We’ve not been out much recently, but we have been quite busy checking records entered to BirdTrack in 2025 – almost 52,000 - sent to Jon Green County Recorder (eventually to be archived at the West Wales Biodiversity Information Centre). A big thank you to everyone who has submitted records to BirdTrack and to other systems.
With fine weather at last, yesterday morning we managed to do winter bird surveys in a couple of 1km squares. Despite nice survey conditions, it seemed very quiet for most species. Where we are near Martletwy, we’ve not seen many fieldfares this winter. Yesterday, a single one was feeding with a couple of mistle thrushes in sheep-grazed pasture near Minwear. However, in general, there were very few winter thrushes or finches around in areas we visited.
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| So far, we haven't seen many fieldfares near where we live |
Later in the day we noted that the female goosander was
still overwintering on Pembroke Millpond, also now joined by a single male
shoveler, but numbers of waterbirds were generally low. A kingfisher (always nice to see) was perched in a usual location on the far side of the middle pond.
There is an old saying that an “early bird catches the worm”.
Yesterday, it was a late afternoon robin
that caught a very large earthworm (probably Lumbricus terrestris) near
Pembroke Castle. It was probably longer than the robin and, judging by its overall size and girth,
might have been almost as heavy as the robin too! Having taken some time to devour
it, the feisty bird just about managed to fly into some nearby shrubbery presumably
to digest it – a good feast before bedtime!
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| It took a minute or two for this large earthworm to be successfully devoured |
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| Part of a flock of pintails in the Angle Bay shallows |