Went for a quick visit today. Was nice to see 7 Whoopers and 2 Canada Geese. There were also 3 Marsh Harriers two adult females and a 2CY bird (due to size possible male). The other highlights being a pair of Chough passing through and a lone curlew flying about over field to east of hide as I left.
Pair of GC grebe displaying to each other in the bay, distant GN diver, 22 bar-tailed godwit on the foreshore, an adult ringed Herring gull, red ring right tarsus ? 956 (it was standing in the water). Dusk at the mere, a handful of lapwing, the geese flock were just west of the mere, the 2 whitefronts were still here and a Barnacle goose had joined them. Bit showery but lovely sunset to end the day.
Wildfowl numbers were fairly average with 74 Mallard, 70 Teal, and 10 Greylags, couple of Shelduck and a single Little Grebe, but it was nice to see 2 Green Sands and a Common Sand at the top of the Pill, both new for the year for me,
A lone Redwing that flew out of some trees when I arrived was the only winter thrush.
Went for a bit of a potter around Marloes Peninsula yesterday. Excluding the mere it felt oddly quiet!
Was nice to see three Fulmar resting up in usual area they breed and Chough in usual spots on Deer park. While watching the Chough for a short while some Carrion crow came in to investigate why I was sat there. They then started flipping all the cow pats looking for grubs. Also saw a pair of Raven flying about.
On way back, at distence a small flock of Golden plover got lifted from one of Petes fields. I did not see what disturbed them.
Lots of wildfowl on the mere, always nice to spot a few Gadwall and Pintail amongst the Wigeon, Shoveller, Teal and Mallard. The usual Coot, Moorhen and Little grebe also present. Some Lapwing were still hanging out on the high points. A Grey Heron was skulking along one of the hedge edges and there were plenty of Canada Geese.
From Sam O'Donnell: No sign of the Green-winged Teal but I imagine it will be a bit further up the river out of sight. Otherwise, 2 Knots, 16 Ringed Plovers, 7 Turnstones, 6+ Med Gulls, 2 Shelduck, lots of Wigeon. Red throated Diver, 4 Great Crested Grebes, 2 Shags and a Guillemot offshore.
A survey in 2023 and additional records from 2024, indicated that the county yellowhammer population had undergone a huge decline, with possibly only 100 or so pairs left in the county, mostly breeding in small colonies, clustered around feeding sites. These are locations where grain is provided to help them through the winter and early spring (hunger-gap) period.
There are a number of places where information on yellowhammer
is lacking. One of those areas is within the area shaded darker green on the map
below. There have been some recent records but little information on winter
feeding sites.
The Pembrokeshire Yellowhammer Group is keen to have records of any yellowhammers seen in the county. Details of where to report sightings (especially of feeding yellowhammers and particularly from the shaded zone on the map) are on the poster below.
The Pembrokeshire Ringing Group is colour-ringing yellowhammers
in a couple of study areas, to find out more about their dispersal movements and their survival.
If you see a ringed yellowhammer, this information is also extremely valuable.
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A circuit around the coast at Stackpole and Bosherston Lakes Eastern Arm this morning was generally quiet bird-wise. A pair of ravens (likely to be egg-laying soon at a traditional coastal site) kept a close eye on us, but they found a bit of time to relax and undertake some mutual preening. A pair of choughs were also in a regular breeding territory. Two reed buntings were on a Stackpole Warren fence above the lake but, apart from good numbers of jackdaws, herring gulls etc, the coast was fairly quiet. We also found a small pile of woodcock feathers in the dunes, presumably having been predated by something recently. Waterfowl were also few, although probably the same 7 goosanders (5 males and 2 females) were present on the Eastern Arm.
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| Male and female goosanders at Bosherston Lakes East Arm where, so far, numbers this winter seem to have been quite modest compared to those in some previous winters |
In the afternoon, we made another visit to Pembroke Castle and Middle Millponds. There was a lot of exposed mud again for a time in the Castle Pond. We noted 44 black-tailed godwits (a resting flock of 37 plus 7 individuals feeding) before the area flooded again at high tide, by which time and all had left the area.
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| Some of a resting flock of 37. All left in the direction of Pembroke Dock-Cosheston as the levels rose |
The male red-breasted merganser was still present on the Castle Pond, as was the female goosander who, for a while, was busy feeding in the outlet channel below the castle. There was no sign at all of a male goosander reported a few days ago. A kingfisher was perched near the roadside outlet for a while. It might have been the bird seen later at a usual resting place on the far shore, opposite Barnards Tower on the Middle Pond.
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| For a while, the goosander was closely watched by a black-headed gull, hoping to snatch a quick meal |
The overwintering male blackcap was chuntering away again below the Castle wall this afternoon, in more regular song, perhaps stimulated by nearby blackbirds in full song.
Numbers of black-headed gulls are clearly lower now than they were earlier in the winter. Today there were also several (returning) adult lesser black-backed gulls present. All bar one had typical smart breeding plumage with bright yellow tarsi. The tarsi of one individual (possibly a young breeding age adult?) were a much less bright, more greenish-yellow, intermediate between the bright yellow of a typical adult and the tarsi colour of a 2nd winter bird.
The drake shoveler was still present. At one point he swam across towards us and started to feed right in front of us, at one point almost too close to photograph.
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| A very inquisitive shoveler |
An American Wigeon found and photographed by David Clarke yesterday at Gwbert was present again this morning. (Photos on Ceredigion Birds and Wildlife Facebook)
At 8am it was just upstream of Cardigan boat club slipway then it flew across the estuary to Pembrokeshire to the salt marsh by the Teifi Waterside Hotel. It was present with 250 Eurasian Wigeon until 9.30 when the flock started splitting up as the tide dropped.
I also ventured to Fishguard at the crack of dawn today, searching unsuccessfully for the Ring-billed Gull. There were plenty of gulls from the flagpoles, including (as reported) quite a few Meds, Commons, and a Kittiwake. Some were closer in, but the majority were not, all heading out a bit later in the morning in a large movement.
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| See (just about) many of the gulls leaving pretty early in the morning. |
There were also two Ringed Plover, and ~20 Turnstone on the beach and around the harbour. Along the breakwater, quite a few auks too, including a single Black Guillemot distantly toward the outer breakwater. Three Great Northern Divers, a single Red-throated Diver and an unexpected Shelduck were also present.
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| After several tries, my first Pembs Black Guillemot. |
I walked up to Pen Anglas, where there was a Sparrowhawk. A short sea watch produced quite a few Gannets and a large flock of Guillemots and Razorbills. Also exciting to have quite a lot of Dolphin movement around, and a small group of Porpoise moving along the coast.
Another nice day, so we headed up to Newport/Nevern estuary this morning, having not been up that way for ages (possibly since last spring!).
Among the usual waterfowl were c.50 wigeon, 70-80 teal including the green-winged. Other birds included at least 5 little egrets, a greenshank, several redshanks, curlews and snipe and a fine male goosander that drifted down the river above the Iron Bridge.
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| A nice bird anyway, even if its taxonomic status has changed back to subspecies again |
A mixture of typical gulls included herring, lesser black-back, great black-back, black-headed, a few Med. gull and around 70-80 common gulls. One of the 2CY common gulls was colour-ringed white left leg. It was too far away to read the digits from photos taken, although the sequence possibly started with 11. Sadly, there is no Sam Baxter up there anymore. He recorded many common gull colour rings at Newport over the years.
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| Hopefully someone has managed to get a better view of this ones colour-ring |
In the afternoon, we went down to Fishguard, where we noted
a couple of great northern divers inside the harbour. Quite a few auks were feeding
inside the harbour and out in the bay, including at least 20+ razorbills and
around 50 guillemots. A single great crested grebe and a dozen or more gannets
were also feeding with a flock of cormorants. Around 15 or so turnstones were busy
feeding along the shore with a couple of ringed plovers and a redshank.
Med gulls were quite numerous. We noted around 30, but that was
probably an underestimate. George Mee arrived just before we left to look for
the ring-billed gull again, which we (and others present at the time)
had not seen. Hopefully, it put in appearance later on. Common gulls were
reasonably numerous, including a white-ringed immature spotted by George. A photo was
taken of this one too, but it was too far away to determine any of the digits. Its colour-ring was on the right leg, so it was not the Newport bird seen earlier.
A tour of St Bride's Bay was rewarded today with an adult Red-necked Grebe at Goultrop Roads, starting to come into breeding plumage. Lots of divers in the bay today, over 70 Red-throated at the south end, between Goultrop Roads and Stack Rocks, and a concentration of Great Northern just south of Nolton Haven with at least 15. Very few Common Scoter - we managed a total of just 37 between Broad Haven and Newgale. 5 Purple Sandpipers on the rocks at the north end of Broad Haven.
Later this afternoon we had great views of the 2 Russian Greater White-fronted Geese (subspecies albifrons) at Marloes Mere, found earlier by Andy Sims. (Dave & Lisa)
From Paul Fraser: Short walk to barrage today two Goosanders both male and female very active feeding together with a Cormorant. Suspect a lot of small prey available as the barrage now seems to be back in action and was at a low setting. The first time we have seen the male Goosander on the pond. A number of black headed gulls on the pond were showing breeding plumage.