Chink - chinka - chink - a - chink

Great Cetti's warbler shot from Alan Merrett in front of the hide at the Corse.  Also female goldeneye, a rare sight at the Corse. 

Almost summer in Tenby

 A glorious warm and sunny afternoon was accompanied by both a Chiffchaff and a late Willow Warbler  a singing in the sea buckthorn between the golf course and the south beach.  Also Cetti's warbler singing near Penally bypass, Stonechats around as everywhere round the coastal fringe, Skylarks on passage and single Chough scattered around the golf course. Nice day.

Rose-coloured Starling - Tenby

A juvenile Rose-coloured Starling feeding along the garden wall steps leading to the beach in Tenby behind Upton Farm kiosk. (Mark Waldron)

Whoopers

 Two, calling ,flying West to East over St Ishmaels  this morning around 6.30.  Looking to settle on the pools at Bicton?

A feeding location for those Greylags

Based on a hunch, late this afternoon we had a look at some fields between Carew Newton and St Florence and managed to track down the flock of greylags. 

We noted c.150 feeding in a cereal stubble field. Several minutes earlier we had seen a smaller flock of 20 or so  in flight over the Carew/Sageston area. These might have dropped in to feed somewhere else nearby. There are several fields that look quite promising for geese. 

Earlier in the year we had seen several greylags in this area plus a Greenland white-fronted Goose. The geese today were a bit too far away to determine if there were other species in the flock but, based on size, all were probably greylags. 

Late this afternoon, good numbers of herring gull were regularly flying over in a south-easterly direction from various inland fields. They were almost certainly heading to Caldey Island where there is a large herring gull roost.

We went over to Landshipping again, hoping to see the geese flying in somewhere at dusk, but we might have been a bit too late.  We could hear occasional greylag calls but saw only one flying upriver towards the Eastern Cleddau. 

Other birds included 300+ lapwings, 30+ redshanks, 6 greenshanks and a few dunlin coming in to roost. Hundreds of black-headed gulls were again preparing to roost off Sprinkle Pill. A kingfisher was also present at Landshipping. 

Marloes Peninsula

There were two Whooper Swans and three Barnacle Geese amonst the 133 Canada Geese at Marloes Mere this afternoon. The three tufted ducks were also present amonst the usual suspects of mallard, shoveller, teal and wigeon. C70 lapwings flew over at one point.

Whooper Swans

Three Barnacle Geese

A distant male Merlin on prey was also was observed from the headland. 

Male Merlin on Prey

Marloes Mere &,Gann 1p- 3pm29/10.

 A bit overcast, almost no wind. We arrived at Marloes just after I pm looking over th Mere from the car park , Most obvious were a pair of Whoopers that flew off heading SE ov erhed givinfg glorious views. Plenty of Shovellers a couple of Tufties and a Kestrel.   

 I can't remember when last we visited , but it was nice to see access to the Gann car park was open again. I also cannot remember when we were th only ones walking down to the river! A lovely Greenshank was star bird along with an Alba Wagtail feeding among a handfull of Yarelli's and several Rockits on tghe seaweed strandline.

Carew Greylags

Re Bob 'n' Annie's post, those will have been the greylags that had flown over Carew Cheriton a few minutes earlier. See also my posts of 13 and 23 October. The numbers have been building over October, we are alerted by the sound and always rush out to see them. Yesterday there were more than ever, passing over in skeins and chevrons. 180 even more than I thought, but I can't see them all at once because of the trees. It's a daily occurrence: often they fly over early (I assume they've adjusted their clocks) but sometimes a load of them fly back quite soon, so geese seem to be coming and going all day. 

There is a vantage point up the hill towards the Ridgeway where one has an overview of the whole area and could see where they're going - cf Rich C's identifying where the 23 glossy ibis were feeding in this way in January 2012. But I'm not sure I could stand up there for hours. 

PS 15.30 2 V's of Canadas have just flown over Carew Cheriton, heading SSE, followed by more greylags. Clearly a major goose destination somewhere to the SE. 

Skokholm

Another Yellow-browed Warbler today. 

Geese over Carew area

On our way home this evening, at about 16:40 hrs, we noted a skein of c.180 geese (most likely to have been greylags). They flew over the A477, in roughly a NW (or WNW) direction, passing quite high over or near  Carew Millpond and probably over Carew River, perhaps heading towards Lawrenny or somewhere north of there. 

We had a look across the Daugleddau at Landshipping Quay at dusk to see if they had settled somewhere in that area, or over on Sprinkle Pill-side. The tide was high. We could make out six little egrets roosting in a distant tree, c.150 lapwings were flying around low over the water, and hundreds of gulls (most probably Black-headed) were flying up-channel off Sprinkle Pill. However, no obvious geese were seen or heard. We wondered if they had possibly flown further up the Western or the Eastern Cleddau system. We are aware of occasional morning greylag flights heading in the approx direction of Carew, and we occasionally hear them heading towards the Daugleddau near Landshipping late in the afternoon. If they are flying a regular route, hopefully we (or someone) will catch up with them somewhere later in the week.

Barnacle Geese

From Paul St Pierre:  There were two Barnacle geese in a field on the l/h side of the A road to Fishguard just outside of st Davids (after/ near recycling centre turnoff?) yesterday. They were feeding in a recently sown field with gulls. Saw them on the way and they were still there on my return.

North Pembs ...

Late Northern Wheatear - Preselis 

A late Northern Wheatear on the way up to Foel Eryr from Bwlch y Gwynt yesterday morning. (Den Vaughan)

Marsh Harrier - Teifi Marshes

Marsh Harrier from river over kingfisher and off towards Pen y Bryn 20 mins ago (1400- Monday )  (Gareth in Wildlife Centre)

The origin of the Polish colour-ringed Black-headed Gull

We heard today that Polish colour-ringed Black-headed Gull (blue TJJ7) which was at Pembroke Middle Pond on Saturday was ringed as a nestling at JEZIORO ŁĘGOWSKIE, Wągrowiec (a lake on the western side of Poland) on 20^th June. It has moved 1,502km from its natal area. 

There have been records of other ringed BH Gulls from Poland and elsewhere over the years which we hope to add to the online avifauna at sometime in the future. 

Yesterday a merlin was hunting around Frainslake and Freshwater West. Still not very many redwings around here but Annie noted a flock of about 30 in some trees near Little Waddock today. 

Skokholm

A Snow Bunting today 

St Brides (27th October)

Nice to see three of the Black Redstart around the Church yesterday afternoon. Also a Chiffchaff in the woods. 

Lots of corvids about, and Woodpigeons

As Steve and Anna have remarked, the corvid roost at Dale at the moments must be spectacular - we haven't exactly seen it but we do see streams of birds heading in that directoin each night as we sup a G&T in the conservatory. Dave Astins mentioned up to 1000 corvids on the shore at the Gann and when we did our WEBS count on Tuesday, also at the Gann, we were accompanied by a flock of about 500 Jackdaws feeding on the grass in noisy chacking groups. A question though - why are Jackdaws so seemingly successful when other birds with similar feeding requirements (Rooks, Starlings) are not doing so well?

Woodpigeons are also on the move - over the last week batches of up to 100 have been flying down the valley behind our house in a southerly direction. On the way to the continent I think. 

Rosemary Royle

The Gann

 A  walk down the Gann from Mullock Bridge to the pools turned up 30 Curlew, c. 120 Herring Gulls and maybe 10 Greaters with a few Black Headed Gull, 10 Cormorants, 28 Oystercatcher, 7 Redshank, 5 Little Egrets and 2 Cattle Egrets again in the Mullock fields.  

The best was 9 Whooper Swan on the river above the gulls  that were and disturbed by walkers flew out to sea off Black Rock, landed and then paddled back towards the river. 

About 180 Golden Plover very high up in the sky over the Gann heading north west. hundreds of corvids, pigeons and some starlings too on the newly gathered maize crops fields.

Want to see something fairly spectacular?  Then head for Dale village before dusk  - the corvid roost is well worth seeing with many hundreds of corvids going to roost.

Black Redstart

Just to add to Huw and Dereks images of the Black Redstart from today. 

Derek, Amy and I were very lucky to see a total of four birds.  

Eye on the Prize!

 

 

Marloes Mere

Spent a bit of time at Marloes Mere today. There were 136 Canada Geese there this morning, a Marsh Harrier put in a breif appearance, but it was a Buzzard a short while later that sent the wildfowl up into the air and scattering as it glided over the area being pursued by corvids! Always nice to see a Snipe feeding on edge of the water.

Saw four tufted duck there on return visit later in the day (having seen two in the morning).

Todays Marsh Harrier taking off after briefly landing on the mere

Black Redstarts St Brides

From Huw Lewis: Here is a photo of one of three Black Redstarts at St Brides this afternoon. They were commuting between the rooves of the Church and the former Vicarage while being harassed by a Robin.

 

Fieldfare at Martletwy & BH Gulls from Poland & Finland at Pembroke Millpond

Singles of redwing and fieldfare appeared in the trees bordering our garden, just after we had finished recording an overnight moth-catch for the Garden Moth Scheme. The latter was the first one we had seen here this autumn. 

Later on, we had to make a visit to Pembroke so had a look around the millpond where it was nice to see two ringed Black-headed Gulls. One was a 1CY Blue TJJ7 from Poland (Polish birds appear almost annually at the Millpond) and an adult with a Helsinki Museum metal ring. We think that we have managed to read all of the digits, but this one will need to be confirmed. We cannot recall previously seeing a BHG from Finland at the Millpond.

From various angles, we think we manged to read all the digits on this very obliging bird with a Finnish-ring

Numbers of waterfowl were fairly modest, but included at least 29 little grebes, 38 mute swans, 92 mallards, a minimum of 3 water rails calling on the perimeter of the middle pond, 21 moorhens, 8 coot, and c.100 BHGs and 28 herring gulls. 

The Castle Pond might be being drained, so perhaps an interesting wader or two might turn up there in the next week or so if the mud does get exposed for a while.   

Black Redstarts

 Four  on the roof of the old rectory at St Brides this evening, all appeared to be female / juv.  Thanks to  Huw for the info as I was leaving Marloes  & Caroline`s company at St Brides. All four were briefly together but nigh on impossible to frame!

Castlemartin Corse

A gorgeous morning, lots of open water. Adam was just leaving as I arrived, reporting marsh harriers, sparrowhawk, 4 little grebe. Harry turned up a bit later, in time for some great hunting action. Both marsh harriers were on patrol, one of them hovering what looked like just above some remarkably unperturbed mallards, but when she dropped it was into the reeds just beyond the water, so the ducks had clearly calculated the angles. Alan had a lovely male merlin yesterday, settling in the scrub just in front of the hide. Otherwise usual stuff.

Autumn marsh harriers on Castlemartin Corse

Marsh harriers are highly variable between ages, sexes and individuals, and (adult males apart) can be confusing at the best of times. Add in 500m range, often poor visibility and rapidly expanding scrub, and getting a good look at individuals on the Corse, and thereby deciding how many birds are around,  can be challenging. Thanks to some post-match analysis of some outstanding photos by Caroline Pickett and Alan Merrett, we now know we have had at least 4, perhaps 5 individual marsh harriers on the Corse across September and October. though never more than two seen on a given day.

Caroline and I had a brief view of an adult female type on our September WEBS count (21.09). We later learnt that Alan Merrett had seen two together on 19.09. His photos show that these were both probable 1CY birds, one of them by its broad build almost certainly a female, the other probably a female, but neither of them our clearly adult bird from two days later. (Juvs in September - where have they come from? Our tagged bird from Norfolk in 2020 turned up in November). Caroline and I saw one adult female on our next WEBS count on 19.10: helpfully, it was moulting a primary. A couple of days later Caroline and Alan saw two birds together, both adult females. Finally, yesterday, Caroline photographed this female, clearly our bird from 19.10, as told by her missing primary.

So: two 1CY birds and one adult female in September, two adult females in October - one of which may or may not have been our September adult. Great work by Caroline and Alan.

1. Alan's birds from 19.09.2024 both likely 1CY types, the lower one a female by its broad build:

photos Alan Merrett

2. Caroline's and my bird from 21.09.2024, under typical conditions - 4-500m, poor visibility: buzzard on fence - cream-yellow extending down the sides of the neck, most likely a 3CY+ ♀ moulting a left primary: 

3. Caroline's pics of 2 birds, both adult female types, on 21.10.2024 - one of them (presumably) the one we'd seen on WEBS two days earlier. The lower c/u is of the top, further bird in the pic of the two:

photos Caroline Pickett

4. Lastly, Caroline's pic of ad. female type taken yesterday. From the missing left primary this appears to be the bird we saw on 21.09 (above):

photo Caroline Pickett

Great work by Caroline and Alan. Thoughts and comments on plumages welcome, this post makes no claim to be definitive! (Forsman devotes a page to separating female marsh harriers, black kites and dark phase booted eagles out of context/on passage, one problem we don't have at the Corse!)

Those Cattle Egrets

 Probably the same birds as Dave saw yesterday were with the cattle in the field above Mullock Bridge this morning.

Skokholm

A Corncrake is present today

Gann

A short walk at the Gann this evening, 2 Cattle Egrets flew over south, having initially been in with the cows in the field by the bend just before Crabhall.  On the lagoon was a nice group of 9 Whooper Swans (all adults), then soon flew off and headed up the river.  An impressive number of corvids on the beach, easily over 1,000. (Dave & Lisa)

Those greylags...

A spectacular skein of over 70 greylags flew over the house at 1700...heading SE! There are 65 in this photo, but there were more at either end of the skein. Where are they going at this hour? Basically there seem to be greylags constantly on the move. Driving to Withybush this morning at around 0830 there was a skein of greylags heading ESE over the A40. 

PS 18.55, around 30-40 of those geese have just flown NW, in semi-darkness

Visual migration

 A bit of visual migration this morning at the Nevern Estuary with 2 Brambling, 100+ of both Chaffinch and Redwings and a smaller movement of Skylark. On the estuary 8 Goosander and 2 Bar tailed Godwits

Pembrokeshire Bird Conference

The 2024 Pembrokeshire Bird Conference is on Saturday 30th November at Pembrokeshire College in Haverfordwest. Book using this link below (not the one on the poster) - note this one definitely works. 

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/pembrokeshire-bird-group-conference-2024-tickets-1037817629467

 

Marsh Harrier

From Harry Grubb:

Mature female plumage Marsh harrier flying west over Llangloffan fen today at 4pm

Freshwater Beach

From Gavin Finlow: 

A trip to Freshwest beach today and saw a couple of Chough not too far from the car park and a Wheatear sat on the seaweed hut roof.

Marsh Harrier

There were two Marsh Harrier at Castlemartin Corse today.

Shame this sight did not happen on Saturday for the WeBS count!

Alan Merrett mentioned there have been two Marsh Harrier present the last few times he has visited the Corse. Nice to run into him and to meet Jason too. 

Two Marsh Harrier at Castlemartin Corse

 

The Hen Harrier bombed through once while I was there and a kestrel was hovering over one of the fields on my way back to the car.

Black Swan

From Melanie Felton: Good morning, a Black Swan has just swum past my house from the Pembroke estuary towards Quoits Mill Pill

Stackpole

There were a pair of Chough feeding at the Courtsite (Stackpole Estate) today. 

What is interesting is I took images of a pair of Chough feeding at the Courtsite on the 17th October 2023. 

Can not help wondering if the birds I saw today were the same pair as I observed last year, similar time of year using the same location to feed at! 

Image from 17 Oct 2023

Image from today Oct 24

Carew/Cresswell and Landshipping area - WeBS

Quite a high tide this morning meant that WeBS counts along the Carew/Cresswell required various diversions to avoid flooded roads, e.g. at Cresswell Quay. For a short time, water also flowed over the French Tidal Mill causeway at the Carew Millpond. 

Wigeon and Teal numbers were relatively modest (c.300 of the former and 190+ of the latter) but no Shelducks were seen on the river, although parts were difficult to see due to squally conditions. 

Approx. 80 Redshanks, 70+ Oystercatchers, 110 Curlews and a couple of Black-tailed Godwits roosted together near New Shipping Point but only a few Dunlin. Several Redwings were feeding on berries in hedgerow trees near Carew River. 

A bit later, up at Landshipping, 112 Redshanks (a reasonable total for this area) were avidly feeding along the muddy shore on the falling tide. Four Greenshanks, 12 Dunlin and 70+ Lapwings were also here. A Kingfisher was feeding at Millars Park lagoon. Four Little Grebes (probably sheltering from the rough water in the main channel) were also feeding in the lagoon.

Over on the opposite side of the Daugleddau, near Fowborough Point, c.700-1000 Golden Plovers were often in the air. They had possibly been spooked initially by a Goshawk that flew over. At least 50 Greylags took off from a field near Knap Wood and flew south-east in the direction of Lawrenny/Carew at around 11:15.

St Govan's Head / Bosherston

Noticeable flurry of Robins and Thrushes in around St Govan's Head this morning. Plus Skylarks, Meadow Pipits and Chaffinches moving south overhead. 

The best was a late Hobby which flew over towards the Lily ponds and a Firecrest near Broad Haven South car park. 

Hen Harrier - Preseli Hills

Ring tail Hen Harrier this evening tanking it from the land below Pantmaenog over Bwlch y Gwynt towards Sychbant(?) (Den Vaughan)

WeBS Castlemartin Corse

Richard and I did the WeBS count for Castlemartin Corse today.

We had 105 Lapwing, 4 Black Headed Gull and 2 Herring Gull on the upper section. There were 60 Mallards around the hide section, 2 Little Egrets, 3 Grey Heron, 2 Little Grebe, 2 Teal, 6 Water Rail and 8 Snipe made up the rest of the count.

The raptors did not disappoint with 2 Sparrowhawk, the 3CY Marsh Harrier appeared briefly, 2 Buzzards and thanks to Richard a ringtail Hen Harrier was spotted hunting over the reedbed. It circled round to south of hide and headed eastwards. Richard spotted the bird again as we walked back up to the upper section, by then working its way along the hedge line to north of the Corse heading back westwards.

The Reed Bunting were showing well on the hedge leading to the hide and a host of other small birds were heard or seen along the route including 6 Cetti Warblers and a flock of Long Tailed Tit.

Hen Harrier

Hen Harrier

Marsh Harrier (Image from Thursday 17 Oct)

Dr Beynon's Bug Farm and Dowrog Common

Pembrokeshire Bird Group Walk by 9 members this afternoon to Dr Beynon's Bug Farm and Dowrog Common produced 27 species including 7 raptor species; Peregrine, Marsh Harrier, Hen Harrier (Ring-tail), Pallid Harrier, Merlin, Kestrel and Buzzard. Many thanks to the Bug Farm team for hosting us.

Ring Ouzel - Rosebush

The well marked male Ring Ouzel still present in the Rosebush Quarry area.. (Den Vaughan) 

Pink-footed goose, Marloes Mere

A Pink-footed goose on the mere this evening and seen flying westward towards Skomer with Canadas later. Plenty of water. A Dublin ringed 1w GBB (6H7:D) among 500 Herring gulls. 3 Tufted duck. 44 Lapwing. 200 Starling. 2 Kestrel. 14 Chough towards Martin's Haven. The landward side of the coast path towards Martin's Haven has an electric fence running alongside it, so the rough pasture is out of bounds at the moment.

Great White Egret - Hook

 A Great White Egret flew up the Western Cleddau by Hook Quay early this morning, returning about 15 minutes later when it rounded Fowborough Point. It was not in Sprinkle Pill by the time I arrived so presumably went further downstream.