Coot - 2015 WeBS

Maximum winter counts from all sites counted for the Wetland Bird Survey in Pembrokeshire.  Data after 2000 includes the Teifi Estuary.

Main wintering sites for this species are the Bosherston Lakes, South Hook Pools, Llys-y-fran and Rosebush Reservoirs and Pembroke Millponds.  Bicton Reservoirs was a major wintering site, but has not been used much by coot since 2000. 

The dramatic decline of the last four seasons reflects the trend across Wales, and Britain as a whole.

The Welsh Bird Report for 2014 suggests there are indications of a severe decline in breeding numbers in several western counties in recent years and wintering numbers have also declined at several sites.

Coot - 1949

Fulica atra atra

Mathew describes it as resident on the few large pools in the summer but not numerous, even in winter.  Breeds (1948) at Bosherston Pools, and three pools near St Davids (including Dowrog).  A winter visitor in small numbers, except in severe weather when thousands appear on Milford Haven estuary (eg winter 1933-34 and 1946-47).  Recorded occasionally Skokholm in autumn.  One adult and a jvenile seen on the sea off Grassholm, 6 Aug 1933.

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

Coot - 2003-07

A comparison of the results from the two surveys indicates a 23% increase in distribution by the latter period. However, the overall number involved has decreased. At least two previously occupied sites have disappeared, while a change in use at another has caused Coots to desert it. There has been a marked decrease at Bosherston, coincident with an increase in Otter activity there, which was where the greatest concentration was found in the 1980’s. There were probably no more than 52 pairs breeding in the county by 2007, compared to 75 pairs in 1988.

Graham Rees

Fieldwork 2003-07 (based on 490 tetrads)

Red = breeding confirmed = 19

Orange = breeding probable = 8 

Yellow = breeding possible = 5 

Total tetrads in which registered = 32 (6.5%)

Coot - 1994

Breeding resident, winter visitor and passage migrant

Mathew (1894) stated that the Coot was confined as a breeder to the few large ponds in the county and that it was a regular, but not numerous, winter visitor. Lockley et al. (1949) mention only a few breeding localities and agreed that it was a winter visitor in small numbers, but that "thousands" appeared on the Cleddau Estuary in the severe winters of 1933/34 and 1946/47. No large visitations like that have been recorded since, not even during the arctic winters of 1962 and 1963 when groups of up to ten were forced onto the saltings.

The Coot is now widely distributed as a breeding bird, the creation of farm irrigation reservoirs having presented it with the opportunity to spread beyond the long established ponds. The 1984-1988 Breeding Birds Survey estimated a population of about 75 breeding pairs.

Numbers are augmented during the winter, when Coots can be found scattered over many small waters with larger concentrations at Llysyfran reservoir, Pembroke Mill Ponds and particularly Bosherston Pools, where 200-300 normally gather and the county maximum of 368 occurred on 14 January 1986. Numbers build up from mid-September to peak in January and February and then dwindle during March. Coots occasionally occur on the islands of Skokholm and Skomer in July and August, probably part of post-breeding dispersal and of a local nature, and more rarely in October, when the birds concerned could be migrants from further afield. Ringing recoveries show that Coots come from as far away as Latvia and Jutland and that some pass on to Ireland.

Fieldwork 1984-88 (based on 478 tetrads)

Red = breeding confirmed = 18

Yellow = breeding possible = 8

Total tetrads in which registered = 26 (5.4%)

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

Coot - 1970s breeding

Red = breeding confirmed

Orange = breeding probable

Yellow = breeding possible

Coot - 1980s winter atlas

The BTO winter atlas showed that Coots were present in most 10km squares during the winters of 1981-82, 1982-82 and 1983-84.

The darker the colour, the higher the relative total count for each 10km square.  The darkest blue represents over 119 birds, up to 300 being noted at Bosherston.

Graham Rees

Coot - 1894

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

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