday in Colombia and noticed the conversation about Merlin on the blog. We tried Merlin at the Hacienda we stayed in, which had an extensive bird list, and at first it did well. All the birds it found I could also see or hear and most of them were not actually singing, just doing contact calls. But then it seemed to go off on flights of fancy - it found Chestnut-headed Orependola, and both Yellow-legged Thrush and Pale-eyed Thrush, none of which are known at the property whereas it missed Black-billed Thrush which is common there. 

And we tried it in our garden on 6th May last year - it found Greenfinch and Goldcrest which were definitely not there. (I can still hear Goldcrest calls - there weren't any- and Greenfinch have been regretably absent for about 10 years)

So the verdict - surprisingly good but it makes big bloopers as well. I think it just tries to hard too identify every little squeak. (I wonder if the Orepondola at the Hacienda was actually noises from the kitchen!)

On thing which is very useful is that it highlights the bird that it is hearing at any point in time so maybe ir could be useful for learning bird sounds and calls.  

Rosemary Royle 

Whooper Swan??

Thought I would report my unusual observations today while here in Pembs for a short birding trip.
7/3/26
From the coast path a lone swan on the sea offshore from a point at Porth y Rhaw, Nine Wells was spotted. Too far out for a photo but an unusual sighting off this rocky shoreline. Judging by its long straight neck, angular bill and glimpse of yellow, possibly a Whooper? Weather good and sea calm.
Also a male Hen Harrier flew over the road at 1700 near Pointz Castle, heading North.
Regards
Richard and Christine Harris. 

Castlemartin Corse

The Corse this morning with David Ord. Still plenty of water, but no sign of the swans, either whooper or mute. Several Cetti's, a pair of chough, teal, mallard, one shoveler, a water rail in the ditch by the track. Two sand martins were the birds of the day. This chiffchaff was in the brambles in front of the hide. A call from a bird passing over defeated us both. 

Two marsh harriers - David's photos to follow if they make the grade! 

Jonathan Bennett - funeral arrangements

For those that would like to pay their respects, Jonathan's funeral is in St David's Cathedral on Friday 20th March at 1pm, followed by tea at the Old Cross, St David's.

Marloes

 From Vicky Pearson - A lovely hour or so at Marloes Mere.  The normal suspects: mallard, coots, Canada geese.  

Good numbers of Shovler, Gadwall, Teal, Wigeon, Pintail, Moorhen.   

Plus 3 Snipe, 3 Lapwings displaying (very lovely to watch and hear), 2 Dabchicks, 4 ish Tuffted Ducks, juvenileBuzzard 

Teifi Marshes and river this afternoon; Pembroke Millponds a few days ago

A brief afternoon visit to Teifi Marshes, in glorious spring-like sunshine, produced a small trickle passage of sand martins over the river (most seen together was six) but probably more than a dozen passed through in about 10-minutes. There was also an early swallow, which peeled away from the river and possibly flew over/near the Wildlife Centre.

Sand martin, feeding over the river, part of a small passage of birds moving west

A couple of goosanders (male and female) were on the river near the rapids zone and not less than 60+ teal (20+ on  the river and 40 or so at the Kingfisher Pool).  A few chiffchaffs were calling or singing in the scrub and also a blackcap. A couple of colour-ringed reed buntings were noted near the car park, birds being studied byTeifi Ringing Group. 

One of the ringed reed buntings

A few days ago a couple of blackcaps were singing well near Pembroke Castle Pond, below the Castle wall. The male red-breasted merganser and the female goosander were both still present and resting together on the Middle Pond. A single black-tailed godwit was feeding near the Castle Pond outlet.

Skokholm

A Ring Ouzel was bird of the day, our earliest ever by 11 days. 

Marloes Peninsula

Went for a bit of a potter on Deer Park followed by look at the Mere today. 

A raft of 92 Razorbills were off Middleholm and there was a larger raft of Auks off Skomer but too far for binos for identification. A pair of buzzard were circling over Deer Park at one point and a Red Kite also drifted through.  

Two Black Tailed Godwits came in onto Mere while I was there. Also present were 3 Tufted duck, 9 Pintail, 6 Gadwall and 3 Lapwing! 

Skokholm

Back today, greeted by two Chiffchaff (one with pollen horn), a northbound Sand Martin and a Puffin. The daily Skok blog will be up and running again from tonight. 

Westfield Pill & Sandy Haven

A little saunter at Westfield Pill was nice in the fairly mild, dry and still conditions this afternoon.

I counted a possible 13 active Grey Heron nests, it will be interesting to see how many of these are successful.  A small number of gulls on the pool between the 2 weirs, amongst them 2 Mediterranean Gulls.  The adult was moulting into breeding plumage and regularly calling, the 2nd calendar year had a red ring (PMEN) which shows it was ringed in Poland.  Details have been submitted via the POLRING website, it will be interesting to see if it has been seen elsewhere since ringing.  Also a Kingfisher here.  It was very nice to bump into Allan Hanson and have a good old natter, he said the Med Gulls had been around all winter.

On the way home the 11 Whooper Swans still present in their usual field next to Sandy Haven Pill.  Presumably Iceland will be calling them north soon?

Angle Bay

 Many of the wintering waders and ducks seem to have already departed, based on observations at Angle Bay today. Very few ducks were present apart from a few shelducks, and 13 wigeon. No pintail, teal or mallard were found, neither were any small waders. A flock of 22 Bar-tailed godwits flew around the Angle village end but settled elsewhere, and 22 brent geese fed in the bay through the low tide. Out in the bay there were 11 great crested grebes, 2 great northern divers and c20 gannets busily diving. Gulls were present in good numbers on the shore during the extremely low spring tide, particularly common gull, of which there were at least 400.

The most notable sighting was of two common dolphins which had become stranded in the mud at the village end of the bay. The larger one, presumed to be a mother of the other one, appeared to have been snagged by a rope. Happily, they both survived and once the tide came in, swam out into the bay after a bit of help from a rescue team organised by the Sea Trust in Goodwick and BDMR. 

The adult common dolphin

The younger common dolphin

Swimming away happily (hopefully)