Spotted Redshank - 1994

Passage migrant and winter visitor

The Spotted Redshank was listed as a rare autumn visitor by Mathew (1894). Lockley et al. (1949) added four further records. Increased observer activity since the 1950s has revealed it to be an annual passage migrant in the autumn, with up to three at various coastal localities between 18 July and 12 October, and an exceptional 27 at Hook on 12 October 1978. Less regular in the spring, up to five have been recorded between 4 April and 20 June, but not in every year.

Variable numbers, usually between six and twelve, winter on the Cleddau Estuary, principally around Hook Reach. They arrive in August and September and depart in April.

Migrant Spotted Redshanks occasionally drop in at the pools on Skokholm and Skomer, are sometimes seen coasting past promontories and one was noted at a lighthouse attraction at Strumble Head in September 1985.

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