Great Skua - status

Stercorarius skua

Passage migrant and occasional winter visitor.

The Great Skua has the most restricted breeding range of the skuas that have been recorded in Pembrokeshire, nesting in Scotland, Faroes, Iceland, Jan Mayen, along the Norwegian coast to Bear Island and Svalbard, and into the Russian Kola peninsula. They also winter further north than the other skuas, principally in the Bay of Biscay and off North Africa. Some remain at our own latitude.

Mathew (1894) gives only one record of a Great Skua for Pembrokeshire, shot in Solva Harbour in 1894 but also quotes Sir Hugh Owen as stating: “is always to be seen in Goodwick Bay in a good Herring season”. It was next recorded in the county when one was seen at The Smalls in July 1955 and between then and 1979 there were records in 21 years, with a mean of five birds per annum and a maximum in any year of 18 in 1974. The species could be regarded as a scarce bird in the past and the literature generally regards it as increasing from about 1900 onwards, the Pembrokeshire record reflecting this.

Grey Heron - 1894

Species account from M Mathew, 1894, "The Birds of Pembrokeshire and its islands"

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Gannet - 1894

Species account from M Mathew, 1894, "The Birds of Pembrokeshire and its islands"

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Shag - 1894

Species account from M Mathew, 1894, "The Birds of Pembrokeshire and its islands"

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Cormorant - 1894

Species account from M Mathew, 1894, "The Birds of Pembrokeshire and its islands"

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Spotted Redshank - autumn

Tringa erythropus

Autumn passage, between the 18th June and October, involved 41.5 % of the county total with records from Skokholm, Skomer, Grassholm, Ramsey, the Gann, upper Cleddau Estuary, Bicton Reservoir, Westfield Pill, Sandy Haven Pill, Amroth, Castle Martin, West Williamston, Fishguard Harbour, Nevern Estuary, Teifi Estuary, passing over St David’s and Crundale, coasting past Strumble Head and once at a lighthouse attraction there.

Most records referred to autumn passage during the 1960’s and in the 1970’s autumn passage included the largest gatherings yet seen in the county, viz : 20 at Hook on the 17th September 1972 and 27 there on the 12th October 1978.

Graham Rees

(Covers records up to and including 2006).

Spotted Redshank - spring

 Tringa erythropus

Spring passage, between April and the 25th May, has been small and amounted to 2.9 % of the county total record. Migrants were reported from Skokholm, Skomer, Dale airfield, the Gann and Sandy Haven Pill.

There were only two spring records in the 1960’s and none in the 1970’s. The 1980’s were notable for the bulk of the spring records, which included five at Skokholm on the 15th and 16th April 1983.

Graham Rees

(Covers records up to and including 2006).

Spotted Redshank - winter

Tringa erythropus

There were two winter records in the 1960’s and just one winter record during the 1970’s.  It was in January 1983 that over wintering was first detected, ten birds feeding around the upper Cleddau Estuary between Landshipping / Sprinkle Pill and Hook, including Millin Pill, staying until the 17th April. These birds habitually kept together feeding communally, usually in deeper water than used by Redshanks and Greenshanks, sometimes upending like dabbling ducks. Variously five to 16 over wintered in that area each year up to 1991, departing in March. During this 10 year period there were winter records of one or two birds in four years from other parts of the Cleddau Estuary, most of them at Carew / Cresswell.

Post March 1992 fewer wintered on the upper Cleddau Estuary than previously but one to five did so elsewhere in the estuary system, principally at Carew / Cresswell and Sandy Haven Pill but they were also noted at Cosheston Pill, Castle Pill, Pembroke River and the Gann.

WINTER DISTRIBUTION IN CLEDDAU ESTUARY, blue = lower estuary, red = upper estuary.

During the period 1983 – 1992 just 11 % of winter records were away from the upper Cleddau Estuary but between 1993 and 2006 this had risen to 46 % and the total over wintering in the estuary as whole had decreased by 40 %. Reasons for the decline in winter numbers and local dispersal are speculative, the front runners being the cessation of raw sewage discharge into the Cleddau Estuary and a build up of wintering birds at Penclacwydd, Carmarthenshire, resulting in fewer travelling further west to Pembrokeshire. The latter is credible, for if the numbers wintering at Penclacwydd (provided by Wendell Thomas pers com) post 1992 are combined with those on the Cleddau Estuary for the same years, an average of nine birds per annum overwintered. The average overwintering on the Cleddau prior to the creation of the Penclacwydd wetland was 10.6.

All winter records were confined to the Cleddau Estuary and constituted 55.6 % of the county total.

 Graham Rees

(Covers records up to and including 2006).

Spotted Redshank - status

Tringa erythropus

Passage migrant and winter visitor.

The Spotted Redshank breeds across the Arctic area of the Old World, the nearest to Britain being in Fenno - Scandia and western Russia. Birds from this area winter south as far as the Afrotropics.

Mathew (1894) classified the Spotted Redshank as a rare autumn visitor to Pembrokeshire, noting that several had passed through the hands of Mr Tracy the bird-stuffer of Pembroke. All were birds of the year and obtained in the autumn. Additionally three received by the Cardiff Museum in 1896 were from Tenby. Subsequently Lockley et al (1949) noted three more occurrences involving four birds.

BWP states that Spotted Redshanks increased in the UK from the 1950’s, Lovegrove et al (1994) tracing the increase in Wales from the 1960’s. In Pembrokeshire there were records in six years, involving eight birds, during the 1950’s but they were annual from 1960 onwards involving an increased number of birds.

Cumulative monthly totals countywide, 1960 – 2006.

Graham Rees

(Covers records up to and including 2006).

References

CRAMP. S. (Editor), 1977 – 1994. Handbook of the Birds of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa : the birds of the Western Palearctic, Oxford University Press, 9 Vols. (BWP)

MATHEW. M. 1894. The birds of Pembrokeshire and its islands, R. H. Porter.

LOCKLEY. R. M, INGRAM. C. S. and SALMON. H. M.1949. The birds of Pembrokeshire, West Wales Field Society.

LOVEGROVE. R, WILLIAMS . G. & WILLIAMS. I. 1994. Birds in Wales, T & A. D. Poyser Ltd, London.

Cory’s Shearwater

Calonectris diomedea

Erratic visitor.

The Cory’s Shearwater breeds in several places around the Mediterranean, in Portugal and on the sub tropical islands of the east Atlantic. It is migratory outside the breeding season, many then occurring in the Bay of Biscay, regularly penetrating as far as Cornwall and occasionally appearing in large numbers off the south west of Ireland.

It is an erratic visitor to Pembrokeshire waters, being first recorded from the Fishguard to Rosslare ferry on the 25th September 1965 by Jack Donovan. From then until 2007 a total of 86 birds have been logged. They were not recorded annually, being seen in 66 % of those years. The earliest was off the South Bishop on the 22nd February 1976, the latest off Strumble Head on the 29th November 1999. Otherwise the cumulative monthly totals were:

Most sightings involved single birds, with two in a day on five occasions, three once, five twice and the maxima of six in the Celtic Deep on the 26th September 1999 and seven off Strumble Head on the 15th August 1999. The largest incursion was in 1999 with a total of 26 bird days logged.

Considered by BWP as “equally satisfied with pelagic, offshore and inshore waters”, the fact that 78 % of Pembrokeshire sightings were made from the land, probably reflects the distribution of observer effort. A total of 14 of these were seen from Skokholm, Skomer, St Ann’s Head, South Bishop, Ramsey and St Govan’s Head, and 53 from Strumble Head. The hours of observation expended from the land greatly exceeded the time spent looking in offshore waters.

Offshore sightings were of singles from the Fishguard to Rosslare ferry, from a small craft west of Grassholm and from another boat north of Porth Gain, five from the Pembroke to Rosslare ferry and 11 from shark-fishing vessels in the Celtic Deep.

Cory’s Shearwaters have been seen in Pembrokeshire waters in a variety of weather conditions, with winds from all directions and ranging from calm through moderate winds to full gale force, making their appearance unpredictable.

It is not known to what degree the races Calonectris diomedia deomedia and C.d. borealis are involved in the Pembrokeshire record.

Graham Rees

(Covers records up to and including 2007)

References

CRAMP. S. (Editor), 1977 – 1994. Handbook of the Birds of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa : the birds of the Western Palearctic, Oxford University Press, 9 Vols.

Grey Phalarope - pattern of occurrence

Phalaropus fulicarius

Most Grey Phalaropes have been seen on or over the sea but they have been found occasionally on estuarine waters, coastal pools and floodwater, at the Gann, Bosherston, Newgale, Carew Mill Pond and Orielton, with inland occurrences at Letterston, Loveston, Narberth,  Haverfordwest  and Pembroke.

Cumulative total birds by month,1904 – 2006.

 

Mostly single birds were seen but occasionally up to 10 in a day, however, there have been large scale incursions, or “wrecks”, into the South West Approaches which reached Pembrokeshire. During a “wreck” in 1891 Mathew noted they were “numerous”, particularly around Caldey. During a similar but better documented event in 1960, there were up to 35 at Skokholm during the 18th to 27th September and 227 around The Smalls on the 29th September. An incursion in 2001 resulted in a total of 39 being recorded around the Pembrokeshire coast between the 6th and 9th October.

August records fell between the 12th and 31st, apart from three sightings on the 2nd, at Little Haven in 1985 and at Strumble Head in 1986 and 2000. August birds exhibited varying traces of summer plumage, so were adults and probably females, as they take no part in incubation or rearing young and depart the breeding grounds much earlier than the males which are then still involved in the breeding process.

The early year records suggest that a few spend the winter at the same latitude as Pembrokeshire. These were: singles at The Smalls on the 2nd January 1985, Dale and Freshwater West on the 13th February 1971 and Pembroke on the 17th March 1928.

Although there are no ring recoveries to prove it, those occurring in British and Irish waters probably come from Iceland, Bear Island and Svalbard, possibly also from east Greenland and Noveya Zemla. However the number involved in years when “wrecks” occurred may mean that birds from Canada and west Greenland were involved.

Graham Rees

(Covers records up to and including 2006)

Grey Phalarope - 2006 status

Phalaropus fulicarius

Passage migrant.

The Grey Phalarope has a circumpolar Arctic breeding distribution, the closest to the UK being in Iceland. Wholly pelagic outside the breeding season, they are sometimes displaced inshore by turbulent weather. In the Atlantic they winter as far south as western and southern Africa.

Mathew (1894) considered the Grey Phalarope to be an almost annual storm driven autumn visitor to Pembrokeshire. Lockley et al (1949) added a further six occurrences. There followed records in four years in the 1950’s, in six years in the 1960’s, three years in the 1970’s and in every year bar one from 1981 to 2006. The increase in frequency of sightings was more likely to be the result of increased observer activity, rather than more birds occurring. A summary of this latter period could be just as written by Mathew.

Graham Rees

(Covers records up to and including 2006)