Spotted Redshank - 1949

Tringa erythropus

Mathew describes it as "an autumn visitor; rare".  Three were received at the Cardiff Museum from Tenby in 1896.  One seen Dale, 25 aug 1944 (B.Birds XXXVIII, 139).  Two Dale 7 Sept 1947 (T.A.Warren-Davies).  One Ramsey, 21-25 Aug 1948 (J.Davies)

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

Spotted Redshank - 1994

Passage migrant and winter visitor

The Spotted Redshank was listed as a rare autumn visitor by Mathew (1894). Lockley et al. (1949) added four further records. Increased observer activity since the 1950s has revealed it to be an annual passage migrant in the autumn, with up to three at various coastal localities between 18 July and 12 October, and an exceptional 27 at Hook on 12 October 1978. Less regular in the spring, up to five have been recorded between 4 April and 20 June, but not in every year.

Variable numbers, usually between six and twelve, winter on the Cleddau Estuary, principally around Hook Reach. They arrive in August and September and depart in April.

Migrant Spotted Redshanks occasionally drop in at the pools on Skokholm and Skomer, are sometimes seen coasting past promontories and one was noted at a lighthouse attraction at Strumble Head in September 1985.

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

Spotted Redshank - 1980s winter

The BTO winter atlas plot refers to regular wintering birds, their number varying between 2 and 14 across the 1981-82, 1982-82 and 1983-84 period.

Graham Rees 

Spotted Redshank - 1894

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

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Spotted Redshank - autumn

Tringa erythropus

Autumn passage, between the 18th June and October, involved 41.5 % of the county total with records from Skokholm, Skomer, Grassholm, Ramsey, the Gann, upper Cleddau Estuary, Bicton Reservoir, Westfield Pill, Sandy Haven Pill, Amroth, Castle Martin, West Williamston, Fishguard Harbour, Nevern Estuary, Teifi Estuary, passing over St David’s and Crundale, coasting past Strumble Head and once at a lighthouse attraction there.

Most records referred to autumn passage during the 1960’s and in the 1970’s autumn passage included the largest gatherings yet seen in the county, viz : 20 at Hook on the 17th September 1972 and 27 there on the 12th October 1978.

Graham Rees

(Covers records up to and including 2006).

Spotted Redshank - spring

 Tringa erythropus

Spring passage, between April and the 25th May, has been small and amounted to 2.9 % of the county total record. Migrants were reported from Skokholm, Skomer, Dale airfield, the Gann and Sandy Haven Pill.

There were only two spring records in the 1960’s and none in the 1970’s. The 1980’s were notable for the bulk of the spring records, which included five at Skokholm on the 15th and 16th April 1983.

Graham Rees

(Covers records up to and including 2006).

Spotted Redshank - winter

Tringa erythropus

There were two winter records in the 1960’s and just one winter record during the 1970’s.  It was in January 1983 that over wintering was first detected, ten birds feeding around the upper Cleddau Estuary between Landshipping / Sprinkle Pill and Hook, including Millin Pill, staying until the 17th April. These birds habitually kept together feeding communally, usually in deeper water than used by Redshanks and Greenshanks, sometimes upending like dabbling ducks. Variously five to 16 over wintered in that area each year up to 1991, departing in March. During this 10 year period there were winter records of one or two birds in four years from other parts of the Cleddau Estuary, most of them at Carew / Cresswell.

Post March 1992 fewer wintered on the upper Cleddau Estuary than previously but one to five did so elsewhere in the estuary system, principally at Carew / Cresswell and Sandy Haven Pill but they were also noted at Cosheston Pill, Castle Pill, Pembroke River and the Gann.

WINTER DISTRIBUTION IN CLEDDAU ESTUARY, blue = lower estuary, red = upper estuary.

During the period 1983 – 1992 just 11 % of winter records were away from the upper Cleddau Estuary but between 1993 and 2006 this had risen to 46 % and the total over wintering in the estuary as whole had decreased by 40 %. Reasons for the decline in winter numbers and local dispersal are speculative, the front runners being the cessation of raw sewage discharge into the Cleddau Estuary and a build up of wintering birds at Penclacwydd, Carmarthenshire, resulting in fewer travelling further west to Pembrokeshire. The latter is credible, for if the numbers wintering at Penclacwydd (provided by Wendell Thomas pers com) post 1992 are combined with those on the Cleddau Estuary for the same years, an average of nine birds per annum overwintered. The average overwintering on the Cleddau prior to the creation of the Penclacwydd wetland was 10.6.

All winter records were confined to the Cleddau Estuary and constituted 55.6 % of the county total.

 Graham Rees

(Covers records up to and including 2006).

Spotted Redshank - status

Tringa erythropus

Passage migrant and winter visitor.

The Spotted Redshank breeds across the Arctic area of the Old World, the nearest to Britain being in Fenno - Scandia and western Russia. Birds from this area winter south as far as the Afrotropics.

Mathew (1894) classified the Spotted Redshank as a rare autumn visitor to Pembrokeshire, noting that several had passed through the hands of Mr Tracy the bird-stuffer of Pembroke. All were birds of the year and obtained in the autumn. Additionally three received by the Cardiff Museum in 1896 were from Tenby. Subsequently Lockley et al (1949) noted three more occurrences involving four birds.

BWP states that Spotted Redshanks increased in the UK from the 1950’s, Lovegrove et al (1994) tracing the increase in Wales from the 1960’s. In Pembrokeshire there were records in six years, involving eight birds, during the 1950’s but they were annual from 1960 onwards involving an increased number of birds.

Cumulative monthly totals countywide, 1960 – 2006.

Graham Rees

(Covers records up to and including 2006).

References

CRAMP. S. (Editor), 1977 – 1994. Handbook of the Birds of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa : the birds of the Western Palearctic, Oxford University Press, 9 Vols. (BWP)

MATHEW. M. 1894. The birds of Pembrokeshire and its islands, R. H. Porter.

LOCKLEY. R. M, INGRAM. C. S. and SALMON. H. M.1949. The birds of Pembrokeshire, West Wales Field Society.

LOVEGROVE. R, WILLIAMS . G. & WILLIAMS. I. 1994. Birds in Wales, T & A. D. Poyser Ltd, London.