Spoonbill - 2007 onwards

Platalea leucorodia       Scarce visitor. 

Summary of previous records in Spoonbill - 2011

2007 - A colour-ringed immature was on the Teifi Estuary 26-30 April.  In December there was a small influx, with a colour-ringed juvenile (ringed in Holland) on the Teifi Est 26-28 Dec, an adult at 'The Point' Angle Bay on 28 Dec, and two nearby at Bentlass on the 29th.  (Also - July, 1 Pembroke Upper Millpond JH - blog)

Teifi immature bird:

- left leg, green ring with B1 in black above a metal ring.  Right leg, dark blue ring with B1 in yellow.

ringed as a nestling Lauwersmeer NL 08/06/2005

seen: Ile de Sein, Finistere F 05/10/2005

seen: Scilly Islands GB 07/10/2005-08/10/2005

seen: Scilly Islands GB 19/04/2006-11/10/2006

seen: Teifi Est. Wales GB 26/04/2007 - 30/04/2007 at least.

Therefore the bird is a 2nd summer. Details from Richard Dobbins on the sightings blog

2008 - 1st year at the Teifi Est 1-5 Jan, it then moved to the Nevern where it was present until the 16 Jan.  An adult at St Davids on 28 July, then another or possibly the same adult at the Gann from 17 - 26 Sept.

2009 - Skomer had 2 birds fly over on 23 May and 9 June and later in the year two were present on the Pembroke river on the Pennar side on 28 Dec, but only one was left by the 31st.  Otherwise records of single birds: in the Lawrenny/West Williamston area from 12-14 Jan, Marloes Mere 10 May, and Nevern Estuary from 15 Oct until 4 Nov.

2010 - An adult & a juv. were present on the Pembroke River from 10th to 17th Jan.

2012 - Single birds observed: flying over Ramsey Sound on 26th Mar (MB), another flew over West Angle on 26th Aug (DJA) and at Sandy Haven on 30th Sept (DP).

2013 - One in the Marloes / Skomer / Skokholm area 19th – 21st May, another over Skokholm on 7th Aug.

2016 - The only record is of a bird seen in flight at Newport on 6th Aug

2017 - The only records were of five (two of which were colour-ringed, but not from Holland) that flew into the Teifi Estuary, fed, then flew upstream on 24th Sept and of singles on Skomer on 14th & 15th June and on Skokholm on 26th June.

2018 - Two over Skomer 19th May, one in St. Bride’s Bay 29th Sept and a single the Gann 18th – 28th Oct (also seen Dale Airfield on 28th) were the only records received.

Records extracted from the Pembrokeshire Bird Report

Spoonbill - 1949 status

Platalea laucorodia leucorodia

Bred in 1603 (George Owen). Mathew described it as "an occasional visitor . . not bery rare" and gives the following records: eleven shot, Milford Haven, 1854-5; one near Mullock Bridge, 1854; seven Goodwick Sands, 1856; one Pembroke, 1867; one near St Davids 31 Oct 1890.  Recent records: one Pembroke Estuary, winter 1911; and two Milford Haven, winter 1927 (W.F.Bentley); one Dowrog 20 Oct, 1928 (H.M.S.); three Slebech 19-22 May 1931 (Miss Stewart); the same three seen by Bertram Lloyd over about three weeks.

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

Spoonbill - 2011 status

Platalea leucorodia

Near annual visitor in small numbers.

The Spoonbill has a wide breeding range in the Palearctic, those from northern Europe tending to winter in the west of Africa.

George Owen (1603) noted that the Spoonbill bred in Pembrokeshire during the Elizabethan era, but by Mathew’s (1894) time it was “an occasional visitor in the winter; not very rare, sometimes arriving in flocks”, of up to seven at a time. Lockley et al (1949) added four additional records of up to three birds. Donovan and Rees (1994) noted occurrences of one or two birds at a time in 12 years between 1949 and 1993.

 

Plotting the number of dated individuals present each month seems to indicate passage from March to June and from September to December, but some birds staying through the winter and to a lesser degree through the summer results in no sharp seasonal divisions.

Occurrences post Donovan and Rees (1994) have involved either single birds or two together, except in 2005, when a group of 11 juvenile birds were seen resting on the salt marsh at Uzmaston on the morning of the 18th September. They departed northwards half an hour later and presumably the same birds were involved when 12 settled in the Nevern Estuary that afternoon. This group included two which had been colour ringed as nestlings in Holland, were seen in Gwent prior to arrival in Pembrokeshire and by October had moved on to County Mayo in Ireland.

Spoonbill – habitat

The Spoonbill frequents wet areas such as flooded lands, marshes and water bodies. In Pembrokeshire this has included ponds at Skokholm, Skomer, Marloes Mere, Mullock Marsh and Dowrog,

In the winter it also occurs in sheltered coastal habitats, tidal creeks, estuaries and coastal lagoons, locally at Fishguard Harbour, the Teifi and Nevern estuaries and within the extensive Cleddau Estuary at the Gann, Sandy Haven, Angle Bay, Pembroke River, Castle Pill, Llanstadwell, Pembroke Dock, Carew/Cresswell, Uzmaston, Picton Ferry and Slebech.

Spoonbill – origins

A total of seven nestlings colour ringed in Holland were recorded in Pembrokeshire during their first autumn, between the years 1974 and 2007. A Dutch colour ringed bird in adult plumage was seen at Skomer on the 11th May 1992.

Over 2,000 pairs were breeding in Holland by 2011 and this population might well account for all modern Pembrokeshire records.

Spoonbill - 1994

Occasional visitor

"On highe trees the heronflewes, the floveler". This brief reference by George Owen (1603) records that the Spoonbill bred in Pembrokeshire during Elizabethan times. Mathew (1894) described it as "an occasional visitor — not very rare", sometimes occurring in groups of up to seven birds, such as those at Goodwick in 1856 and at Mullock Bridge in 1885. He also noted that

11 were shot around Milford Haven in 1854 and 1855. Lockley et al. (1949) added records of birds on the Pembroke River in 1911, two at Milford Haven in 1927, one at Dowrog on 20 October 1928 and three together at Slebech in May 1931.

Since then up to two have been recorded in 12 years, mainly at the Cleddau Estuary, most frequently at the Gann and Angle Bay, but also at the Nevern and Teifi estuaries, Skokholm and Skomer. Colour-ringed juveniles seen on the Teifi Estuary in 1974 and on the Cleddau Estuary in 1988 had been marked as nestlings in Holland. Most occurrences are probably of juveniles initially dispersing from their continental breeding grounds and thereafter wandering about during immaturity. The two which arrived on the Cleddau Estuary from September to October 1988 overwintered, one remaining until 8 June 1989. Both returned in July and stayed into March 1990, one until 30 April. A colour-ringed adult from Holland was seen at Skomer on 11 May 1992.

Spoonbill - 1894

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

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