The origin of the Polish colour-ringed Black-headed Gull

We heard today that Polish colour-ringed Black-headed Gull (blue TJJ7) which was at Pembroke Middle Pond on Saturday was ringed as a nestling at JEZIORO ŁĘGOWSKIE, Wągrowiec (a lake on the western side of Poland) on 20^th June. It has moved 1,502km from its natal area. 

There have been records of other ringed BH Gulls from Poland and elsewhere over the years which we hope to add to the online avifauna at sometime in the future. 

Yesterday a merlin was hunting around Frainslake and Freshwater West. Still not very many redwings around here but Annie noted a flock of about 30 in some trees near Little Waddock today. 

Skokholm

A Snow Bunting today 

St Brides (27th October)

Nice to see three of the Black Redstart around the Church yesterday afternoon. Also a Chiffchaff in the woods. 

Lots of corvids about, and Woodpigeons

As Steve and Anna have remarked, the corvid roost at Dale at the moments must be spectacular - we haven't exactly seen it but we do see streams of birds heading in that directoin each night as we sup a G&T in the conservatory. Dave Astins mentioned up to 1000 corvids on the shore at the Gann and when we did our WEBS count on Tuesday, also at the Gann, we were accompanied by a flock of about 500 Jackdaws feeding on the grass in noisy chacking groups. A question though - why are Jackdaws so seemingly successful when other birds with similar feeding requirements (Rooks, Starlings) are not doing so well?

Woodpigeons are also on the move - over the last week batches of up to 100 have been flying down the valley behind our house in a southerly direction. On the way to the continent I think. 

Rosemary Royle

The Gann

 A  walk down the Gann from Mullock Bridge to the pools turned up 30 Curlew, c. 120 Herring Gulls and maybe 10 Greaters with a few Black Headed Gull, 10 Cormorants, 28 Oystercatcher, 7 Redshank, 5 Little Egrets and 2 Cattle Egrets again in the Mullock fields.  

The best was 9 Whooper Swan on the river above the gulls  that were and disturbed by walkers flew out to sea off Black Rock, landed and then paddled back towards the river. 

About 180 Golden Plover very high up in the sky over the Gann heading north west. hundreds of corvids, pigeons and some starlings too on the newly gathered maize crops fields.

Want to see something fairly spectacular?  Then head for Dale village before dusk  - the corvid roost is well worth seeing with many hundreds of corvids going to roost.

Black Redstart

Just to add to Huw and Dereks images of the Black Redstart from today. 

Derek, Amy and I were very lucky to see a total of four birds.  

Eye on the Prize!

 

 

Marloes Mere

Spent a bit of time at Marloes Mere today. There were 136 Canada Geese there this morning, a Marsh Harrier put in a breif appearance, but it was a Buzzard a short while later that sent the wildfowl up into the air and scattering as it glided over the area being pursued by corvids! Always nice to see a Snipe feeding on edge of the water.

Saw four tufted duck there on return visit later in the day (having seen two in the morning).

Todays Marsh Harrier taking off after briefly landing on the mere

Black Redstarts St Brides

From Huw Lewis: Here is a photo of one of three Black Redstarts at St Brides this afternoon. They were commuting between the rooves of the Church and the former Vicarage while being harassed by a Robin.

 

Fieldfare at Martletwy & BH Gulls from Poland & Finland at Pembroke Millpond

Singles of redwing and fieldfare appeared in the trees bordering our garden, just after we had finished recording an overnight moth-catch for the Garden Moth Scheme. The latter was the first one we had seen here this autumn. 

Later on, we had to make a visit to Pembroke so had a look around the millpond where it was nice to see two ringed Black-headed Gulls. One was a 1CY Blue TJJ7 from Poland (Polish birds appear almost annually at the Millpond) and an adult with a Helsinki Museum metal ring. We think that we have managed to read all of the digits, but this one will need to be confirmed. We cannot recall previously seeing a BHG from Finland at the Millpond.

From various angles, we think we manged to read all the digits on this very obliging bird with a Finnish-ring

Numbers of waterfowl were fairly modest, but included at least 29 little grebes, 38 mute swans, 92 mallards, a minimum of 3 water rails calling on the perimeter of the middle pond, 21 moorhens, 8 coot, and c.100 BHGs and 28 herring gulls. 

The Castle Pond might be being drained, so perhaps an interesting wader or two might turn up there in the next week or so if the mud does get exposed for a while.   

Black Redstarts

 Four  on the roof of the old rectory at St Brides this evening, all appeared to be female / juv.  Thanks to  Huw for the info as I was leaving Marloes  & Caroline`s company at St Brides. All four were briefly together but nigh on impossible to frame!

Castlemartin Corse

A gorgeous morning, lots of open water. Adam was just leaving as I arrived, reporting marsh harriers, sparrowhawk, 4 little grebe. Harry turned up a bit later, in time for some great hunting action. Both marsh harriers were on patrol, one of them hovering what looked like just above some remarkably unperturbed mallards, but when she dropped it was into the reeds just beyond the water, so the ducks had clearly calculated the angles. Alan had a lovely male merlin yesterday, settling in the scrub just in front of the hide. Otherwise usual stuff.

Autumn marsh harriers on Castlemartin Corse

Marsh harriers are highly variable between ages, sexes and individuals, and (adult males apart) can be confusing at the best of times. Add in 500m range, often poor visibility and rapidly expanding scrub, and getting a good look at individuals on the Corse, and thereby deciding how many birds are around,  can be challenging. Thanks to some post-match analysis of some outstanding photos by Caroline Pickett and Alan Merrett, we now know we have had at least 4, perhaps 5 individual marsh harriers on the Corse across September and October. though never more than two seen on a given day.

Caroline and I had a brief view of an adult female type on our September WEBS count (21.09). We later learnt that Alan Merrett had seen two together on 19.09. His photos show that these were both probable 1CY birds, one of them by its broad build almost certainly a female, the other probably a female, but neither of them our clearly adult bird from two days later. (Juvs in September - where have they come from? Our tagged bird from Norfolk in 2020 turned up in November). Caroline and I saw one adult female on our next WEBS count on 19.10: helpfully, it was moulting a primary. A couple of days later Caroline and Alan saw two birds together, both adult females. Finally, yesterday, Caroline photographed this female, clearly our bird from 19.10, as told by her missing primary.

So: two 1CY birds and one adult female in September, two adult females in October - one of which may or may not have been our September adult. Great work by Caroline and Alan.

1. Alan's birds from 19.09.2024 both likely 1CY types, the lower one a female by its broad build:

photos Alan Merrett

2. Caroline's and my bird from 21.09.2024, under typical conditions - 4-500m, poor visibility: buzzard on fence - cream-yellow extending down the sides of the neck, most likely a 3CY+ ♀ moulting a left primary: 

3. Caroline's pics of 2 birds, both adult female types, on 21.10.2024 - one of them (presumably) the one we'd seen on WEBS two days earlier. The lower c/u is of the top, further bird in the pic of the two:

photos Caroline Pickett

4. Lastly, Caroline's pic of ad. female type taken yesterday. From the missing left primary this appears to be the bird we saw on 21.09 (above):

photo Caroline Pickett

Great work by Caroline and Alan. Thoughts and comments on plumages welcome, this post makes no claim to be definitive! (Forsman devotes a page to separating female marsh harriers, black kites and dark phase booted eagles out of context/on passage, one problem we don't have at the Corse!)

Those Cattle Egrets

 Probably the same birds as Dave saw yesterday were with the cattle in the field above Mullock Bridge this morning.

Skokholm

A Corncrake is present today

Gann

A short walk at the Gann this evening, 2 Cattle Egrets flew over south, having initially been in with the cows in the field by the bend just before Crabhall.  On the lagoon was a nice group of 9 Whooper Swans (all adults), then soon flew off and headed up the river.  An impressive number of corvids on the beach, easily over 1,000. (Dave & Lisa)

Those greylags...

A spectacular skein of over 70 greylags flew over the house at 1700...heading SE! There are 65 in this photo, but there were more at either end of the skein. Where are they going at this hour? Basically there seem to be greylags constantly on the move. Driving to Withybush this morning at around 0830 there was a skein of greylags heading ESE over the A40. 

PS 18.55, around 30-40 of those geese have just flown NW, in semi-darkness

Visual migration

 A bit of visual migration this morning at the Nevern Estuary with 2 Brambling, 100+ of both Chaffinch and Redwings and a smaller movement of Skylark. On the estuary 8 Goosander and 2 Bar tailed Godwits

Pembrokeshire Bird Conference

The 2024 Pembrokeshire Bird Conference is on Saturday 30th November at Pembrokeshire College in Haverfordwest. Book using this link below (not the one on the poster) - note this one definitely works. 

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/pembrokeshire-bird-group-conference-2024-tickets-1037817629467

 

Marsh Harrier

From Harry Grubb:

Mature female plumage Marsh harrier flying west over Llangloffan fen today at 4pm

Freshwater Beach

From Gavin Finlow: 

A trip to Freshwest beach today and saw a couple of Chough not too far from the car park and a Wheatear sat on the seaweed hut roof.

Marsh Harrier

There were two Marsh Harrier at Castlemartin Corse today.

Shame this sight did not happen on Saturday for the WeBS count!

Alan Merrett mentioned there have been two Marsh Harrier present the last few times he has visited the Corse. Nice to run into him and to meet Jason too. 

Two Marsh Harrier at Castlemartin Corse

 

The Hen Harrier bombed through once while I was there and a kestrel was hovering over one of the fields on my way back to the car.

Black Swan

From Melanie Felton: Good morning, a Black Swan has just swum past my house from the Pembroke estuary towards Quoits Mill Pill