Spotted Crake - 1994

Occasional visitor. Not recorded in November and December and from February to April

Mathew (1894) considered it an "occasional visitor", listing Goodwick, Tenby and Stackpole as localities where it had occurred, but the only date he quoted was October 1888. Lockley et al. (1949) classified it as a "rare autumn visitor" with records from Solva in October 1928, Dowrog on 27 October 1928 and Skomer on 15 September 1946. They also noted singles from Trewellwell on 10 January 1910, Dowrog in May 1923 and Goodwick in the winter of 1945.

Spotted Crakes have since been heard calling from suitable breeding habitat such as the Ritec, Newgale Marsh and Dowrog between May and July in several years, but there is no evidence that they have nested. They have also been recorded on about twenty occasions between August and October and twice in January, occurrences distributed roughly equally between the offshore islands and the mainland.

Donovan J.W. & Rees G.H (1994), Birds of Pembrokeshire