It was great to meet Toby at the Gann this morning, a breath of fresh air seeing a keen young birder locally, a rare but very welcome sight - and he was putting me to shame with his use of Birdtrack in the field!
I mentioned a Black-tailed Godwit with a flag on 17th, well it was still here today (the number of accompanying birds has varied, usually 3-5 others, but there were 12 in total early this morning before 8 of them disappeared.
I haven't had the details back yet, but I managed to photograph the flag well enough to read it as 4LA (see below) and it seems to be from a scheme in the Netherlands. What is certain is that it is of the nominate subspecies limosa, whereas most (if not all, as stated in the 1994 Birds of Pembrokeshire) of the birds seen in Pembrokeshire are of the Icelandic breeding subspecies islandica. I am happy to be proven wrong, but this could be the first limosa recorded in Pembrokeshire with certainty. Anyone know any different?
Thanks to Brian for finding the Iceland Gull yesterday, not the best views but a smart beast all the same. Finally, 3 Sand Martin over the house this evening.
