Black redstart - 1894

Ruticilla titys

A winter visitor, not common. From its extent of coast Pembrokeshire appears to be peculiarly suited to this species, and it has occurred both on the northern and the southern shores of the county. In the north it has been seen several times and shot by Sir Hugh Owen at Goodwick : " Single specimens on the moors in hard weather." In the south, the Rev. Clennell Wilkinson has seen it in his garden at Castle Martin. Mr. Tracy mentions two examples that occurred in the autumn of 1847; one killed by Mr. George Hughes, of the Coburg Hotel, Tenby, on the eaves of the hotel; the other by himself, with an air cane, loaded with small shot on the water trough of his neighbour's house in Pembroke ; and Mr. Dix was informed by him that he considered the species a regular winter visitor to Pembroke, where it might be seen frequenting the walls of the old castle. There is an example of the Black Redstart in the Mathias Collection in the Tenby Museum. Mr. Charles Jefferys informs us that he used to see one or two Black Redstarts every autumn at Tenby, but for several years has failed to see or hear of any.

Mathew M.A. 1894, Birds of Pembrokeshire and it's Islands