Pink-foot at Penberi, woodcock at Dowrog

 One pink-foot in the field next to Penberi reservoir in amongst the flock of Canadas yesterday afternoon.

I flushed a woodcock on the approach to Dowrog Pool, and saw one male hen harrier come in to roost as I was leaving.

Goodwick - Divers

Goodwick harbour was busy this morning with at least a couple of hundred each of Kittiwakes and Black-headed Gulls, 60+ auks (mostly  Guillemots), 1 Great Crested Grebe, 5 Great Northern Divers and 2 Red-throated Divers (Den Vaughan)

Gann Caspian Gull on a Grand Day Out

A very high tide and a southwesterly gale produced absolutely nothing from the coast just north of Broad Haven. Fortunately the day got much better. At Goultrop there were at least four Red-throated Divers and two Great Northern along with the usual Shag and Cormorants. A small gull roost on the sea in this sheltered bay included at least six Mediterranean Gulls. A couple of Kittiwake and two Gannets were flying further out and the occasional unidentifiable auks were flying into the gale near the tankers. A bit of a feeding frenzy with gulls and Gannets was just visible off Druidstone and Nolton.

At St Brides 40 Oystercatchers were sheltering on the slabs along with a Curlew. Singles of Grey Wagtail, Rock Pipit, Meadow Pipit and Turnstone were on the beach. I had to return to the car to fetch the scope as a gull roost was forming at the mouth of the bay. This peaked at about 50 Black-headed Gulls with 11 Mediterranean Gulls and just two Herring Gulls. A Buzzard was doing a good impression of a Kestrel over the cottages and two Snipe flew over my head as I sheltered by the lime kilns. A single Chiffchaff was busy feeding on an ash tree by the orchard wall. There were plenty of the usual residents around the ponds, but no sign of Firecrests or stray Americans.

It was a relief to get to the relatively sheltered  Gann and Pickleridge. There was nothing on the water in the bay when I arrived. A Kingfisher was fishing off a small rock in the little bay of the lagoon closest to the car park (camera was in the car of course).  About 40 Oystercatchers arrived from the north soon after, possibly the same flock that departed St Brides just before I left there.

The lagoon had around 180 Wigeon, 10 Teal, single Greenshank, about 20 Redshank, but no sign of the Spotted Redshank that has been here for a while. Only a couple of Little Grebe and singles of Grey Heron  and Little Egret were showing at the  Crabhall end.

A big beach gull roost was obvious on the bank below Gann cottage. I took up position in the welcoming sheltered little enclave in the gorse at the end of the ridge and started counting. There were at least 180 Common Gull with a few hundred Black-headed Gulls with a few more up past the bridge and a few obvious Mediterranean Gulls. I had got up to about 25 Meds before a PCPNA truck and driver turned up and disturbed them, but their  lift-off was a mini seabird spectacular with all the Gulls flying in parallel in the same direction along a wide front.

As the tide fell, a big gull roost formed on the emerging gravel nearer to the stream.  Again I tried to count the total and got to 1100, which was about two thirds of the total before the roost was again disturbed, this time by a walker, so probably around 1500 just on the beach.

I managed to count an impressive 63 Mediterranean Gulls, nearly all adults, so probably some more hiding amongst the Black-headed and Common Gulls. There were very few Herring or Black-backs on the beach, no more than 30 in total. A single Black--tailed Godwit was amongst the Curlews and Redshanks further along the beach.

I had a quick look at a small gull roost on the gravel island at the north end of the lagoon. There were 10 Lesser Black-backed Gulls and a single Herring Gull, with colour ring on left leg 128 with a preceding digit apparently under the water, and surprisingly a smart Caspian Gull which snoozed and yawned a lot, but posed in the sun occasionally.

A quick check in on an increasingly wet Marloes wetland showed it is now a Lapwing happy place, with at least 300 in various groups, along with about 50 Golden Plover and 20+ Snipe lurking with them and at least one Dunlin too. Duck numbers seem to be down compared to recent visits with less variety, but they may be dispered over the greater wet areas. Six Tufted Duck, 3m 3f together being the most notable. A single ringtail Hen Harrier flew straight through from east to West over Trehill fields, putting up a flock of Woodpigeon, but made no serious attacks on anything. 

The water level is impressively high.  It might be even higher than Brian's recent photo.

Lone whooper, front street.

Lone whooper swan among the Mutes around lunch today. Front Street, Pembroke Dock.

From Dan Watson: Just a quick email to give you an overview of some recent sightings from a long weekend away:

Splash Pond 7th and 8th Dec (Broadhaven): 2 siberian chiffchaff (see attached photos), 2 + common chiffchaff, 4 Blackcap, 5 Snipe, 1 Water rail. 

Broadhaven beach 7th Dec: up to 14 Med gull and 2 Purple sand at N end

Littlehaven: 15+ red throated diver, 1 GN diver, 17 Common scoter, 4 Kittiwake, 3 Med gull and approx 5 or 6 Harbour porpoise (6th Dec only) 

51.7409685, 5.0951893: at least 5 whooper swan this afternoon.

Gann, Marloes mere and Sandy Haven

Very blustery visit but found a bit of shelter Dale side on the low tide. 45 redshank, 10 turnstone and a snipe flushed from the rocks. 210 Common gull, single adult Mediterranean gull, GN diver making light of the rough bay.

Very brief scan of the mere, pair Tufted duck, pair Gadwall. Everything flushed inc the big flock of lapwing but couldn't see the culprit.

Marloes Mere after the recent heavy rain (more rain forecast for the coming week)

No sign of Derek's swans at Sandy Haven, I checked a few fields between here and back to Milford and then back towards St Ishmaels. A peregrine flushed a mixed flock of Golden plover and lapwing. More lapwing flying over on a brief stop at Bicton reservoir, a teal the only duck.

Sad to see about 100m of hedge has been cut to the ground or grubbed out just by Walwyns Castle.

WeBS Castlemartin Corse

Thanks to Richard for helping with WeBS today.

The NT section of the corse was feeling the full brunt of the wind today with waves on the water around the hide. This meant most wildlife was hunkered down and seeking shelter. The bulk of the count therefore occurred on the upper part of the corse.

Due to the topography and hedge line, which provided a bit of shelter from wind, the ‘snipe’ field lifted a lot more birds than usual with count of 202. With a few other random birds lifted here and there, made a total count of 205. (For WeBS counts, last time numbers exceeded this at Corse, were the winter of 2017-18 and in Nov/ Dec 2018). 

4 Curlew were seen on the upper corse and two more were towards starmans making 6 for the count, shame that flock of 39 I saw recently were not about today!

The flocks of Golden Plover (260) and Lapwing (500) were reasonable.

A good count on the gulls with 480 Black Headed, 40 Herring, 18 Lesser Black Back and 3 Common gull on the upper corse, with 3 Great Black Back and 4 more Herring adding to the count down towards Freshwater West end of the survey area.

We had total of 78 Mallard, 32 Teal, 10 Shoveller, 6 Pintail and 2 Little Grebe. Though I have seen a handful of Wigeon and 2 Moorhen near the hide recently these alluded us today. Sadly, no sign of any Heron or Egret today.

A Kestrel and Buzzard were the only Birds of Prey today. 

Was nice to see a pair of Chough having a good feed towards Starmans.

Whooper Swans & Stock Doves

 Twelve Swans now in the field above Spread Eagle pill,  I`m guessing the original family of six + another family ( of two?) Parking in layby opposite the gate into the field gives a restricted view as one needs to walk across  the gateway to get a better view which puts them on high alert. On the way back to St Ishmaels some thirty (a very rough 40 mph estimate!) Stock Doves flew up over the the road close to Winsel cross roads, surprise surprise a few moments later, a male Merlin flew over.  An otherwise normal trip to Tesco!

Marloes Mere

Went to have a look at the Mere today. The Lapwing and Golden Plover were making use of the green islands across the wetland area. I was one short of Brians Tufted count only getting 4. Highlight was a very brief glimpse of a Merlin hunting around the willow bush next to the hide. It then landed on one of the boundary hedges to the south of the track. 

Only had 4 Tufted 

Teal 

Very poor quality image of the Merlin 

Golden Plover and Lapwing 

Waldo Stone areaa

 Hen harrier male flying around for 30 mins 

Red kite 2

Buzzard 2

Raven 5

Lesser black backed gul 4

Stonechat 4

Dowrog common 3rd December

From Alastair and Jill Proud:  2 male and 1 ring-tailed hen harrier came into the roosting area at 4.30 pm.. 1 kestrel, 2 snipe, 2 buzzards and pheasant seen while waiting for harriers.

The Gann and Marloes mere

Late afternoon visit to the Gann, turned up a Red-throated diver just off the parking area on high tide, and a goosander on the pools. About 70 wigeon, 4 Little grebe and 3 greenshank. Quick look at the mere at dusk, looking more like a proper wetland these days, certainly plenty of water. Family group of 5 Tufted duck, 3 Pintail. 790 lapwing, with 30 Golden plover and 10 snipe on the few bits still above the waterline gave me something to look through. 2 buzzards the only raptors, one caught a thrush or starling.