Although
Jane and I are not able to do our usual annual surveillance of choughs
in the National Park this year, if the current restrictions are lifted "in
time", we'll scamper as best we can around the coast to try and salvage
any information of what might still be left from this year's breeding season.
With
reference to recent postings of choughs on the Marloes coast so far this spring: 2019
was a very good year in terms of breeding success in the National Park (as the
graph below shows), although not necessarily so on the Marloes/St Ann's Head
coast where it was relatively poor last year. If the flock of 15 reported recently were
all non-breeders, it’s most likely that these included birds from other parts
of the coast.
The
minimum number of choughs fledged each year in the Pembrokeshire Coast National
Park (1992-2019)
10-12
non-breeders are often recorded at this time of year and flocks of 20-30
(excluding resident pairs) are not unusual on the Marloes-St Ann's section of the coast between
now and late May. It’s still early in the season and so flocks seen now could
possibly include local breeding pairs, as social interactions occur frequently.
Flocks of non-breeders regularly commute to and from Skomer and Skokholm from
time-to-time (we note from the blog that there are three pairs on Skokholm this
year which is good news).
In
the meantime, we are very interested to receive any reports of chough sightings
that people living on the coast might manage to make during their daily routine
walks for exercise from their homes. Sach's observations of a flock of 15 near
his house is very welcome and will be added to the archive for this season.
Jane
Hodges and Bob Haycock