Tree Pipit - 1994

Breeding summer visitor and passage migrant. Not recorded from November to February

Mathew (1894) described the Tree Pipit as a common summer visitor. Lockley et al. ( 1949) stated that Tree Pipits did not breed on the exposed western coast and Saunders (1976) that they were only encountered on passage in the western coastal fringe. However, the Breeding Birds Survey of 1984-1988 found them breeding in several places on the western coastal plain (see map), but they mainly breed east of a line running north to south through Haverfordwest. At an estimated average of ten pairs per tetrad, the breeding population is probably about 800 pairs.

Only small numbers of Tree Pipits are seen on passage in Pembrokeshire, mostly along the coast and on the offshore islands. Passage occurs between 1 April and early June, with an early bird at Skokholm on 16 March 1966, and again from August to 13 October, with a late occurrence at Strumble Head on 22 October 1983.

Fieldwork 1984-88 (based on 478 tetrads)

Red = breeding confirmed = 13

Orange = breeding probable = 65

Yellow = breeding possible = 6

Total tetrads in which registered = 84 (17.6%)

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