Gann

Another colour-ringed Mediterranean Gull this afternoon on the river above the bridge.  Unfortunately not able to completely read it, but the red colour indicates it was from Poland (it wasn't PHAL seen recently at Hook).

Penberri Pond

Two Whoopers in the field adjacent to Penberri pond this afternoon

Dudwell and Plumstone

From Simon Roberts - Walked up Dudwell and Plumstone Mountains on Monday 27th January between 2.00 - 4.45pm. A Short-eared Owl flew up from the scrub 200m south of the Dudwell Mountain trig point and disappeared onto the western slope at 3.45pm. Three Common Snipe startled out of the scrub. A Peregrine idled southwards from the trig point. Two Red Kites drifted around to the west. Many Stonechats.

Treecreeper, Coal Tit, Great Spotted Woodpecker and singing Mistle Thrush in the conifer plantation.

Woodcock from the willow/thorn scrub north-east of the trig point at 4.30pm plus a pair of Bullfinches.

A gradual stream of Starlings from 3.30pm in groups of up to 25 all heading south-east between the two mountains.

Gann

Whilst ' Big Gardening Bird-watching' this morning at Crabhall (17 species) I also had 34 Brent Geese on the lagoon and a total of 13 Shelduck flying up the river and fighting in front of the house.

Yesterday evening just before dark there was a winter male Ruff with the redshank on the beach and 99 Wigeon on the sea, the most I've counted here to date.

Lisa

Carew Cheriton Firecrest update.

Still a trickle of birders going along to view them, Had a scan with Richard this morning, Two birds still in the same area as per Richards post on Saturday.

Wisemans Bridge- Velvet Scoters

At least 27 Velvet Scoters with a large scoter group flying around the bay distantly this afternoon. A few close groups of Common Scoters, 11 Red-breasted Merganser, 8 Great Crested Grebe and 2 Eider (immature male and adult male towards Monkestone Point). An adult Mediterranean Gull in a small gull roost offshore this evening.

Ring-necked duck, still Marloes Mere

Following a walk up to Dale Fort to check the bay for grebes turned up just 2 GC grebe, a late afternoon visit to Marloes Mere was more productive with the Ring-necked duck and the drake Scaup reappearing among a group of 16 Aythya duck (remainder presumably all Tufies but light was fading). And to cap a cracking last hour a Ringtail Hen harrier hunted around the surrounding fields before drifting north. Good to bump into Malvern-based birder Simon and his dad and share 3 nice birds.

Out west

Morning out and about with Paul G was more a case of what we didn't see. Broad Haven, min 25 Red-throated diver, plus 4 Great Northern, but only 50 Scoter (no sign of the LT ducks). St Brides was very quiet, 10 Stock dove over a stubble field was nice (no sign of either Firecrest or Black redstart). A bit more luck at Marloes where the 7 Greenland White-fronts were grazing among the Canadas just west of the mere, 10 Tufties but no sign of the Scaup or Ring-neck. 100s of Golden plover and Lapwing by the poultry sheds near Sandy Haven and 6-7 Red kites. Finished at Milford Marina with a no show from the Black redstart.

Firecrests again...

Two earlier, feeding 50m along the stream in Paddock Lane, past the pink house...then walking back from Milton along the Carding Mill Nature Trail (the path behind the old water works, that starts by the water pump in Stephens Green road) I met Stuart and Claire Rogers again. We were treated to a spectacular male flashing his crest at us - about 250m along from the Milton end. Back in Carew Cheriton we watched two by the stream - possibly the two I had watched earlier - but Stuart also reports having seen one at the Milton end. It all makes me wonder if there are more than three.

White-fronted Geese - Gann

The good start to the year at the Gann continued.  Around 4.45pm a flock of 7 White-fronted Geese flew down the river and across the bay, before veering west towards the airfield / Marloes Mere.  Presumably birds of the Greenland race flavirostris as that is the one we record most often, and the photos seem to back this up as they look long billed.

Very few gulls (the roost seemed to be over in Dale), but I was able to record another 11 Oystercatcher colour-rings and, very pleasingly, 5 colour-ringed Curlew (well 6, but one is faded and couldn't be read).

Another ringed Mediterranean Gull

Perfect conditions at the Gann this afternoon to look for colour-rings, with calm conditions, no other people, and the tide rising but not too high.  Managed to read 17 Oystercatcher rings, all from the local scheme by the Pembrokeshire Ringing Group (orange ring with black numbers).

I also managed a little scientific study of my own.  I can confirm that 98.8% of colour-ringed Oystercatchers at the Gann, when roosting, stand on the WRONG leg, i.e. the one with the number is tucked away all cosy and warm in the belly feathers, out of sight of my telescope! They are even pretty decent one-legged hoppers from the rising tide!

In amongst a small group of gulls a total of 4 Mediterranean Gulls, one of which bore a white ring on its left leg, with black 3FP6 on.  Like 3AA0 recorded on 23rd December, it will have been ringed in either Belgium or the Netherlands.  It will have been ringed as a pulli as the ring was on the left leg (birds with rings on their right legs were ringed as adults, in this scheme at least). UPDATE: it was ringed as a pullus in Flanders on 27/5/2008, and the colour ring was added on 11/5/2019, also in Flanders.  Since then it has been seen at Marsh Lane, Solihull, on 6/10/2019, and in Solva on 12/11/2019 (Mark Nightingale - see http://pembsbirds.blogspot.com/2019/11/glaucous-gull-wooltack-point.html).

Out in the bay a distant Red-throated Diver, plus 2 Great-crested Grebes, but no sign of yesterday's Slavonian Grebes.

Castlemartin Corse

400 lapwing, 50 golden plover, 40 curlew, quite a few snipe. A Cetti's was singing at about 1 o'clock from the hide in the usual area. Two crows that tried to mob the female marsh harrier got more than they bargained for as she saw them off in no uncertain terms.

Slavonian Grebes

A nice surprise this afternoon with 2 Slavonian Grebes on the sea at the Gann as the tide was close to high, initially quite close in they soon made their way further out and across towards Musselwick.  Also a Great-crested Grebe and 2 Great Northern Divers.  On our way back to the house we put up a Jack Snipe from the reedbed by Crabhall. (Dave & Lisa)

Hen Harrier

From Chris Taylor - Brief visit by different parties to Skokholm and Skomer today produced a female Hen Harrier on both islands at the same ish time (maybe the same bird)

Firecrest, Haverfordwest Garden

A morning treat today was a busy Firecrest flitting around the kitchen windows and patio. This one is the third in the last four years for the garden which is on the northern edge of Haverfordwest,  with mature hedges and adjacent to farmland. It shows one of the benefits of maintaining a scruffy wildlife-friendly garden.

Crossbills in their breeding month

From John Ramm, A visit in glorious sunshine to Glynaeron plantation, near Rosebush, was rewarded with wonderful views of crossbills this afternoon. This is one of their principal breeding months and they were as easy to see as to hear. Coincidentally Sir David Attenborough's tweet of the day on Sunday was the crossbill. I've added the link for his 90 second talk below.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b03mztnb

Black redstart, Fishguard

From Vanessa Mellor - I have just seen a Black redstart in my garden, Penslade, Fishguard.  This is the fourth year all around January/February I have seen it.

Whooper Swan, Eastern Cleddau

A single Whooper Swan was looking elegant below Picton Park after lunch today.  It disappeared up the river towards Slebech on a rising tide.

Gann Gulls

It really is worthwhile looking for colour-ringed birds....

The yellow-ringed Mediterranean Gull at the Gann on 17th Jan (see HERE) has an interesting history, although this was its first visit to Pembrokeshire:

The Black-headed Gull, noted on the same day, hadn't travelled quite so far...

Black guillemot

Telescope view from the Parrog  in flat calm conditions as one flew across Harbour and landed between Range boat and ferry terminal

Firecrest update

As there's still a trickle of firecrest watchers, worth updating that one was feeding just now about 100 yards along Paddock Lane, the footpath from Carew Cheriton to Milton that starts beside the pink house - in the brambles where path and stream diverge. But very mobile in their feeding territory.

Stack Rocks

From Chris Taylor - Stack rocks as full as any day I have seen it in the breeding season. Guillemot social.

Avocet

A single Avocet seen  near landshipping alnog with 25 black tailed godwit.

Wiseman's Bridge

Very bright light made viewing difficult at times this morning but there was plenty of activity offshore. 4 Great Crested Grebe, a pair of Red-breasted Merganser (6 yesterday including 3 males displaying), 2 Shag and a Guillemot were fairly close in. Further out 7 Red-throated Diver. As always most scoter groups were distant, but 100+ Common Scoter were visible and many more in the haze well out in the bay. A group of Velvet Scoter was nice surprise in a just about 'scopable group of scoter. A bit too distant for an accurate count I got to 8 when two more flocks of Velvet Scoters (totalling 22) flew over the group I was watching and circled the bay several times, they eventually flew out further to the east and were lost in the haze. So at least 30 were out in the bay this morning and there could've easily been more in the group I was originally watching!
2 Turnstone and 12 Oystercatcher were on the beach.

Angle bay.

At Kilpaison lunch time, 170 Dunlin, 8 Turnstone, 6 Redshank, 1 Bar-Tailed Godwit, 24 Brent geese (pale).

North Pembs

Common Crossbills in Glynaeron today...

Seven Crossbills feeding and drinking, with maybe c12 flying around earlier.
A visit to Fishguard Harbour produced a Great Northern Diver and a Great-Crested Grebe.
(Tommy Evans)

A juvenile white-winged Gull flew around the mouth of the Teifi then settled on Cardigan Island out of sight - 3pm.

Broad Haven

Plenty of divers visible in the calm bright conditions this afternoon. From Broad Haven, there were 30 divers (22 Red-throated, 8 Great Northern). Only 130 Scoter with birds flying up the coast, only 10 on my return. 6 Guillemot. Haroldston Chins 35 divers (3GN, the others RT, no doubt some double counted from those viewed from Broad Haven). The 2 Long-tailed duck were here among a flock of 40 scoter very close in right beneath the cliff face.

Angle Harbour

After drawing a complete blank at the Corse I found a sparkling scene at Angle Harbour. Richard C's 40 knot present, but only 1 black-tailed godwit. 35 Brent close in, the 5 or so pintail further out. Dunlin, ringed plover, oystercatcher, shelduck, little egret....lovely.

Llys-y-fran

A bit of a slow-burner tonight. The roost was very slow to build and there was a feeling many gulls were yet to appear after the failing light had sent us on our way. Pick of those there were, 7 Med gulls, 3 Yellow-legged gulls (2 adults and a 3rd winter), 25+ Common gull, 3 GBB. 5 Goldeneye (4m). Tawny owl calling as we left. With Paul G and Paul M.

Gann (& that Great Black-backed Gull)

Late afternoon at a very nippy Gann, a good gathering of mainly small gulls on the beach before heading off to roost.  Picked out 2 colour-ringed gulls:

Mediterranean Gull - adult with yellow ring on right leg, black letters AT.HT - appears to be from Germany (or possibly Sweden).

Black-headed Gull - adult with black ring on left leg, white number & letters 2AVL - appears to be from the West Midlands.

At least 20 Mediterranean Gulls in the gathering, probably more.

More information on the North Wales Great Black-backed Gull B:147, it was seen in Castle Bay on Skomer on 5th September, 15 days before it was recorded nearby on Dale Airfield.  A second bird from the same colony, B:160, which was seen at the Gann on 9th October, was seen on Skomer (South Haven) 5 days later on 14th October.  Fascinating stuff!

Med Gull AT.HT in the middle.  How many gull species in the photo?

Slav grebe

A terrible very long distance (To heavily cropped) record photo of a Slave grebe at Goodwick from the flag poles yetserday (Wednesday)  (First spotted by Clive Hurford)   Sorry for the delay in reporting

A Bardsey Greater.....

Great Black-backed Gull  B:147 was seen by Mike Davey (photo above) in Pembroke Dock yesterday - the 15th.
See the notes below from a previous sighting in Pembs by Dave Astins

"Finally, a green-ringed juvenile on the (Dale) airfield on 20th September (B:147) was ringed on one of the two small islands in Aberdaron Bay (Ynysoedd Gwylanodd - Gull Islands) in June this year. Thanks to Steve Stansfield (Bardsey Island) for the information."

In reporting the sighting to Steve on Bardsey we find B:147 may also have been seen on Skomer.

Gann - 15 Jan 2020

Further to Mike's post from Angle Bay yesterday;

There were also 34 Brent Geese (pale-bellied) on the flooded salt-marsh towards Mullock yesterday morning at 10am. Water levels were so high that even the Little Egrets went to roost in their tree at Crabhall.

Slavonian Grebe

From Andy Wise, Paul Taylor, Aline Denton (Ceredigion) - Thought you'd be interested to know that we found a Slavonian grebe in Fishguard Goodwick Harbour this afternoon - record shot attached.

Angle Bay

At Kilpaison this morning, 130+ Dunlin, 35 Ringed Plover, 5 Turnstone, 4 Redshanks, 2 Sanderling, 28 Brent geese. Also Oystercatcher  5A ringed 25-6-2016 as a chick on Skokholm.

Castlemartin, Angle

Rather breezy at Castlemartin Corse this morning and the wind seemed to be keeping the Golden Plover and Lapwings on the move with some nice swirling flocks over the reedbed and fields - c750 Golden Plover and c.600 Lapwing. A Female type Marsh Harrier put in a brief appearance over the reedbed but otherwise pretty quiet - no wildfowl at all on the extensive water in front of the reeds.

At Angle Harbour around midday there was a good number of 240 Black Tailed Godwits together with 40 Knot, 28 Redshank, 60 Dunlin  and 20 Ringed Plover. Towards the Lodge there were 30+ Shelduck, 12 Wigeon, 5 Pintail and a Greenshank.

Carew Cheriton Firecrest (?s)...

At least one still in original area (along the road by the stream), very obliging earlier. Nowhere to be seen when Claire, Stuart and Audrey from Saundersfoot happened along, but hopefully they had more luck after I left them.

Black Redstart - Milford Haven

This lovely Black Redstart was flitting around between the executive flats and the shingle beach area near Foam at the end of Milford Marina this afternoon - in much the same place as one has sometimes been present in previous years.

Bird Group Field Events

The Bird Group are holding a number of field events this year. For details of all these and of events coming up on Feb 2nd. and 8th. visit the Bird Group blog; http://pembrokeshirebirdgroup.blogspot.com/

PHAL

Looks like we did read the ring of the Mediterranean Gull correctly after all...

Teifi WeBS

Several pairs of eyes helping me with counts around the Teifi on a sunny morning.

The duck highlights were 3 Goldeneye and a Gadwall at the river viewpoint on the Teifi Marsh. Up to 9 Goosander are regularly being seen here. 235 Wigeon were around the estuary.
Waders included 2 Black-tailed Godwit, 2 Bar-tailed Godwit, 2 Greenshank, 5 Turnstone, 54 Redshank, 52 Oystercatcher, 18 Ringed Plover, 42 Dunlin and 1 Woodcock. Only 1 Snipe which is low for January.
The most impressive site though was hundreds of Lapwing flying around waiting for the sand banks to uncover. Numbers have been increasing over the week with a maximum now of 1050.

9 Little Egrets was a higher count than recently but no Cattle Egret unlike this time last year.

The bay was quiet with no Scoter and just 1 Red-throated Diver flying past.

(Thanks to several observers)

Long tailed Duck, Broad Haven

WeBS count at Broad Haven this morning. The Common Scoter flock was almost all to the North of the count area - numbering about 250. One of Brians Long tailed Ducks stood out in amongst them, as did a lone Velvet Scoter, probably the same one that was recorded there earlier this winter. 2 Scaup in amongst the Scoters was a first for me there. The usual 5 Purple Sandpipers were on Emmets Rock. Divers have been in short supply this winter with zero in the count area - a couple of Red throated Divers were at Musselwick though. The Merganser is still at Solva Harbour - it had been joined by a Shag - unusual at that location i would have thought.

Sandy Haven

A report from Jane Hodges that her WeBS count at Sandy Haven included singles of both Common and Green Sandpiper this morning.

Carew/Cresswell Rivers, Cosheston Pill, Freshwater West and Bosherston Lakes Upper East Arm briefly

High tide just before daybreak meant a WeBS count along the Carew/Cresswell Rivers on a falling tide. Highlights were quite good numbers of Shelduck in both rivers (a total in excess of 150), some 700 Dunlin (in two flocks), 400+ Wigeon, c.300 Teal, around 500 Lapwings, 100+ Curlew and 15 Knot with a similar number of Black-tailed Godwits on the Cresswell River. Knot are relatively unusual on this count section. Redshank numbers were a bit lower than the previous months visit but a few Greenshanks were in expected places. 

One of at least five Greenshanks noted this morning - this particularly tame one was feeding below the French Mill dam

66 Oystercatchers roosting at Lawrenny was quite a high count at this regular roost location. A common sandpiper on the nearby shore was close to where others have been seen in winter in previous years. 500-600 Herring gulls were bathing at Carew Millpond along with 200+ Black-headed and a few LBB gulls but I couldn’t see any ringed birds or any other odd gulls amongst them.

A quick look at Cosheston Pill late morning produced 153 Black-tailed Godwits and yet more Knot (32 there) which was also quite a good count of species seen less often at this location.

21 of the 32 Knot roosting and several of the Black-tailed Godwits at Cosheston Pill late morning

Later in the day 48 Grey Plovers were on the rocks and beach at Freshwater West – a reasonable increase in their numbers since December.

A brief visit just before dusk to the Court-site area at the top of Bosherston Lakes Eastern Arm produced 8 Goosanders resting below the reedbed. Small birds included two Chiffchaffs and a single Firecrest. All three were close to evergreen shrubs where Firecrests have been known to roost in the past.

Tenby Lifeboat

Purple sandpiper 1+
Turnstones 10
Rock pipit 2

Narberth

Barn Owl 1 on way home

Ty Rhyg and Rosebush reservoir

Couple of hours in Ty Rhyg this afternoon. Willow tits in two spots and lots of noisy Crossbill, (hard to see them but from the constant calls there's probably dozens of birds). Rosebush reservoir: 12 Tufted duck (8m), 3 Goldeneye (1m), pair of Wigeon, 12 Mallard. 3 Little grebe, 2 Great crested grebe, 3 Coot and 60 LBB gull dropping in to roost.

Elderly ringed Oystercatcher

At Newport on Aug 8&9 2019 I saw an Oystercatcher with a white ring with 3 horizontal black stripes - no numbers or letters.
I've finally got some feedback. It was ringed at Dawlish Warren, south of Exeter, in Sept 2004. It seems the site then wasn't covered for several years, but it has been noted at DW every Winter since 2014-5, & was back there in 2019 on Aug 11.

Avocet - Hook

The individual highlight of our WeBS count at Hook today was the Avocet which was on the Daugleddau at the southern end of the mouth of Sprinkle Pill.  The numbers of waders here was amazing, and great flocks of Golden Plover, Lapwing & Dunlin wheeled around as the tide receded and the mud became exposed.

Just into the Western Cleddau we found an adult Mediterranean Gull which had a red darvic ring on its right leg with white lettering, which we red as PHAL, but it doesn't quite match any scheme we can find, as yet, so we must have misread at least one digit!  (Dave & Lisa)

Common Sandpipers - North Pembs

Two Common Sandpipers between Priory Bridge and St Dogmael's on the River Teifi yesterday and with four Common Sandpipers being recorded on the River Nevern at Newport recently - a record  number wintering in north Pembs ..?

The Teifi and Ceibwr

The two Black Redstarts wintering at Ceibwr..

(photo Dyfed James)

The drake Gadwall was the best bird on the Teifi this morning, along with 2 Goosander and 2 Goldeneye. As the tide dropped and mud became exposed, 465 Lapwing and 44 Redshank were the first to arrive - we will see what the afternoon brings....
(Wendy J and Rich D)

1500 update  - 1050 Lapwings the highlight

Teifi

From John Ramm - on a beautiful sunny morning there were a pair of goldeneye on the river close to the bridge together with a fine male goosander.

Pembroke Millpond

Other than the expected usual wintering waterfowl it was generally very quiet when we walked around Pembroke Millpond before lunch. Things livened up a bit on the return leg along the edge of Middle Pond with the presence of a (new to us) Belgian-ringed black-headed gull. Hopefully we've managed to read the full sequence 7T45018. It was perched not far away from the Finnish winter resident ST318.661. Looking at gull legs at the Millpond can become a bit obsessive!

Just as we'd managed to confirm the Brussels ring, an otter came on to the scene, upsetting some of the gulls in the process but giving us excellent views for 20 minutes or so. The millpond has generally been quite a good place to get good views of otters over the years so hopefully this one will stick around for a while.

Newport Estuary

Little Gull 1 juv
Common Gull 50
Water Pipit 1 by bridge
Common Sandpiper 1
Greenshank 1
Redshank 20
Ringed Plover 19

Where do they go?

Yesterday at Newport 240+ Common Gulls. Today 1/10 that number.
But with them a group of 12 Knot. A large flock for here!.

Ceibwr Bay

Black Redstart 1 imm male
Merlin 1
Buzzard 2
Red kites 2
Dipper 2
Great spotted woodpecker 2
Stonechat  1

Firecrest - Teifi Marshes

A couple of hours this morning produced a Firecrest near the river view point where earlier an Otter was feeding in the river, keeping 9 Goosanders alert.
Just past the Buffalo meadows nice to find a Chiffchaff feeding in the scrub below 4 Siskins feeding in the Alders.
(Teifi RG)

Fishguard Lower Town

From Clare Ryland - The RB merganser and the Mandarin drake still there this morning, also 2 dippers by the bridge. One adult Med gull and approx. 10 common gulls in with BH, herring, GBB and a couple of LBB gulls .

Herring gull, Pembroke Dock

Dublin ringed first winter Herring gull B42:D at Front Street, lunchtime. (Looking back through earlier entries I could see Dave had another from the same scheme at the Gann in October).

More Newport Gulls

The gull flock this morning included an amazing 246 Common Gulls, by far my largest count. Just 2 ringed birds- a regular from Norway & a 1st W from Hamburg.
Plus 3 ad Meds.

Glaucous Gull - -The Teifi

The juvenile Glaucous Gull was picked out in the estuary during high tide late afternoon by Arfon Williams. When the river is high at roost time gulls tend to either fly straight to Cardigan Island to roost (large gulls) or roost on the sea off Poppit Dunes (small gulls). Some have a short bathe on the water and are best viewed from the aptly named Gull View Point half way between St. Dogmael's and Poppit where the sun is setting behind you.
Gull numbers passing the GVP  today  - 5 Med Gulls, 500 Common Gulls, 1500 Black-headed Gulls and 500 large Gulls.
Following my post yesterday ref missing Barnacle Geese, they are back 134 Barnacle Geese on Cardigan Island today.
(sev obs)

Ring-billed Gull - Dale

The gull roost was a long way out into Dale Bay today, more or less opposite Point House, just before Dale Fort.  So I decided to drive up there and see how easy it was to view - the answer was pretty easy!

I quickly picked out the 2CY Ring-billed Gull which was helpfully at the end of the flock I started working from.  Also an (the?) adult Yellow-legged Gull in amongst some Lesser Black-backs, and a total of 14 Mediterranean Gulls (11 adults, 1 3CY, 2 2CY) amongst the Common & Black-headed Gulls.

Whitesands this afternoon

A Kestrel today showing amazing hovering skills in high winds

Angle Harbour this afternoon

Angle Bay (Rhoscrowther end) on a neap high tide today was fairly quiet  bird-wise. Far fewer wigeon were resting on the sea (a few hundred at most). Had they eaten all the Zostera and moved on/dispersed to other parts of the Cleddau estuary system we wondered? Apart from black-headed and common gulls, and small numbers of rock pipits and chaffinches feeding, the shore was pretty quiet. Only five great crested grebes were obvious out in the bay.

At the Angle harbour-end it was busier. Most of the usual/expected waders and wildfowl were over there, including 45 light bellied Brent geese, some at least probably recent arrivals. All were busy feeding in the shallow water, or along parts of the sea-weed-covered shoreline.

Some of the flock of 45 - even with a short zoom lens at widest-angle it wasn't possible to fit them all in

None of them seemed particularly disturbed by passers-by. They were mostly swimming or upending to feed, so we couldn't see the legs of all of them. Of those whose legs we were able to see well (about half) none were ringed. It will be interesting to see if these birds stick around the area, or move on?

Glaucous Gull, Black Redstarts, Firecrest

A few sightings from the weekend from the Teifi and Ceibwr.

The Glaucous Gull found early yesterday on the reserve was on the river in town today, no doubt wandering around the estuary. At least 1 Med Gull around the Teifi.

This photo taken today by Dyfed James...
 

The bird yesterday, a photo to show the size ...by Tommy Evans

Not a large Glaucous Gull, likely a small female.

The Firecrest was still present yesterday in Poppit Wood, but the Poppit Black Redstart has become more elusive now 2020 !

Tommy Evans found this Black Redstart at Ceibwr today, clearly different to the bird there during the week...

The Teifi wintering Common Sandpiper was with the Glaucous Gull today, usually the bird is on the riverside somewhere between St. Dogmael's Quay and town.

At least 1 Greylag Goose with c2/300 Canada Geese, though all c100 Barnacle Geese are missing, they have wandered away from the Teifi / Cardigan Island...!
The Gadwall is still on the river with 2-10 Goosanders, though the 2 Goldeneye disappear for spells.
Two Black-tailed Godwits are on the reserve, 3 Bar-tailed Godwits are in the main estuary often with the 2 Greenshank and the flock of c50 Redshank.
There are c200 Wigeon mainly in the estuary along with the Lapwing flock which varies with the tide c300 - 500 +.
Four Turnstone are sticking to the inside of Patch / railings often with the small wader flock, c20 Ringed Plover and c50 Dunlin.

(sev obs)

Ring-necked duck, still Marloes Mere

From Dave Evans: Ring-necked Duck + Scaup still with 9 Tufted Ducks on north irrigation ponds at Marloes.

Best viewed from car-park by the heavy machinery and between the showers!

Firecrest, The Gann

A Firecrest in the scrub by the car park was some consolation following a failed attempt to connect with the Ring-billed gull. 18 Mediterranean gulls (all adult apart from 2 2cy birds). A sizeable gull roost with many dropping in too late and too far in the bay to scan properly. 6 Turnstone, 2 GN divers and 2 GC grebe.

Haven Dunlins

We had a lovely morning trip yesterday on Steve & Anna’s boat, going up river from Milford to above the Cleddau Bridge. The stand-out birds were two flocks of Dunlin, 6 and 16, on the large green buoys near Pembroke Dock. They seem to use these buoys as high tide roosts but, despite much searching, we could not find any waders on any of the red or yellow buoys!

Tree Sparrows

Received via e mail - I don't see much mention of Tree Sparrows on you site so I thought I would report that I have had at least one Tree Sparrow making repeat
visiting at my feeder  which is on the Furzy park estate.

It/they  is not a regular visitor but I see it about 3 or 4 times a week
since mid December to present day.

Mandarin duck, Lower Town, Fishguard

Cracking back of the camera photos from regular Pembrokeshire visitor Steve Windle.

Firecrest update

Today the three firecrests have been sticking together and feeding just round the corner along Paddock Lane (the footpath to Milton, along the stream by the pink house).

Abercastle area

Friday 3rd and Saturday 4th - 240 Lapwing and 1000+ Golden Plover at Longhouse, Abercastle, very mobile frequently crossing the road from the open fields to the fields around the Farmhouse
From Maeve & Graham Tierney

Minwear Starling roost

From David Ord: Waiting for the starlings to arrive, birds on the Eastern Cleddau near the reed beds included 4 Little Grebe, 4 Pied Wagtail, a Common Sandpiper and a male Goldeneye. The starlings arrived between 4pm and 4-30pm and dived into Warren Wood with a slight murmuration but not as spectacular as when they contemplate the reed bed.

Winter farmland birds yesterday; Goodwick Harbour this afternoon

Yesterday a small group of us (Heather and Dafydd Richards, Cliff Benson Frances Eggby, Annie and myself) carried out our second NT farmland Bird survey of this winter at Pwll Caerog near Abereiddi.

Species variety was reasonably good but numbers of birds generally lower than in November. However, between us all we probably saw over 300 skylarks across several stubble fields. It was also pleasing that at least one arable field planted with ruderal herb margins had six yellowhammers. Hopefully a sign that this kind of management is helping to improve the situation for this fast declining species!

Annie and I looked at the Llangloffan Fen seed-crop strip this morning. Modest numbers of chaffinches and linnets being the main species there today. However, considering it was monoculture rye-grass when we checked the area previously with "zero birds" present means that even small strips like this can make a difference! 

This afternoon, we noted that two overwintering great northern divers were still present in Goodwick harbour. One was close to the inner breakwater at times, the other more distant and possibly a third there too but not easy to see.

This one was feeding close to the harbour entrance at times

In addition there were 3 common scoters (all three female/immature types) plus a single wigeon and a razorbill. A kingfisher was feeding near the flagpoles and probably roosting there overnight.
 

Ring-billed gull, still Llys-y-fran

Near perfect viewing conditions. Overcast with a nice gentle breeze resulted in the gulls all facing the same way and side on. No bankside disturbance so most of the gulls were relatively close. The roost was well spread so trying to cover them involved quite a bit of walking up and down. Rough estimate from a quick sweep was around 4500 gulls. Lots of BH gulls, fewer LBB than I'm used to seeing, probably still more yet to arrive after heavy drizzle sent me packing.

The pick was the adult Ring-billed gull, sleeping as usual but just lifted its head very briefly.
6 Yellow-legged gulls (5 adult and a 3 cy), 12 Mediterranean gulls (10 adults, 2 first winter/2cy), 25 Common gull (all adults except 2 2cy), 2 2cy GBB. 17 Great-crested grebe, 9 Goldeneye (5m, 4 f) and 1 Little grebe.

A new Ring-billed Gull - Gann

A 2CY (2nd calendar year = first-winter) Ring-billed Gull late afternoon at the Gann.  It was on the beach with Black-headed & Common Gulls around 4.15-4.30, and then flew & landed on the water and then joined the larger gull roost further out in the bay.  Derek just arrived in time to see it on the water.

Ring-billed Gull (left) with 2 Common Gulls (& a Carrion Crow)

At least 9 different Mediterranean Gulls at the Gann today (5 adults, 2 3CY, 2 2CY).

Earlier, a smart female Merlin was terrorising the small birds at West Hook Farm during our NT winter farmland bird survey.  We had a look at Marloes Mere: the 1st winter male Scaup still there with 11 Tufted Ducks but no sign of the Ring-necked Duck.  Red Kite & Hen Harrier (briefly).  (Dave & Lisa)