Black Grouse - pre-historical

Ice Age

Studies by Anne Eastham on the bird bones in the Hoyles Mouth and Little Hoyle caves near Tenby show that Black Grouse were present in the area 10,000 years ago.  The bones were found in a scree deposit left at the end of the last glaciation. This included bones that have been carbon-dated to 9,980 +/- 800 years before present.

A variety of species were present - listed in the original paper.

Eastham A. (2016) Goosey goosey Gander with Jemima Shelduck in attendance: two Stone Age occupation caves in South Pembrokeshire. Pembrokeshire Historical Society.

British Black Grouse - 1949

Lyrurus tetrax britannicus

Mathew describeds it as a former resident, long extinct in spite of an attempt at re-introduction at Trecwm.  Not re-established in the county.

R.M.Lockley, G.C.S.Ingram, H.M.Salmon, 1949, The Birds of Pembrokeshire, The West Wales Field Society 

Black Grouse - 1994

Rare visitor

Mathew (1894) noted that Black Grouse bones were discovered in Longbury Bank cave near Tenby in 1878. He concluded that the species must have been indigenous, but in his own time knew only of a few introduced at Trecwn, which did not survive long. The only records since have been of single females at Pantmaenog Forest, from January to March in about 1949, and on nearby Foel Feddau on 6 May 1971.

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

Black Grouse - 1894

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

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