Friday, August 9, 2013 at 7:48AM Acrocephalus scirpaceus scirpaceus
Four records: one, Smalls Lighthouse, 17 Oct, 1908 (Pract.Handbook); one singing St David's, 30 May 1929 (H.A.Gilbert and J.Walpole-Bond); one singing, Tenby marsh, 1-4 June 1931 (Bertram Lloyd); one ringed on Skokholm, 1 June 1947.
R.M.Lockley, G.C.S.Ingram, H.M.Salmon, 1949, The Birds of Pembrokeshire, The West Wales Field Society
Friday, June 29, 2012 at 6:05PM This summer visitor’s appearance is plain, with unstreaked brown upperparts and buff underparts. Its slow chattering song is usually the first indication of its presence in the deep cover of reedbeds, its principal habitat. Its nest is intricately woven around the stems of reeds.
The Reed Warbler has slowly expanded its range in Britain from about the 1960’s, in Pembrokeshire from1974, with breeding proven in 1975. By the time of the 1984-88 survey an estimated 60 pairs were breeding in the county. The estimate was made after some time spent in the main localities and was based largely on singing birds. Assessing the Canaston reedbed (also referred to as Minwear or Slebech reedbed) was made particularly easy because the local shooting syndicate had cut rides through the reeds the previous winter. (Note that although the largest concentration in the district has been the Teifi Marshes, the majority of them have been in Ceredigion, so only a small fraction qualified for inclusion in Pembrokeshire assessments).
By the close of the 2003-07 survey an increase of 48% in distribution had been plotted but it is unlikely that this represents an increase in population of this magnitude. New sites were in small areas of reeds around ponds and along river banks, which did not have the carrying capacity of major reedbeds. On the premise that about 10 pairs were added in these new sites and that the main population remained stable, as it has nationally, there were probably about 70 pairs nesting in Pembrokeshire by 2007. Although the population estimates have been given in pairs, they are mainly based on singing birds and some of these may not have attracted mates, which is not uncommon among Reed Warblers.
Graham Rees
Fieldwork 2003-07 (based on 490 tetrads)
Red = breeding confirmed = 7
Orange = breeding probable = 24
Total tetrads in which registered = 31 (6.3%)
Sunday, December 25, 2011 at 10:00AM Breeding summer visitor and passage migrant. Not recorded from December to March
Reed Warblers were not recorded by Mathew (1894), while Lockley et al (1949) noted just four records, the first being at the Smalls lighthouse on 17 October 1908.
They were first proved to be breeding at Nevern in 1975, although they had been present in suitable reedbed habitat at Pentood and Slebech from 1974. However, Lloyd records in his diary that H.R. Chubb claimed to have seen a pair and their nest at Goodwick Moor in 1934 or 1935, and Lloyd himself strongly suspected that they had bred at Tenby Marsh in 1931. They have continued to colonise Pembrokeshire since 1975, and may now have occupied most of the available suitable habitat. The total breeding population is currently about 60 pairs (see map).
Reed Warblers are occasionally detected on both spring and autumn passage, from 26 April to 17 June and from 22 August to 25 October. Singles were recorded at Skomer on 7 July 1986, at Strumble Head on 1 November 1987 and at the Smalls on 2 November 1982.
Fieldwork 1984-88 (based on 478 tetrads)
Red = breeding confirmed = 8
Orange = breeding probable = 10
Yellow = breeding possible = 3
Total tetrads in which registered = 21 (4.4%)
