Colour ringed Bar-tailed Godwit (05) - West Angle

Thank you for the observation, Colour ringed Bar-tailed Godwit (05) at West Angle (31/12/2025), was first ringed at the Gann on the 25th November 2025.

Teifi marshes

 Jack snipe 1 by mallard hide 

Common snipe 1 

Little egret 1

Little grebe 4

Goldcrest 4

Pembroke castle pond 2nd January 2026

From Paul Fraser: Three Greenshanks on mud by Monkton Bridge together with female Goosander in the shallows moving quickly just below surface, three  Little Grebes in the middle of the pond. 

Cattle Egret, Whoopers

Cattle Egret in with the horses, at the top of the hill junction from Rickeston to Capeston farm.                     Whoopers still present in the usual field, though I couldn`t count them all accurately it looked like all eleven were there. A  Firecrest yesterday

was a nice surprise in our garden, moving swiftly through a camelia bush before I could get to my camera.

Colour ringed Bar-tailed Godwit West Angle New years eve

Further to recent mentions of ringed Barwits at Angle:

Colour ringed bird on the spit at high tide 31/12/25 with a flock of c20: Plain orange ring left leg, black ring on right with 05 in white. 

Where was this been ringed? 

Also 8 Little Egrets, 20 Redshank, 2 Greenshank, 1 Ringed Plover, 100+ Oycs. 

Also 6 Pale-bellied Brent geese, one Great Northern diver, at least 15 Great Crested Grebes but couldn't find any Slavs.

Happy new birding year to all!

New bird on New Years Eve at the Dowrog.

 We, (Fran and self), were with Paul Grennard and another birder Chris, enjoying some nice Hen Harrier action 2-3 males and a ringtail. A surprise sighting found by Fran was a Great White Egret! It took off  from a field at the western  end of the moor when she was walking the dog near the cattle grid.and was also seen by two other local birders who were parked there. 

Paul and  i had seen a distant little egret flying away to the north of where we were stood at the "half way spot".When Fran joined us and told us about the GWE,.it had us wondering, could we have mastaken the identity of the bird we had seen? About twenty minutes later i saw the GWE rise up from the direction of Penberi Pond and got everyone on it, obviouly a different bird,and much larger, presumably Frans GWE. 

The Dowrog has been a great provider of nice birds over the past twnty odd years for me and many others  but the GWE was a really nice addition..especially as not that long ago it would have been a real stonker!

Newport and Fishguard Lower Town this afternoon

 1 grey plover downstream of the bridge and 1 knot down near the Parrog the highlights at Newport this afternoon. A male shoveler in with a large flock of mallard (30+) just upstream of the bridge seemed unusual for this location. A total of 9 moorhens feeding on the exposed island.

2 dippers by the bridge in Fishguard Lower Town.

Firecrest

In the roadside vegetation just below Bryn Henllan, on the road down to Pwllgwaelod, this morning

Corse - Whitefronts, access

The two whitefronts were resting near the ditch. 

Toby's mention of the right of way had us checking the PCC website - sure enough, this appears to show the old route through the farm buildings (running diagonally through a shed!). This was the subject of a temporary, much later permanent diversion by PCNP, 30-40 years ago, when the sheds were constructed athwart the path. Why this map should be on the website today - no idea, it's wrong. The present route leaves the road above (south of) the church, and crosses the Corse to the east of the former route. Maps of both below - the new official route highlighted in yellow (as per the official PCNP map - approx location of the geese today indicated by blue circle). 

Old route through sheds

The official route in yellow, location of geese today shown by blue circle

Luckily I met Will the farmer as I got back to my car, and asked him about it. He confirmed that the "yellow" route is indeed the route, not the one through the yard, and he is very keen that people do not go down to the yard, or indeed turn left after the sewage works, without permission, as it isn't a PROW and you might meet a dairy bull (Rob Lewis and I had a narrow escape a few years ago) - this is the normal WEBS route, but strictly with the farmer's permission. Mike Hayes turned up at this point, and was able to hear all this again. With Will's permission I was able show Mike where the geese were today. 

A further source of confusion: on the new route you may encounter an overgrown stile, no longer maintained. If you do, retrace your steps a short way as the route now runs along the other side of the hedge. 

Whooper Swans

Still eleven at Rickeston this morning at 09:15hrs

 

Rosebush and Llys-y-fran reservoirs

With the influx of geese and other interesting wildfowl nationally I thought the reservoirs would be worth a look. Rosebush reservoir: 12 diving duck but only Tufted duck (8m), 7 coot, 6 teal, 3 little grebe and a single GC grebe that was calling. Llys-y-fran: After being devoid of geese on recent visits tonight there were 500+ Canada's and an encouraging 104 Greylag but nothing else with them. 6 GC grebe. A dead drake goldeneye was drifting down the reservoir. Only a handful of gulls at 3pm, the roost formed opposite the hide. Just a single adult YLgull and 2 GBB so I called it a day early. George and Fiona had a double figure count of goldeneye and 2 YL gulls.

Sightings from today

From Paul St Pierre: Some bird sightings from today:

Pemberry Pond: 1 Russian White fronted goose, 50+ Canada goose, male shoveler late afternoon.
Caerfai (south of St David’s): 2 grey geese over west which were probably white fronted goose at lunchtime.

Broad Haven North End

From the cliff viewpoint at high tide, singles of Red Throated Diver and Black Throated Diver. A group of 6 Purple Sandpipers were on the sloping rock and another 5 flew past. A female Goldeneye close in, seemingly diving down to the seaweed. Further out, 20 Common Scooter and 8 Gannet also a Raven grumbling away on the cliff top.

Hen Harriers

From Sandra Young: 2 male harriers seen at 4.40 at the Dowrog today. 

Castlemartin Corse

I went to the NT section of the Corse today. The water level has noticeably dropped since my last visit. Good number of teal, mallard and widgeon about, but the shoveller numbers were to single figures today and no pintail. Did however spot a lone Gadwall at one point. Only could spy 6 whoopers up the side channel to east of hide along with the 2 mute swans. The 4 moorhen were hanging out in usual place near ditch. 

Later in the day a flock of about 50 curlew were seen flying around and landing on one of the southern slope fields.

Got up to 3 Marsh harriers today, two adult females and a 1CY bird.

A Buzzard did kindly pose on a post next to the hide. A distant red kite and a glimpse of a sparrowhawk being the only other birds of prey observed.

Long tailed tit on reeds (along one of the ditches) 

Buzzard  

One of the few times the duck got lifted 

Castlemartin Corse - White-fronted Geese still and a Water Pipit

A check of the upper sections of the Corse (below the church) again this morning. Lots of waders on the wet, muddy fields. Mosty Lapwing (1000+) and Golden Plover (500) with smaller numbers of other species: Dunlin (7), Redshank (3) and singles of Black-tailed Godwit, Curlew and the Grey Plover still. Also 2 Marsh Harriers up over the reedbed.

Highlights were the two adult Russian White-fronted Geese from the other day (they had moved to the field on the north side of the Corse) and a Water Pipit feeding alongside half a dozen Pied Wagtails viewable from the public footpath although a little distant.

Greater White-fronted Geese / Whooper Swans

Best of a walk at Marloes Mere with John Parker this morning were 8 Greater White-fronted Geese which came in fairly high from the west, and continued eastwards over Trehill Farm until lost to view heading towards Marloes, they did appear to be slowly losing height but we couldn't locate them from the road later.  Hard to be 100% sure of the subspecies: given the current influx of albifrons (Russian) it would be tempting to suggest that subspecies, but they seemed dark headed and heavily barred underneath which would suggest flavirostris (Greenland). Hopefully they will appear somewhere so that they can be confirmed.  At least 8 Pintail (5 drakes) at the mere, but just one drake Tufted Duck.

Good, but brief, views of a Firecrest at Monk Haven by the church.  Also a Chiffchaff and 2 Nuthatch.

The 11 Whooper Swans again at Rickeston as Derek reported earlier, one of the juveniles has injured its left leg/foot and was apart from the group, struggling to stand.

(Dave & Lisa)

Whooper swans

 Eleven still at Rickeston

Angle and the Corse

An afternoon out with Paul around Angle. 2 Slavonian grebe were close in diving around the rafts of seaweed in the bay (SM 87275 02405). It was a bit blustery with a bit of a chop so most of the waders were stacked up on the harbour spit, approx 25 barwits, 20 redshank, a couple of knot and 25 PB brent. Most of the duck appeared to be further round the bay. Over at the Corse, no sign of Toby's geese from a look from beside Coreside nursery or the track down on Gupton side. 2 female Marsh harriers, one looked to be an adult the other a first year bird, they perched up in the willow clumps for much of the time. 2-3 buzzards, a male merlin and a kestrel the only other raptors. The 8 adult Whooper and the 2 Mutes still by the hide. A dunlin and a couple of redshank were among the lapwing and golden plovers. 6 little egret. Lots of teal, so I couldn't resist doing a couple of counts 920 and 1140. Starlings dropped into the reeds around 16:30, and one of the harriers seemed to take an interest and did a bit of a fly around.

Withybush Wagtail Roost this evening

Having managed to carry out almost annual winter counts of roosting Pied Wagtails at Withybush, we decided to do another count there this evening. The light was not too good due to the cloudy/overcast conditions, but it was relatively calm. 

As usual, many of the birds initially landed on nearby dark, moss-covered roofs and some moved around a bit between various roofs and a couple of trees before gradually starting to settle in at their usual roost location. 

Annie managed to get a record photo of a small number heading to roost before it got too dark. The camera setting for this image was 25,000 ISO!

Despite the gloomy conditions, we estimated that not less than 880 Pied Wagtails entered the roost during an observation period of around 30-minutes. This was our highest to date! Our previous maximum total was an estimated 780 on 27th December 2018. 

It was getting too dark to properly see late arriving birds when we left our observation location, but we were aware of several on the main roof complex that had not yet entered the roost. It is likely that the total could have exceeded 900. The high roost attendance total is presumably a reflection of a good/productive 2025 breeding season. 

Garon Pill

From Jon Clark: A quick scan over the Garron Pill from the west end yesterday produced 3 Greenshank and a Common Sandpiper working its way up the Limpin stream toward the road.   

Colour ringed Redshank 68

Thank you Dave for the observation, Redshank 68 was first ringed at the Gann on 07/12/2020 it has subsequently been resighted at Oakenholt Marsh Flintshire on the 11/08/2021, 15/08/2022, 21/08/2023.

Colour Ringed Bar-tailed Godwit

Thank you Bob & Annie for the observation, we have only started colour ringing Bar-tailed Godwit since September 2025 white number on black ring (right leg) plain orange (left leg) . However, we have only ringed 6 so far and these are 00 - 05.

Castlemartin Corse this evening and a few sightings from yesterday

Still 8 Whooper Swans at Castlemartin Corse this evening with 2 Mute Swans. Maybe 150 Teal, smaller number of Wigeon and Mallard, and about 6 Shoveler. One Marsh Harrier made a few appearances too.

The highlight from the upper sections of the Corse below the church was 2 adult Russian White-fronted Geese. Which were nice to find considering the national influx of this species at the moment. There was also large numbers of Golden Plover and Lapwing (approx. 800 and 400 respectively) a Redshank and unusually a single Grey Plover. 

Russian White-fronted Geese 

A quick look at the willows alongside Tenby marsh (opposite Kiln Park) yesterday morning produced 2 Firecrest and a minimum of 4 Chiffchaff.

Here and there

A female/immature Black Redstart today on the coast path between Bosherston and Barafundle today (Nigel Griffiths).

On Christmas Day Lisa and I had lovely views of 2 Firecrest at Monk Haven, they were feeding in the sunny bank adjacent to the church, and in the garden of Monk Haven Manor. 16 Teal on the pond just before the beach.

Yesterday at Sandy Haven Pill the 11 Whooper Swans were still in the field towards the north end at Rickeston (6 adults and 5 first-winters).  One of the Redshank was a colour-ringed bird from the Gann (no.68) and there was a single Bar-tailed Godwit that was similarly colour-ringed (orange left tibia, black with white numbers/letters right tibia) but it was too far off to read, even for the 60x Kowa.  Also a red colour-ringed Mediterranean Gull that was similarly too far away to read.

Slightly closer to home it was great to see a flock of at least 50 Stock Doves sitting on wires to the east of Winsel Lane, St Ishmaels.  In a field nearby a good number of both Lapwing and Golden Plover.

Marloes peninsula

Pre-dawn start at the mere, 2 Whooper swans just visible from the car park but their necks were up and no surprise that they had taken flight by the time I'd walked down. Male hen harrier in the early morning light working along Trehills farm side and crop field by the farm. It flushed a big flock of passerines, which later transpired to be about 300 linnet with chaffinch and reed bunting. Plenty of duck including 9 Pintail, 8 gadwall, single drake Tufted duck. Constant wimpers from the wigeon who were flushed a couple of times by 3 buzzards who were stationed around the mere. c300 golden plover and similar numbers of lapwing moving between the mere and Trehills stubbles. 3 black-tailed godwit, 6 chough (3pairs) and a female merlin.

Pallid Harrier

Richard Rees saw an adult male Pallid Harrier at Castlemartin Corse today. Looks like he has got some amazing images of it. 

Image by Richard Rees 

Red Throated Diver

Was out with family today and saw the Red Throated Diver many have reported recently off Angle Bay. My images sadly show that it has a damaged / missing part of its upper mandible. 

zoom in of above image 

Corse Whoopers this morning

To the Corse this morning with Mike Robinson - 8 whoopers and 2 mutes on the open water. We got down there at 10.00, left an hour later (no Bewick's!)

A female marsh harrier was keeping the ducks on the move - teal, wigeon, mallard. 

Water levels are dropping fast, hastened by recent ditch clearance. 

Whoopers this morning

Eleven this morning between 9 - 930, with Caroline`s post in mind, I`ve tried to get closer to them to see if any have been ringed but they`re quite wary & immediately go on the alert as soon as they realise I`m there, I may have another go later but I don`t want to flush them.

Thank you Toby

Thank you very much Toby for spotting the Bewick. 

That my first Bewick in Pembrokeshire!! 

Yes, looking at another image I have which show the beak better the black is more extensive. Note in this later image the Bewick is behind the Whooper so perspective does also come into play! 

Zoom in on above image of beak 

Manorbier and surroundings yesterday

A long walk yesterday morning around Manorbier to Swanlake Bay and back produced a nice selection of birds. 

On flooded fields near the railway line 56 Teal, a Little Grebe and a calling Water Rail. 

Swanlake Bay held another two Teal on the sea, 2 Great Crested Grebe and 2 Red-throated Diver. 

There hasn't been any Golden Plovers in the fields between Manorbier and Jameston for the last few weeks so it was nice to see a group of 116 feeding in the sunshine yesterday, presumably brought in by the cold weather!

Over at Manorbier beach 9 Oystercatcher and 3 Turnstone on the reef, and a Kingfisher buzzing around (at least one is wintering between the small stream and the beach this year). Offshore a Great Crested Grebe and a Red-throated Diver.

I can't recall seeing these two species alongside each other previously. Oystercatcher and Kingfisher! 

An afternoon walk to Presipe beach produced a lovely female-type Black Redstart feeding on the cliffs in the sun.

To finish the day a Woodcock flew to the fields near Jameston at dusk. My 140th species on my local patch this year. For anyone who attended the Pembs bird conference this year they may remember from my talk that this was the milestone I was hoping to reach! 

On an unrelated note, looking at Caroline's photo of the swans over Castlemartin Corse from yesterday afternoon - a great photo as usual. The front bird looks slightly smaller than the other two Whoopers and has quite extensive black on the bill. Could it be a Bewick's Swan? Worthing checking if it has joined the Whooper flock near St Ishmael's!