Greenshank - 1949

Tringa nebularia
Regular autumn and winter visitor, including the islands.
R.M.Lockley, G.C.S.Ingram, H.M.Salmon, 1949, The Birds of Pembrokeshire, The West Wales Field Society


Tringa nebularia
Regular autumn and winter visitor, including the islands.
R.M.Lockley, G.C.S.Ingram, H.M.Salmon, 1949, The Birds of Pembrokeshire, The West Wales Field Society
Winter visitor and passage migrant
The Greenshank was classified by Mathew (1894) as an occasional autumn visitor and by Lockley et al. (1949) as a regular autumn and winter visitor.
Migrant Greenshanks pass through Pembrokeshire regularly from July to October when up to five are seen at coastal localities, including the Teifi, Nevern and Cleddau estuaries, with occasional larger numbers such as 35 at Hook in August 1984 and 60 at the Gann in September 1969. They are sometimes seen passing headlands and stopping at the offshore islands, including Grassholm and the Smalls, and are heard passing over the county at night. There has been just one record at an inland water, on a small pool near Hayscastle on 7 and 8 September 1989.
On average about 25 Greenshanks winter on the Cleddau Estuary, where they arrive from mid- July (occasionally from late June) and depart from March to early April, which suggests that these birds probably breed in Scotland. Six birds were at Frainslake in January and February 1985.
They are less numerous in spring than in autumn, with up to three appearing on the offshore islands and coastal pools, such as the Gann, from May to early June.
The BTO winter atlas showed that Greenshanks were present in six estuarine 10km squares during the winters of 1981-82, 1982-82 and 1983-84.
The darkest colour represents over 6 birds seen a day. It is likely that the birds concerned were Scottish breeders.
Graham Rees
Species account from M Mathew, 1894, "The Birds of Pembrokeshire and its islands"