I had two sessions chasing trout on the Western Cleddau over the weekend (relatively productively, by my standards!), and was very impressed by the water quality and mass of insect life hatching, even in the rather cold winds. Bird highlights were a pair of Kingfishers seen in the Treffgarne Gorge area downstream from Nant Y Coy. They were pretty active on this stretch, and I saw them on both days.
Looking at my records, these are the first Kingfishers that I have seen on either the Western or Eastern Cleddau for over two years. And, in terms of "observer effort", I have put in quite a lot of time, and covered quite a lot of river bank on both rivers in both 2012 and 2013!
I had done a rough estimate of Kingfisher breeding numbers in 2010 based upon my experiences on the Pembrokeshire Anglers' extensive and beautiful stretches of the Western Cleddau. Based upon the density of pairs that I recorded at that time, I felt confident about the estimate of c.50 pairs across the Country, as in the 1984-88 and 2003-07 County Atlases. I have to say that, after the very cold winters of 2011-12 and 2012-13, I fear that 50 pairs is far too high an estimate, even allowing for the very good point raised by Graham Rees in the Avifauna about possible under-recording of even such a colourful species in the breeding season.
I think it possible that we still have one pair per 2km stretch of the two large rivers, but suspect that, at present, this is very much a high-end estimate. And I think that, given the divergences in insect and fish densities and water quality on the the two rivers (far better on the Western than the Eastern, in my and other observers' experience), this estimate is more robust on the Western. What would be very interesting would be if other birders thought they had Kingfishers breeding on many of the smaller rivers and pills, since this is what would be necessary to take the County population from 20+ pairs closer towards the former c.50 pairs.
