Robin - 1994

Breeding resident

Mathew (1894) knew this bird as the Redbreast, and described it as a common resident, a view echoed by Lockleyetal. (1949). Today the Robin is a widespread breeding bird in Pembrokeshire, absent only from the mountain tops and the offshore islands other than Caldey, though they have occasionally bred on Ramsey, Skomer and Skokholm. At an estimated average density of 100 pairs per tetrad the total breeding population is probably about 43,000 pairs.

There is an influx from mid-August which is not entirely due to dispersal on the part of local breedingbirds, and these birds take up territories on headlands and islands where they were absent during the nesting season. A Robin ringed on the Calf of Man in April 1962 was recovered at Goodwick in January 1963, another ringed on Skokholm in April 1968 was recovered in France in December 1970 and others from Grampian, Belgium and Estonia have been recovered in Pembrokeshire in the autumn. They have reached most of the isolated islets, including Grassholm and the Smalls, during spring and autumn and have been recorded at the lantern of the Smalls lighthouse at night in March, May and September.

Fieldwork 1984-88 (based on 478 tetrads)

Red = breeding confirmed = 295

Orange = breeding probable = 123

Yellow = breeding possible = 16

Total tetrads in which registered = 434 (90.8%)

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