Great Shearwater - Status

Puffinus gravis

Near annual passage migrant.

The Great Shearwater breeds on islands in the Tristan da Cunha group, Gough Island and Kidney Island in the Falklands. Outside the breeding season they migrate up the western Atlantic to Newfoundland, spreading to Greenland and the Denmark Strait. They return southwards on the eastern side of the Atlantic, passing between July and November. They normally travel well offshore but onshore winds push a proportion close to the coast of Western Europe.

The first one recorded in Pembrokeshire was on the 15th August 1957, when C. M. Swaine watched it passing through Jack Sound, the channel between Middleholm and the mainland. Between 1973, when it was next recorded, and 2007 a total of 228 birds were logged. All were between July and October, the earliest one off South Bishop on 14th July 1975, the latest off Skomer on 29th October 1994.