Great White Egrets at Strumble

 4 flew past the coast guard hut this morning at about 09.30 heading towards Fishguard , quite a shock to see that number. 

Cartlett Lady trip

 

It's looking like we might be able to run a Cartlett Lady survey out to the Celtic Deep on Tuesday 30th July, 0930 for 10 am start. £125 per person cash on the day to avoid booking fees/refunds. First come, first served

!f interested, and for further details, please let me know ASAP: seatrustwales@gmail.com

Stop press: only one seat left!

Sandwich Terns

A party of 8 Sandwich Terns past the Teifi this morning, followed by 5 roosting near the Webley tonight - including the first juvenile of the year.

Hook

Movement of a few waders over Hook in the last few days including Grey Plover and Greenshank.

Strumble Head

 4 Manx Shearwater, 1 Balearic Shearwater, total of 21 Common Scoter and one adult Med Gull highlights at Strumble this morning 8-10am.

The Teifi...

Birds on the move...now 22 Little Egrets roosting just up river from the Webley - and 8 Sandwich Terns flying out of the river past Poppit late morning. Not a continous counting period, but 71 Common Scoter passing west in many small flocks this morning.

Goshawk

 It was sad to come across this dead juvenile Goshawk in the woods at Llanychaer today. Such a beautiful bird.

Small gulls. - the Teifi

The first juvenile Mediterranean Gull this evening from The Webley, surprisingly only 1 other Med. We peaked at 30 Med Gulls recently. Only 20 juvenile Black-headed Gulls with 250 adult and 2nd year birds.

Med Gulls moving through Newport and Fishguard too...

Mixed gulls at the Flagpoles Fishguard (Stephen Hyam)

Gann

Our first walk at the Gann for a while.  A scattering of passage waders, including a Sanderling, a Ringed Plover, a Common Sandpiper, 5 Dunlin, 18 Redshank, around 70 Oystercatcher and some Curlew lurking in the saltmarsh,  It was nice to see 8 juvenile Black-headed Gulls in a flock of 30 or so birds, alongside 6 Med Gulls (3 adults, 3 2CY).  5 Little Egrets fed in the shallows by Crabhall, and a single Grey Heron was roosting on one of the islands.

Druidstone Yellowhammer

Pleased to see a male Yellowhammer dropping into a field north of Druidstone this afternoon (51.820278, -5.108083). Also a Kestrel and a Red Kite buzzing around. 

Breeding buzzards

I've been listening to this guy for weeks without being able to see him - buzzard nest completely invisible in clump of Lawson Cypress 70m from the back of my house on my neighbour's property. Finally he's fledged and is exploring the area, flying OK but landing in trees still needs a little work. I only found the nest when he flew back to it. 

We have the buzzards and local ravens to thank for the failure of the rooks' attempt to re-establish themselves here after being partially displaced from Milton Manor. 

European Nightjars

Brian Southern and I were extremely fortunate recently to spend an evening with Paddy Jenks at a North Pembrokeshire site studying European Nightjars.  As dusk fell the anticipated and almost expected Nightjar sites and sounds failed to materialise.

Despite the weather being cooler and breezier than predicted, and the distinct lack of visible or audible Nightjar action, Paddy put up a mist net and incredibly quickly caught 3 Nightjars - a male, and then a second male and a female simultaneously.  On 3 previous attempts in recent years Paddy had not caught any, so this was quite a surprise!  It was utterly captivating to be able to see these birds up close whilst Paddy swiftly and expertly measured, weighed and ringed them (under licence, of course).

When I came to live in Pembrokeshire at the end of the 1980s Nightjar had seemingly been lost as a breeding bird in the County.  The 1984-1988 Breeding Bird Survey recorded churring males in 5 localities but breeding could not be proven.  I can remember trying several likely sites in the 1990s with Trevor Price, but always drawing a blank (except for biting insects, which we discovered in abundance).  The follow up Atlas of Breeding Birds 2003-07 makes no mention of the species breeding at all.

So it was something of a pleasant surprise when Brian and Paul Grennard recorded a churring male in the Preselis in 2021, and since then birds have been recorded at 3 sites (at least).  I managed to see and hear my first bird in 2023: it was magical and my first European Nightjar experience.  Let's hope sympathetic forest management can enable this species to be successful as a breeding species in Pembrokeshire in the years to come.

A few photos and a video (of the second male being released) below, taken whilst Paddy went about his work.

The first male about to be released

The wing of the second male

The wing of the female

Our eternal thanks to Paddy for giving of his time and superb experience and knowledge.  We learnt a lot about Nightjars in a short space of time!

Strumble Head 17th July

From Dylan Daunt: Dear pembs birds,

Here are the totals from this morning:

Strumble Head: 1 Sooty Shearwater, 1 Arctic Skua, 2 Med Gull (1 ad, 1 juv), 53 Common Scoter (4 groups - 6, 5, 30, 12)

Fishguard: 1 Cetti’s Warbler, 1 Kingfisher, 1 ad Med Gull, several Reed Warbler

Pen Anglas: No sign of any Dartford Warblers (bracken seemed more extensive than last year)

Treffgarne Goshawk and owls

 A female Goshawk flying along Treffgarne Gorge evening of the 13th, being pursued (but not closely mobbed!) by crows - great size comparison.

Later, multiple Tawny Owl chicks begging loudly from within the woods

Trewent Head

From John O'Sullivan: This morning at Trewent Head 7:30 to 8:30: 45 Common Scoter went East (site first for me). 4 Groups of 4, 10, 4, 27. 2 adult med gulls went West, 4 East. Otherwise a handful of Razorbills, Guillemots and Gannets. Many Manx Shearwaters went East.

15th July birding

From Dylan Daunt: Here are some totals from this morning:

The Gann: 4 Dunlin, 5 Common Sandpiper, 10 Whimbrel, 2 Ringed Plover, 2 Greenshank, 1 Lesser Whitethroat.

Marloes Mere: 5 Shoveler (female and four large chicks), 3 Teal, 1 Black-tailed Godwit, c15 Dunlin, 2 Little Grebe.

Pic of female Shoveler watching over four chicks foraging in the reeds.