Dale airfield

Very quiet on a blustery airfield, the track up was more interesting and sheltered. Scanning the fields around the village turned up a single cattle egret among the cattle by the cemetery later rising to three on the way down. A woodcock flushed from the side of the track. A late swallow heading south. A few Song thrush around both on the track and flushing from the braken along the coast path. A merlin flashed through low and fast Marloes Sands end. A nice male hen harrier across the road back to Haverfordwest between Hasguard Cross and Rosepool heading Talbenny way.

Newport Iron Bridge.

 American Wigeon showing well above the bridge, as were three Snipe in the small creek. The still present Tundra Bean Geese were favouring the pool below the bridge. A Kingfisher spent a short time on the left bank before being spooked by a Crow and moving upstream. Two Goosander put in a late showing but sadly no sign of the Spoonbill today.

 

Nevern Estuary

We decided to visit the Nevern Estuary this afternoon for Lisa to see the 3 Tundra Bean Geese, and they were duly present and correct above the bridge.  Also nice to see the Spoonbill further downstream below the bridge, mostly snoozing.  Totally unexpected was a fine drake American Wigeon amongst the flock of Eurasian Wigeon opposite the white house, which eventually relocated down to the Parrog and showed well adjacent to the Yacht Club late afternoon (thanks to David Ord for the flight shot showing the white axilliaries).

Earlier we did a sweep of St Bride's Bay, highlights were 7 Purple Sandpipers roosting in their usual spot on Emmet Rock at Broad Haven at high tide.  Just over 250 Common Scoter were between Druidston and Maidenhall, just south of Newgale.  Just singles of Red-throated and Great Northern Divers. (Dave & Lisa)

Newport Estuary & Iron Bridge.

 Spoonbill was half way down the estuary when I spotted it, but soon spooked by walkers on the far bank path. American Wigeon (1), in with others seen briefly before moving down stream. Above iron bridge, the three Tundra Bean Geese were resting on the left side up toward the main river flow. Seven Redshank seen in total. Managed to get onto the Spoonbill a second time as it returned to the lower estuary later.

 

Tundra Bean geese, still Newport

After a blank few hours the 3 Bean geese flew down around 11am from a stubble field above to the east and settled on a small island just upstream of the iron bridge. Many of the geese were in the higher stubble fields either side of the road to the golf course so worth checking if the geese go awol. Spoonbill was sat among the gull flock. 2 water rail chasing each other around at high tide. A female goshawk flew over. Not a bad day to be out.

Tundra Bean Geese, Spoonbill - Newport

The three Tundra Bean Geese and the Spoonbill seen today (several observers) at Newport.

Stephen Hyam

 St Davids Tuesday

Lovely male Hen Harrier sweeping over Dowrog

Newport

 From Cliff Benson - Newport estuary had only two Bean Geese present yesterday lunchtime, no sign of the Egyptian Goose either. Or the Whoopers. I tried hard to locate the missing Bean Goose but no success. Hopefully it’s still around somewhere! At Goodwick Parrog, what appeared to be two Dark Bellied Brent Geese were a nice surprise!

Corse Marsh harriers, Templeton Snow bunting

 A golden late afternoon at the Corse - I was watching from Starman's Hall, Steve Watt about 300m away on the edge of the reedbed. 4 marsh harriers came in to roost - 2 very similar ad ♀ (finally resolved when one dropped into the reeds while another remained on a bush), an all-dark bird with white cap (probable 1CY♂) and a probable 3CY male, pictured, though it also had features in common with older female, see photo 394, page 230, in Forsman - comments gratefully received. 

Steve showed me a phot of a snow bunting he'd taken on Templeton Airfield, of all places, on 22.10.2026.

St Brides Bay Scoter

St Brides Bay was looking very quiet initially with only a few Shag at Goultrop and a single Red-throated Diver just north of Broad Haven along with a single male Common Scoter and an unidentified auk further out. There were about four Gannets around with only two flying and none fishing. There were probably only around 10 Herring Gulls and one Great Black-backed Gulls all day. 

All the action was at low tide further north with 74 Oystercatchers in a beach roost at Druidstone and at least 300 Common Scoter off the beach in one large and two small groups. About 95% were female/ immatures, with no obvious exotic cousins. The main group did some impressively synchronised diving making it hard to get a count, but I got to at least 220 at the time and one picture showed I think 274, with two smaller groups being of around 40 or 50 each.

Further along the coast was some Peregrine action with a lot of squawking and scolding from somewhere out of sight until two appeared having a squabble and a chase around the cliffs before both heading down the coast southwards. A few seconds later a third appeared and followed them south. 

Non-Estuarine Waterbird Survey (NEWS)

 

In December 2026 and January 2027, the BTO are running a Non-Estuarine Waterbird Survey (NEWS). 

The survey (which runs approximately every 10-years) aims to monitor the population size and distribution of waders and other waterbirds along the non-estuarine coastal habitats of the UK and Ireland.

 "NEWS provides crucial data on species that use open coast rather than estuaries, helping to inform conservation strategies for wintering populations"

Observers are asked to make a single count of waterbirds (i.e. waders, wildfowl, divers, grebes, cormorants, shags, herons and egrets) along sectors of non-estuarine coasts on any date between 1st December 2026 and 31st January 2027. 

Other species (e.g. peregrine and chough) are also listed, and it would be good to have information on where these are present along the Pembrokeshire coast during the winter period.

There are still quite a few sites available around the Pembrokeshire coastline and it would be great to have more coverage. 

Here is a link to the Vacant sites map. You will need to zoom in to see the available sites on the Pembrokeshire coast. 

Please also read the instructions before setting out.

We've had excellent coverage for the previous NEWS, so would like to keep up the good work.

Milford

 From Dave Butler  - Common sandpiper by the lock at Milford marina late afternoon. 

Firecrests...north and south.

Three Firecrests ringed near the river viewpoint on the Teifi Marshes this morning. One Firecrest also ringed in a Ceredigion part of the Marshes on Saturday.

Three Firecrests ringed by S Pembs RG over the weekend in the Kilpaison / St Twynnells area.

Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps present in most sessions for both ringing groups.

The Teifi Marshes Bearded Tit was still present yesterday - over the past week when occasionally seen, always in Ceredigion.

 

Tundra Bean Geese @ Nevern Estuary

Delighted to find the 3 Tundra Bean Geese still on the Nevern Estuary late afternoon, dropping in on my way back from guiding in Norfolk.  They were resting just downstream of the Iron Bridge at 1510, and then flew east over the bridge and appeared to land in the stubble field north of the river at 1555.  Also present the family party of 4 Whooper Swans which did two fly-bys before settling on the estuary downstream of the bridge again, and the Egyptian Goose was present upstream of the bridge.

A mid-day bat

Yesterday lunchtime I saw a bat, almost certainly a pipistrelle, flying over the car park of "Somethings Cooking" in Letterston.