Saturday, 30 September 2023

Melodious Warbler continues, Great Egret

Nice views of the Melodious Warbler this morning at Kete, in its favoured hedge opposite the car park.


A nice surprise this morning was a Great Egret on the lagoon over the spring high tide, initially over the back corner it soon flew in to the Crabhall corner and gave great views, catching at least one small fish, before flying back towards the saltmarsh.


Ventured south yesterday trying St Govan's Mere Pool Valley, Castlemartin, Angle Bay and Stack Rocks.  Lovely day but migrants thin on the ground, best was 2 Firecrests at Stack Rocks.

Friday, 29 September 2023

Broad Haven Turtle Dove 25th Sept

From Hazel Seymour: On 25th September a Turtle Dove visited my garden and stayed around for the day. It spent time sitting with the sparrows on a fushia Bush and with the collared doves. See photos. I live in Broad Haven,  Pembrokeshire.



Wednesday, 27 September 2023

Goodwick black terns

I ventured out to check the harbour this evening, expecting that something might have been blown in. Two black terns were feeding in the surf between the ocean lab and flagpoles in Goodwick. They were loosely associating with some 30 'commic' terns, which were attempting to roost on the beach, and nearby flooded areas of goodwick moor. The black terns seemed much more preoccupied with feeding, picking food from the surface of the water, at close range. Otherwise just a small flock of waders, consisting mostly of turnstones and oystercatchers, with a few dunlin and ringed plover too. 


Skokholm

Two Wryneck yesterday, at least one today. 

Magnolia Warbler

From Sandra Coates-Smith:   Still showing very well (Tues afternoon), catching insects in the patch of ivy mid to late afternoon.  Only three other people there; close, unimpeded views.


Tuesday, 26 September 2023

Bits and bobs

The Lesser Yellowlegs was still at the Gann yesterday (25th) but no sign of it on the lagoon today.  3 Ruff, of varying sizes, this evening by Crabhall were really nice, and there was a smart juvenile Curlew Sandpiper on the beach with a small group of Dunlin, Ringed Plover and Turnstone.

Also yesterday3 Curlew Sandpiper on Dale Airfield, commuting between the stony field and the western/southern runway intersection.

The Canada Warbler was seen again yesterday afternoon after the range road re-opened at 1645 after firing stopped, sadly my dash for it ended in defeat.  Maybe it will stay a bit longer and ride out tomorrow's storm?

The largest of the 3 Ruff - a male

The other 2 Ruff (with 3 Redshank) - 2 females

Deer Park

From Chris Snook: Chough and Adder at the Deer Park. 


Magnolia Warbler 12:10

Fom Mike Hayes: Hi all, Magnolia Warbler showing exceptionally well in North side scrub at St Govans at 1210 this morning. 

Magnolia Warbler

The Magnolia Warbler at the St Govan's site was showing well at 0720. Always on the north side of it's patch to the seven birders present until 0800 when I left and rain has now started.

Monday, 25 September 2023

St Govan's Seawatch 24/09

Yesterday there were still lots of people braving the rough weather to see the Magnolia Warbler at St Govan's. I opted for a seawatch instead.

There was a decent variety moving offshore in the two hours or so I was there. 

Totals (all west):

Common Scoter 1

Kittiwake 355

Arctic Skua 8

Sandwich Tern 25

Common Tern 6 (+ a further 8 'Commic' Terns)

Manx shearwater 13

Storm Petrel 1

Leach's Petrel 1 (at 10:04)

Fulmar 1

Curlew 1

Little Stint - Kilpaison

A juvenile Little Stint and a Common Tern at Kilpaison this afternoon. (Paul Warren)

Magnolia Warbler.

 The Magnolia Warbler Still at St Govans this afternoon


The Gann Sunday 24th Sept

From Sammy Allen:

Redshank
Greenshank
Lesser yellowlegs 
Chough
Brent Goose
Curlew
Dunlin
Turnstone
Bar tailed godwit

Bay-breasted Warbler on Ramsey

Photos of the warbler from Mark Rayment. 



Sunday, 24 September 2023

Skokholm

Alder Flycatcher still plus two Siberian Chiffchaff

Saturday, 23 September 2023

Skokholm

Alder Flycatcher and Wryneck today, whilst some of the morning's twitchers saw a Red-rumped Swallow

CANADA WARBLER Castlemartin

I headed out this morning back to the Castlemartin ranges with the possibility of discovering more American landbirds following the unprecedented arrival on the British west coast (particularly in Pembrokeshire!) in recent days. Although in hope I didn't think it would actually happen...again!

I decided to walk the lane down to Stack Rocks, thinking that as a Magnolia Warbler turned up nearby at St Govan's Head the surrounding area could hold another Nearctic gem. I took my time down the lane stopping occasionally to check the scrubby habitat. As I neared the end of the lane near the Stack Rocks car park, I passed through an area of willows and scrub on either sides of the road. There was plenty of activity here, including 3 goldcrests, blue tits, great tits and 2 blackcaps. I wandered up and down this section of the lane a few times and on my southward return a bird caught my eye in the edge of willows in the sunshine. It was obscured, but I could see it was bright blue and yellow! It flicked out a little further and I could see the whole bird including its necklace of grey streaks! It was a Canada Warbler!! The panic then set in and I managed to get a message out (with my hands shaking!) as the bird flicked though the willows and back to the understory. I saw it once more and it darted off and I lost it. 

Gladly it was relocated by the many people who had come over from St Govan's and it stayed in the willow patch showing to the increasing crowd intermittently throughout the day. 

Such an amazing bird. And as if finding a stunning Magnolia Warbler at St Govan's Head on Wednesday wasnt enough!

I need a rest tonight!

Lesser Yellowlegs, Bay-breasted Warbler, & CANADA WARBLER

The Lesser Yellowlegs was out from Crabhall early this morning and then again at 17:20 before flying down the lagoon and out of sight with a Redshank.

This morning we were lucky to get over to Ramsey Island to help warden the Bay-breasted Warbler twitch.  It went perfectly, the bird showed well at regular intervals, and all 160 visitors on the 4 boats left happy.  Well done to the RSPB Ramsey Island team for their sterling work to accommodate an influx of visitors.


Whilst we were on Ramsey staggering news broke: Toby Phelps had pulled another magical rabbit out of the hat, with a CANADA WARBLER (the first British record) at Stack Rocks, Castlemartin. Unbelievable! Hopefully Toby will find the time to pen a few words here when he has recovered.  As I type the bird had been seen intermittently during the day but with the wind increasing significantly tomorrow, and firing commencing on Monday (which will result in no access) most of us will sadly miss this epic Pembrokeshire rarity.  It really does not get any better!

Kilpaison.

 At Kilpaison lunch time, Dunlin 25, Ringed Plover 20, Turnstone 5, Little Stint 1, Bar tailed Godwits 2, Knot 2, Little Egrets 8, Mute Swans 12.




Castlemartin Corse

Two marsh harriers at the Corse today - I only saw the second, female one, but regulars Alan and Steve had seen both in the air, the other almost certainly being the adult male who has been around since 3 August working on his moult. The female was a 2CY bird, almost certainly not the one I saw on Monday who had more extensive "shoulder patches" (no photo). This female was mobbed by crows enabling a good view of the upper wing surfaces, breadth of wing and generally massive size compared to the crow. If this is indeed a new one she will be the eighth individual identified at the Corse this year. 



I searched hedges and scrub for migrants to no avail, but had an excellent walk. Still very little water, though a few more snipe flying about than last weekend, when our WEBS count could be conducted on the fingers of one hand.  

Friday, 22 September 2023

Magnolia warbler, still St Govans

After a fruitless visit yesterday evening thankfully the Magnolia warbler showed just as dusk approached tonight (Friday). On arrival there was general positive news from the dozen or so birders on site, with reports of sightings mostly in the blackthorn thicket along the southern edge. Paul and I picked a spot and stared into the gaps in the blackthorn for 30minutes before deciding to try some other locations, most others stayed loyal to their spots in the blackthorn. Toby arrived and the two of us tried a spot to the western corner where it had apparently showed reasonably well Thursday night, minutes after we'd left. The spot looked promising as you look over an couple of elders surrounded by bracken and blackthorn but only dunnock, robins and wrens to keep us on our toes. Just as dusk approached and another blank was on my mind, Paul, who'd remained on the eastern side, came running along to beckon us to that side where the warbler was showing, again it was in thick cover but would pop up and give good views if you were in the right spot to the few remaining birders, phew. Everyone was in high spirits and congratulating Toby on his excellent discovery. What a purple patch for Pembrokeshire birding. 

The thicket the Magnolia warbler is in, is an out of bounds area, and public are reminded to keep to the main paths at all times, in order to provide some access to birders the MoD has set up a white ribboned cordon to guide birders from the car park to the thicket where the warbler has taken up residence. As it is an active military range with obvious and less obvious dangers please do not stray beyond it.

The Gann

Hi Pembsbirds,

With all the excitement with the Yank Warblers we decided to avoid the masses and went to the Gann this morning. Not much around, Redshanks, Greenshanks, Little Grebes and a Red kite. It was only when I got home and looked through some photos I realised we saw a Lesser Yellowlegs (happy to be advised on id). This bird didn’t associate with the other waders and was on the shore in the grass (hence I couldn’t see the legs) when we first watched it. It took off and I took a very lazy photo as I didn’t think it was anything too exciting.
We also saw the Melodious Warble at the Kete car park.

Images attached of the ? Yellowlegs

Best wishes, Craig Lewis and Shay Dare



West Williamston and Carew

 At West Williamston on the Carew and Cresswell Rivers approaching high tide this morning 63 Wigeon, 41 Oystercatchers, 38 Canada Geese, just 2 Little Egrets, a few Curlew and one Whimbrel.

Late morning at Carew an adult Peregrine flew past near the Castle and on the riverbanks there were 15 Redshank, 3 Greenshank, 4 Little Egrets and 5 Herons. At the lanes just north of the millpond an immature female Goshawk cruised past putting up all the Corvids and Pigeons in the vicinity. c.150 Linnets and Goldfinches still in the stubble near Carew Newton Farm.

Small waders at Angle

From Colin Laugharne: Hi all. On a visit to Angle beach the tide was in and there was a flock of 20 wading birds feeding.


Magnolia Warbler & colour-ringed Curlew

The Magnolia Warbler still present at St Govan's Head early this morning (per Birdguides).  In the scrub just north of the car park.  It was elusive all afternoon yesterday but Lisa and I and about 30-40 others managed to see it just after 7pm.  It is a superb bird, massive congratulations to Toby Phelps for the find.

In other news - on Tuesday I had a colour-ringed Curlew at the Gann, which was not one of the regular birds we see here that were ringed here.  Dark orange on the left tibia, and green over yellow on the right, with black U0 inscribed on the yellow ring.  Thanks to Tony Cross of the Mid Wales Ringing Group for providing details of this bird promptly:

A female bird, ringed by Mid Wales Ringing Group on 4/4/23 (21:00) at a nocturnal, pre-breeding roost at Betton, nr Brockton, Shropshire (52'37N, 37'0W).   This was the first resighting, and it is not know where she nests. The colour-ringing is part of a project aiming to study the breeding areas, winter destinations and survival rates of Curlews breeding and wintering in Shropshire/Mid Wales. In the last eight years nearly 500 Curlews have been individually colour-marked with re-sightings in Cornwall, Devon, Pembrokeshire, Cardiganshire, Shropshire, Denbighshire, Caernarfonshire, Cheshire, Lancashire, Cumbria and Lanarkshire as well as Counties Cork, Galway, Waterford, Wicklow and Wexford in the Republic of Ireland, Jersey, France, Spain, Sweden and Finland.

Thursday, 21 September 2023

Skokholm

Alder Flycatcher, Bobolink and Wryneck today. 



Melodious Warbler still opposite Kete Car Park

It was great to see my first Melodious Warbler this evening - in the hedge opposite Kete Car Park. This rounded off a perfect birding day for me, having also seen the Magnolia Warbler this morning. Thanks to George for the message that the Melodious Warbler was still there. 

Bay Breasted Warbler Ramsey Island

 Bay Breasted Warbler was first seen this morning at 1030 behind the farmhouse. It is still present and showing well in the farmhouse valley as of 4pm today. 

There will be no boats to the island tomorrow due to conditions. The first landings will be on Saturday. Please contact Thousand Islands to enquiry. 

                        © Alys Perry

                        © Alys Perry


                        © Greg Morgan

Also, Yellow Browed Warbler here today. 

Alys, Nia & Greg

Wryneck St Brides

From Steve Judge: September 21st on Coastal Path between Marloes and St Brides I saw a Wryneck on an inland field wall near Tower Point.

St Govans Head

 Magnolia warbler


The bird showed well at regular intervals 

Chough 4 

stonechat 4  

Dotterel again on the Nevern Tuesday 19th Sept

 Hello everyone. A first post from me having recently relocated to Pembrokeshire.

Slightly belated news that on Tuesday 19th I had brief views of the dotterel that George found at Newport. Like George noted, it was in a loose flock of 5 dunlin and 3 ringed plover. I observed it from the footpath on the northern side of the estuary by the boathouse. I watched it for a couple of minutes before a passing peregrine scattered the whole flock.

Dave Evans

Wednesday, 20 September 2023

Magnolia Warbler @ St Govans

A stunning Magnolia Warbler found early evening by Toby Phelps at St Govans Head, in the little valley that runs east just east of the car park. First for Pembrokeshire, first for Wales, and third for Britian (first for mainland Britain). Well done Toby.  Toby's account on Twitter/X here:

https://twitter.com/phelpstoby1/status/1704594231468167523?t=eC_Q8qlUWXRNd-3D3QQ21A&s=19

Skokholm

That was until this evening. An Empidonax flycatcher roosted near the Gap. See the Skok blog for photos, etc. 

Skokholm

A Lesser Yellowlegs was today's highlight. 

Ringed, Ringed plover.

 Spotted this Ringed Plover at Kilpaison On the 25-8-23, Also seen by my self on the 19-9-2020.

Just received some history from the ringer in Germany, Interesting stuff.



Tuesday, 19 September 2023

Waders, Dale airfield

A very blustery couple of hours to check the airfield and scrub. Waders in numbers on the southern side of the stony field and intersection, too windy to check the other end without the scope shaking uncontrollably. Min 80 Ringed plover, 25 Dunlin, 4 Curlew sandpiper, 4 Turnstone, 2 Golden plover and a Little stint was a first here for me. Might be worth a look in the morning if the wind eases really hard to keep optics steady even kneeling down in the lee of a bank. 

Otherwise 50 Goldfinch, 20 Pied wagtail, only a handful of pipit and 2 Wheatear. A large looking warbler too fast and into the blackthorn before I could get the binoculars on it gave me hope but despite a good look nothing else.

Monday, 18 September 2023

Saundersfoot Bittern

From Julie Davies: Please find attached a photograph of the sad find this morning. I was beach cleaning, picking up microplastics, at the time and was crawling along the strandline when I came almost nose to beak with it. My first thoughts were Oh! Dead bird! Ooh! Heron?!! but as I sat upright I saw the wings then the feet and my brain just couldn't add bittern and Saundersfoot beach together!

Many thanks to those I spoke to today, I feared that if I rang PCC straight away then the bittern would have just been bagged and binned. Wish I'd had the means to scoop it up and get it to someone far more knowledgeable but a grave marker of pebbles was all I could offer it. 

Glaring sunshine made it hard to see my phone screen but hopefully they can act as some kind of record. There didn't seem to be any obvious damage or injury but very very sodden. The WhatThreeWords location if that's of interest to you at all was fuses.nicer.dearest 

The bird was reported to PCC for removal as per avian flu guidance although when I (eventually) left the beach at 3.30 there'd been noone yet from PCC along to collect it.

Kilpaison

24 Wigeon, 3 Pintail and 8 Pale-bellied Brent Geese at Kilpaison, (Paul Warren)

Curlew Sandpiper - Dale Airfield

There was plenty of water on the runways at Dale Airfield, and I enjoyed spending some time watching this Curlew Sandpiper on the western one, before it decided to fly off towards the southern end of the stoney field. 



Apart from this, there were lots of birds present, including dozens of Pied Wagtails, but nothing particularly unusual.

Castlemartin Corse

A well-marked adult female marsh harrier had blown in since Rob's and my lamentable WEBS count on Saturday. She flew past at speed, circled a couple of times over the central part of the Corse.  The usual kestrel was being harassed by crows, a 1CY peregrine caused mayhem among the corvids and finches at the car park end. A wheatear the only other migrant. 

Brent Geese

 4 pale bellied Brent Geese at the Nevern Estuary this morning along with 10 Goosander, 8 Little Egrets, 2 adult Mediterranean Gulls and 4 Stock Doves.

Sunday, 17 September 2023

Little Milford - Spotted Redshank and Little Stint

I managed a quick look at the high tide roost on Hook Bight, opposite Little Milford, this morning before the rain stopped play. The gulls were almost entirely Black-headed, about 250 visible in the long grass beside the river, with around 100 Redshank, ten Greenshank and a dozen Curlew and at least one Whimbrel lurking in the middle. As the tide fell, the gulls were the first to move down to the water followed by the Redshanks. A Spotted Redshank came down to the river for a bath - I think this is the first one I have seen in Pembrokeshire:


Also present was a single Little Stint scurrying around the marsh samphire and two Black-tailed Godwits with a single Bar-tailed Godwit. There was also another stint or small sandpiper that I could not see clearly, but not one of the usual species, with a rufous crown stripe and white supercilium. I think I shall have to go back tomorrow if the kit has dried out.

Dotterel and Wrynecks

 This morning I had a dotterel roosting on the spit at the western end of Newport sands, visible from the parrog. A really odd sight! It was broadly associating with a small group of Dunlin and ringed plovers. A combination of rising tide and increase in dog walkers through the morning made the flock jittery, and I last saw the dotterel flying upriver with a couple of dunlin. Please excuse the record shot, as it testifies, I'm no photographer! 


Onwards for a wander around st David's head, hoping for some new migrants. Not to be- it was relatively quiet. The only obvious migrant being a single Wryneck, but quite possibly a lingering individual. Since finding four there about 10 days ago, I have been regularly spotting a couple of birds in the valley behind Porthmelgan. Today's bird was at the far end of the valley, in the area beyond the willows (if approaching from Porthmelgan) which seems to be a popular area for the species, with three birds there on 7th. 

Almost simultaneously Fiona found a Wryneck on Castlemartin range, in scrub above the eastern side of Bullslaughter bay (picture below), and later in the day a whinchat at Brownslade farm. 





Saturday Strumble Watch

From Cheryl Hewitt: I see from the report the numbers of common Scoters seen. I thought I would send you a couple of images of them. 


Blackbridge pill, Swallow reflections...

Just three Med Gulls this morning -I was hoping for more - 31 Redshank, 1 Greenshank, Common Sandpiper calling & a juv Knot was good to see. About 15 years ago a pair of Swallows tried unsuccessfully to breed in our garage, worried about the mess on her car my wife kept the door shut. However this year the door was left open & the old nest was reoccupied & as far as I could see there were five chicks succesfully fledged over two broods.We shut them in at night & opened the door in the morning which seemed to work well for them, this morning there was just one bird up in the rafters so I`m guessing "he`s" been left behind. My wife was quite fond of them providing they didn`t zoom to close to her & the mess was (is?) minimal Hope to see them return next year. Just how beautiful they are shows in photo I took of an adult on the roof of Lockley lodge last May.