Red-necked Phalarope - 2015 Skokholm

Vagrant - no previous island records

Two summer plumaged birds found on North Pond during 9th June were the first record for Skokholm and the first spring record for Pembrokeshire (SWR, PTI, RDB et al.). They were still present the following day but were not seen on the 11th.

Photos etc on Skokholm blog

The four previous Pembrokeshire records were a first-winter shot on a farm pond near St Twynells in c.1900 (the specimen was confirmed as this species in 1928), singles off St Ann’s Head on 19th September 1950 and at the Gann on 16th September 1957 and most recently a juvenile on a slurry pond at Haroldston West on the 4th and 5th October 1983 (Rees, 2011).

Nationally 2015 was an exceptional year for passage records of this species and it proved a record breeding year in Shetland.

Skokholm Bird Observatory Annual Report 2015 (Richard Brown& Giselle Eagle)

Red-necked Phalarope - 1949

Phalaropus lobatus

Recorded by a writer in the Field 18 Mar 1899. Bertram Lloyd records that he has examined a specimen in first winter plumage, shot on a farm-pond near Loveston in winter, c.1900

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

Red-necked Phalarope - 1994

Rare visitor

Singles have been recorded at St Twynell's in c.1900, at St Govan's Head on 19 September 1950, at the Gann on 16 September 1957 and at Haroldston West on 4 and 5 October 1983. Occasionally phalaropes have been seen flying past Strumble Head which were thought to be Red-necked but did not permit diagnostic views.

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

Red-necked Phalarope - 2008

Phalaropus lobatus

Vagrant.

The Red – necked Phalarope breeds above the middle latitudes across the Holarctic, the nearest to Pembrokeshire normally in the far north of Scotland. Western Palearctic birds winter in the Arabian Sea and largely migrate overland.

A juvenile shot on a farm pond at St Twynells in c.1900 was housed in the collection of F. Roberts. Bertram Lloyd examined the specimen on the 20th May 1928 and verified the identification was correct. Lockley et al (1949) quotes “Recorded by a writer in the Field, 18th March 1899” but gives no detail, not even a locality. Barrett, 1959, noted singles off St Ann’s Head (not St Govan’s as quoted by Donovan and Rees, 1994) on the 19th September 1950 and at the Gann on the 16th September 1957. Subsequently there was a juvenile on a farm slurry pond at Haroldston West on the 4th and 5th October 1983.

Graham Rees.

(Covers records up to and including 2008).