White-fronted Goose - Winter

Anser albifrons

Normally there have been very few White-fronted Geese recorded in Pembrokeshire during the winter, where winter is taken as being from December to February, being recorded in only 16 years between 1938 and 2006. Normally between one and five birds were involved, with eight in 1987, nine in 2001, 15 in 1967, 22 in 1967 and 370 in1963.

The numbers seen in 1963 were exceptional and were caused by the arctic winter which gripped the whole of North West Europe, when birds of many species moved westwards in search of more amenable conditions.

 Otherwise winter occurrence has been sporadic and most birds were only seen for a few days but individuals have over wintered attached to Canada Geese flocks at the Western Cleddau and Teifi Valley. All records were from or near the coast apart from 22 at Llys y fran Reservoir in February 1967.

White-fronted Goose - Status

Anser albifrons

Winter visitor and passage migrant.

The nominate race A.a.albifrons breeds across the tundra of Siberia, those in the western part of the range wintering in North West Europe, including the UK. The Greenland race A.a.flavirostris breeds in Western Greenland and winters in Scotland, Ireland and Wales.

Mathew (1894) described the White-fronted Goose as an occasional visitor in severe weather but specifically mentioned only its occurrence at Goodwick and one at Fishguard in December 1890.

Bertram Lloyd(1939) did not encounter the species in Pembrokeshire but inspected a mounted specimen at Mellaston Farm which had been bagged there on the 5th November 1929, it having been in the company of another which flew away.

 Lockley et al (1949) cite five at Dale on 20th December 1938 and two shot at Newgale in February 1947 or 1948. They also vaguely stated “passes over the islands on migration, sometimes landing for a short time”.  However Betts (1992) noted that occasional sightings of “grey geese” at Skokholm may refer to Whitefronts but the first definite record was not until eight seen on the 25th October 1954.

Donovan and Rees (1994) noted an influx during the arctic winter of 1963 and a fairly regular passage of small flocks in October and November.

References

BETTS. M. 1992. Birds of Skokholm, BioLine, Cardiff.

DONOVAN. J and REES. G. 1994. Birds of Pembrokeshire, Dyfed Wildlife Trust.

LLOYD. B. 1929-1939 Diaries, National Museum of Wales.

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

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

Long-tailed Duck - Number and dates.

Clangula hyemalis

Most sightings were of one or two birds at a time but four were at Llys y fran Reservoir on the 18th November 1973, five at Strumble Head 6th January 1973, three there 20th December 1981 and on 21st October 1984, three Broad Haven (north) 3rd – 21st January 1969, three Amroth/Saundersfoot 9th March 1991, 14th – 24th December 1994, 2nd January – 4th March 1995 and 6th January 1999, with four there 20th April 1984, 7 from 29th December 1990 to 10th January 1991 and up to 12 from 29th January to 9th April 1989.      

Monthly distribution: 1843 – 2008.

Some were seen on one date only but many remained in the same area throughout the winter, sometimes until March or April. One remained at the Gann from the 2nd January to the 23rd July in 1983. A male which was first seen at Pembroke Mill Ponds on the 24th December 2001 stayed until the 11th August 2004. This well watched bird frequently took bread offered to the local Mute Swans and Mallards, duly went through moults between winter and summer plumages and was thought to have taken brief sabbaticals at Westfield Pill on 7th and 8th August 2002 and 2nd September 2003.

The number noted each year has varied, illustrated by the longest unbroken sequence of years being depicted graphically:

Just one bird recorded in the years 2005 and 2006 was the first time this occurred sequentially in this 27 year series, which if coupled with none being recorded in 2007 and 2008, may be an early indication that fewer Long – tailed Ducks are coming as far south as they did formerly.

The majority winter within the Arctic region, often in close proximity to the pack ice and climate change is causing the ice to recede, so it is possible less may travel as far south as they did in the past as more open water becomes accessible at higher latitudes.

Graham Rees.

(Covers records up to and including 2008).

References

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

Long-tailed Duck - Distribution.

Clangula hyemalis

Most were found within St Bride’s Bay and in the Pembrokeshire corner of Carmarthen Bay. Others around the coast at Pwllgwaelod, Fishguard Harbour, Strumble Head, St David’s Head, Ramsey, Skomer and Skokholm.

Also in the Teifi Estuary (once three and a half miles upstream), within the Cleddau Estuary at Landshipping/Picton Point, Carew, Westfield Pill, Llanstadwell, Sandy Haven and the Gann, and on fresh water at Heathfield Gravel Pits, a pond close to St Bride’s Haven, Bosherston and Llys y fran Reservoir.

Long-tailed Duck - 2011 Status

Clangula hyemalis

Erratic winter visitor and passage migrant.

Long – tailed Ducks have a circumpolar arctic and sub arctic breeding distribution, normally the nearest nesting to the UK being in Norway and Iceland. They winter out to sea but to a lesser extent along coasts, entering estuaries and sometimes visiting fresh waters.

The first to be recorded in Pembrokeshire was a male in summer plumage shot near Haverfordwest on the 15th June 1843, chronicled by Mathew (1894) who also noted that two immature birds were shot on the Stackpole Estate but quotes no dates.

Coincidentally the next to be recorded was also in June, shot within the Milford Haven waterway on the 7th in 1906. There followed recordings in three years during the 1950’s, four in the 1960’s, five in the 1970’s and in every year from 1980 to 2006.

Sooty Tern - 2005 - first for Pembrokeshire

Onychoprion fuscatus

Vagrant.

An adult was seen at Strumble Head on the 23rd August 2005.

It was a bright sunny day with a gentle south west breeze and very few birds passing. By about 1000 hours (BST) just two Common Scoters and four Sandwich Terns had been noted by the two observers present, Graham Rees and Adrian Rogers. At 1010 hours a large black and white tern came into view at the one o’clock position flying steadily westwards towards the lighthouse. Viewed through telescopes down to about 400 yards range, descriptions were written immediately after it had gone out of sight. Identified as a Sooty Tern, the descriptions were submitted to the BBRC which found the record acceptable.

An adult Sooty Tern was present around Anglesey from about the 7th to the 26th July 2005 also visiting the Skerries, Dublin until the 15th August and it is presumed that it was this bird which passed Strumble Head, making it the second to be recorded in Wales (the first being in Merioneth in 1909) and the first for Pembrokeshire.

Graham Rees

Long-tailed Skua - 2006

Stercorarius longicaudus

Scarce passage migrant.

The Long – tailed Skua breeds in the Arctic and sub Arctic, wintering at sea mostly south of the equator.

This species was added to the Pembrokeshire list when Mathew (1894) recorded an immature shot at Tenby in the autumn of 1889 or 1890. Some 90 years elapsed before the second one was noted, an adult flying past Strumble Head on the 9th September 1980. Since then it has been recorded each autumn at Strumble Head in variable numbers. Just one was seen in 1993 and at the other extreme a total of 74 in 1991, 18 of them on the 15th September, with a mean of 13 per annum between 1980 and 2006. 

Total birds – 1980 – 2006, August to October in six day periods.

 

 Later occurrences were of single birds on the 1st November 1990, 4th November 2005, 14th November 1982, 2nd December 1996 and 3rd December 1999.

Most of the birds seen were juveniles, just 12 % were adults. All adults showed the dark lower belly of S. l. longicaudus, the form found in the species’ old world distribution, apart from one seen on the 3rd October 1999 which exhibited the all pale underparts characteristic of S.l. pallescens and therefore possibly from Greenland but the validity of there being two sub species is currently uncertain.

Away from Strumble Head, singles were recorded from the Pembroke to Rosslare ferry on the 24th August 1996, The Smalls on the 24th September 1983 and on the 3rd and 9th September 1984, Skokholm on the 4th October 1995, Skomer on the 11th September 1989 and 14th September 1991, Ramsey on the 28th September 1992 and 25th October 2000, North of Ramsey Sound in September 1993 and at St David’s Head on the 20th August 1997 with two there on the 30th October 1999.

There are just two spring records to date, singles passing through Jack Sound on the 2nd May 1995 and 30th April 1996.

Graham Rees

(Covers records up to and including 2006).

Yellow Wagtail - races

Motacilla flava

As well as the breeding and probable breeding birds noted before, male Blue – headed Wagtails, M. f. flava, which breed in Europe from southern Scandinavia to France,have been recorded in the spring on several occasions: at Skokholm on the 15th May 1958, on the 12th – 14th May 1959, two on the 18th May 1961, on the 29th & 30th May 1963, on the 29th June 1964, on the 27th May 1967, on the 17th May 1982, on the 16th May 1983, on the 12th June 1984, on the 15th – 18th June 1987, on the 11th – 17th June 1988, on the 4th, 8th, 11th and 13th – 14th May 1989, on the 11th May and 27th May 1991, on the 6th May, 22nd and 29th May 1992, on the 27th May 1993, on the 20th April 1996, and on the 26th May 1997, at Skomer on the 21st May 1997, on the 29th April 2000, on the 18th – 23rd  May 1996, on the 14th May 1992, on the 21st May 1993, and at Ramsey on 18th May 1985.

There are also autumn sightings on record, which should perhaps be treated with caution until any recorded details of their appearance can be scrutinised. Plumage becomes abraded and bleached during the summer and moult to winter plumage occurs in August and September. The records are included for future evaluation: two Skomer on the 18th September 1961, two there on the 27th August 1990, one Dale airfield on the 20th September 1986, one Skokholm on the 23rd August 1988, one there on the 4th September 2000, with two on the 24th September 2000, one on the 1st October 2001 and one on the 9th – 12th September 2003.   

Grey – headed Wagtails M. f. thunbergi breed from central and north Scandinavia to north - west Siberia. Males of this race were recorded on passage through Pembrokeshire as follows: at Skokholm on the 31st May 1978, on the 13th – 15th April 1979, on the 13th May 1979, on the 17th May 1982, on the 10th – 12th May 1987, on the 3rd – 5th May 1989, on the 31st May – 5th June 1990, and on the 25th June 1992, at Strumble Head on the 29th May 1983 and Flimston on the 30th May 1998.

 A male Spanish Blue – headed Wagtail M. f. iberiae, which breeds in Iberia and Tunisia, was recorded at Skokholm on the 19th April 1989.

A male Ashy – headed Wagtail M. f. cinereocapilla, which breeds in Sicily, Sardinia, Italy and Slovenia, was recorded at Skokholm from the 17th to the 20th May 1992.

A male Black – headed Wagtail M. f. feldegg, which breeds in the Balkans, Turkey, Caspian, Iran and Afghanistan, was recorded at Skomer on the 7th May 1986.

Graham Rees.

(Covers records up to and including 2008).

Yellow Wagtail - analysis

Motacilla flava

Yellow Wagtails have been recorded all around the coast, flying past or feeding on open ground, particularly pasture land with cattle. They have been seen on all of the offshore islands, even Grassholm, a large percentage of the county records being from Skokholm where there has been daily observation continuously since 1946. A few records were from the Teifi Marshes but very few from further inland, the only ones traced being five at Cilwendeg on the 24th August 1867, one at Crymych on the 7th June 1984, one Pen Gawse on the 6th May 1989, one Brynberian on the 2nd September 2001 and one Canaston Oaks on the 7th August 2008.

Yellow Wagtails have drastically declined in the UK since the 1980’s, by 70% between 1981 and 2006. This decline is reflected in the Pembrokeshire records as illustrated in the accompanying graph covering the years 1983 to 2007.

Pembrokeshire: trend in the number of birds per annum.

Yellow Wagtail - autumn

Motacilla flava

Autumn passage has been recorded from the 1st July to the 30th October, with two November records.

There have been very few recorded in July and early August.  Peak passage took place from mid August to September.  The end of August has clearly been the time of maximum presence, when the largest concentrations of up to 50 birds were noted at Skokholm and Talbenny during the 1960’s. Betts (1992) notes “up to 150 in August 1952” at Skokholm but is not date specific, so these could not be fitted into the histogram.  Passage has tailed off rapidly during October. There have been two November occurrences, on the 2nd at Mullock in 1981 and on the 18th at Skokholm in 1967.

Yellow Wagtail: pattern of occurrence

Yellow Wagtail - spring passage

Motacilla flava

Spring passage has been recorded from the 3rd April to the 29th June, with early birds at Skokholm on the 17th March 1948 and on the 10th March 1956.

All dated records available 1867 – 2008, in six day periods.

 

The bulk of the passage has taken place between about mid April and the end of May involving small numbers as shown in the above graph, the maximum recorded in a day being ten.

Yellow Wagtail - status

 Motacilla flava

Passage migrant, has bred.

The Yellow Wagtail has a breeding range spread throughout most of the temperate regions of Europe and Asia, extending into Alaska. The western European population winters in Africa. There are at least 15 subspecies, most of which are recognisable in the field. The subspecies which breeds in Britain is M. f. flavissima.

The following account refers to M.f. flavissima unless stated otherwise.

From the time of the first Pembrokeshire avifauna, written in 1894, to the present day, the Yellow Wagtail has principally been a passage migrant recorded in both spring and autumn. The exceptions were when a pair bred successfully at Lower Broadmoor, Talbenny, in 1997 and a pair behaved as if nesting in a potato field at Treginnis in 1983, which disappeared when the crop was harvested. In both cases the male was of the Blue – headed form M.f.flava.

The first record traced of Yellow Wagtails in Pembrokeshire which gave the number involved, the location and the date, was of five at Cilwendeg on the 24th August 1867 noted by Thomas Dix. It was 1930 before the next such record was forthcoming, followed by records in 1931, 1948 and 1949, in four years in the 1950’s, in eight years in the 1960’s, four years in the 1970’s and in every year from 1981 to 2008.