Bonaparte's Gull - 2018

Chroicocephalus philadelphia - vagrant

One at the Gann, 4th and 5th November

Caspian Gull - 2017 first for Pembrokeshire

Larus cachinnans - rare vagrant

A colour-ringed individual first seen at Llanrhydstud, Ceredigion in March was also seen at Nevern Est on 12th July (SB et al). This represents the first county record and only the fourth for Wales.

American Golden Plover - 2017

Pluvialis dominica  Rare American vagrant. 

 

Adult Gann 27th – 30th May (DG et al) and a juv. there 6th – 15th Oct (DG et al). Both accepted by WRP

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Pembs Bird Report 2017.  includes a photo of each of the birds.

Baird's Sandpiper - 2018

Two at the Gann from 13-16 September.  This is the only Welsh record of more than a single bird.

Long-billed Dowitcher - 2015 Skokholm

Vagrant - no previous island records

A vocal juvenile which circled North Plain in heavy drizzle on the evening of 20th September was seen and heard sufficiently well to confirm the identification before it roosted on the back of North Pond 50 (RDB, GE, BB, et al.). The bird was seen in flight and heard several times the following morning, although it did not settle and good views seemed unlikely. However the arrival of a juvenile Dunlin appeared to relax the dowitcher and they fed together during the afternoon of the 21st. It was not seen to leave North Pond for the next three days and generally fed alone from the 22nd. There was no sign of it on the 25th following a calm and clear night.

Phot (c) Richard Brown from Skokholm blog 

This was the first record for Skokholm and only the third for Pembrokeshire following first-winter birds at the Gann between 12th December 1987 and 3rd January 1988 and between 1st January and 23rd March 2013 (Rees, 2014).

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

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)

Masked Wagtail Motacilla alba personata - 2016

Masked Wagtail M. a. personata, a well watched bird at Camrose between 29th November and 26th December 2016 (J. Hudson et al) was accepted by the BBRC as the first record of this race in the UK.

American Golden Plover - 2016

One at Angle Bay 29th April 2016.

"The American Golden Plover, which is still in winter plumage, was feeding and roosting on the spit in Angle Harbour from at least 13:00 to 13:45, and was sat about halfway along the spit on the seaward side with it's head under its wing when I left it".  Posted by Clive H on the sightings blog.

The bird was seen and photographed by a number of people, and was still there at 17:00

Source: 2016 Pembrokeshire Bird Report  

American Wigeon - 2004 to 2017

A male at Carew/Cresswell Estuary: 10th to 21st February 2004 (A E Collins, C Jones et al) (2004 Pembs Bird Report).

What was presumed to be a regular returning male was at Angle Bay from 2nd February to 20th February 2005 (D J Astins et al), and from 23rd October 2005 to 9th March 2006 (Clive Hurford et al); then from 1st October 2006 to 2nd March 2007 (C H et al), and again between 14th September 2007 and 1st March 2008. (Pembrokeshire Bird Reports: 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008).

2017 - Male bird present at the Gann from 21st Jan until 9th Mar at least (PJ, BS et al). Accepted by WRP. (2017 Pembrokeshire Bird Report).

Baird's Sandpiper - 2012 sighting

West Angle Beach           20^th to 25^th August 2012

 As I pulled into the car park at West Angle, I noticed a single small Dunlin-type wader in the middle of the beach.  On checking the bird with my binoculars, the wader appeared to be very long-winged – with the wings extending well beyond the end of the tail.  My initial instinct was that the bird was a Baird’s Sandpiper, but better views were required to rule out the possibility of a White-rumped Sandpiper.  On this basis, I picked up my camera and tentatively approached the bird to get better views and hopefully a record pic of the bird.  The tide was high at the time, so there was only a narrow band of sand at the top of the beach and the bird was looking a little uneasy due to the presence of several dog walkers.  Although alone, with no birds present for size comparison, I had the impression that the bird was the size of a small Dunlin. The bill was black and slightly down-curved, and appeared somewhere between Little Stint and Dunlin in size.

Upperparts:  Generally pale brown head and neck with fine dark streaking on crown.  Dark lores, and pale creamy supercillia, on occasions looking very faint, meeting in front of eyes to form a pale patch above bill.  Cheeks and ear coverts a pale but warm brown colour.  Mantle feathers black with clean white borders; scapulars, lesser coverts, median coverts and greater coverts all with dark/black feather centres and primarily white (though sometimes chestnut) borders.  Tertials and primaries black with thin white/chestnut borders, with primaries extending well beyond the end of the tail.

Seen in flight only once, when the wings showed only the faintest of wing-bars, and that appeared a slightly paler brown than the rest of the wing.  No white rump was present, the rump and mantle appeared a uniformly brown colour when the bird was in flight.  Tail was dark in the centre with paler edges.

Underparts:  Throat white.  Neatly demarcated pectoral band of dark chevrons on a pale buff/brown background.  Otherwise, clean white lower breast, belly, flanks and undertail coverts.

Legs: short and black.     Call: a short quiet trill that I heard as ‘prrrp’.

 Photo (c) Clive Hurford

Clive Hurford

Feb 2014

Update on Sunday, April 27, 2014 at 7:40PM by Pembrokeshire Avifauna committee

It stayed on the same beach until the 26th August and was seen by many observers

Graham Rees

Bobolink - 1999 - first for Pembrokeshire

At the end of September 1999, south-west Wales had experienced a spell of strong to gale-force westerly winds, following the hurricane which east-coast North America had experienced.  We on Skokholm Island knew it was inevitable tht at least one "yank" of some description would be unfortunate enough to be blown across the Atlantic, but nothing appeared on Skokholm, as usual.  So we were resigned to the fact that it would not be us who would see such a bird, especially since it was now two weeks on and we were experiencing light easterlies and clear skies associated with a high pressure system.

On the 13th october, after a morning of doing paperwork in the observatory buildings, Theresa Purcell and I decided to have a sandwich lunch at the lighthouse and do some seawatching at the same time.  However, we had walked just halfway along the main track across the island, which Teresa spotted a bird on the ground in a grassy clearing among bracken.  Despite Therea possessing good bird identification skills, she felt the need to ask me what it was, whereupon I repled "Meadow pipit".  Obviously disgusted in my lack of faith in her abilities, she exclaimed "That is not a meadow pipit" and I realised that I was looking at the wrong bird.  The individual in question flew up onto the top of the bracken and in the first split second that I saw it, I thought "aqualtic warbler", but upon seeing more than the obvious crown and mantle streaks, it was very clear that this was no warbler.  It was most obviously a bobolink, a North American bird!

After the initial shock, followed by taking it all in and releasing a few restrained screams of delight, I ran all the way back to observatory to make a few phone calls.  Too out of breath to use the phone, I picked up my camera and video camera, desperate to obtain photographic evidence, and ran back.  I needn't have worried, Theresa had stayed with the bird which was obligingly sitting in the top of the bracken in the sunshine, contentedly eating craneflies.  Theresa made the necessary phone calls, while I took a long look at our bird.  Juan, Simon, Rob and Shirley crossed from Skomer and just managed to see it before dusk.

Skokholm is home to 46,000 pairs of Manx shearwaters, an estimated 20% of the world population, and is therefore peppered with fragile burrows.  Not an ideal place for a "twitch" and the fact that a boat does not freequently visit means that getting people across is difficult.  However, given the obliging nature of the bobolink and that it seemed content not to move any great distance away from a convenient viewing spot, the Skokholm and Skomer Conservation Advisory Committee decided to spread the news.  Subsequently, then other people saw the bird in what was the first official twitch on the island.  Thankfully it was viewed and greatly admired from the footpath, so none of the many burrows were threatened with trampling.  A flighty bird during the breeding season would probably necessitate a different decision.

Description:

General appearance and structure: First impression was "aquatic warbler" Acrocephalus paludicola, due to the crown and mantle streaks and general coloration of buff and brown.  Following further viewing, it was seen to be a rather large, upright, bunting- or finch-like bird, with a large bill, long tail and long primary extension.  Its pale lores and lack of obvious dark coloration along the lower edge of the ear coverts gave it a very bright facial appearance.  At times it hid in the bracken and moved along the ground, appearing somewhat corncrake-like, due to general plumage and bare parts coloration and its behaviour as it stretched its neck to look around.  In flight the tail was slightly fanned and showed obvious pointed tips to the feathers.

Plumage: head very distinctive, with a pale, whitish-buff central crown stripe and dark brown lateral crown stripes.  Pale buff supercilia and a brownish eye stripe behind the eye only, extending to the rear edge of the ear coverts and running just a short way down them whilst becoming very narrow.  No obvious moustachial stripe, quite unlike female yellow-breasted bunting Emberiza aureola. The centre of the ear coverts was buff.  Lores pale, upon close inspection seen to have a bluish-grey coloration.  Chin and throat the brightest part of the whole plumage, a whitish-buff and very obvious at a distance in sunlight.  The nape was more buff-coloured.

Upperparts: Back generally buff with darker streaks.  Mantle with two cream-buff streaks running vertically, edged with darker feathering.  In certain positions the pale streaks formed two inverted "V"s, the outer branch half the length of the main, inner ones.  General feathering of the scapulars was dark-centred, pale-edged.  Median coverts brightest part of wings, broad pale whitish-buff edges.  The other wing bars were far less distinct.  Tertials were, with the exception of the upper right feather, dark brown with a narrow whitish border; the other had a broad buff edge, evidently a fresh one, thus aging the bird as a 1st winter. The primary feathers were dark brown with narrow pale borders.  The rump and upper tail feathers were, as much of the back feathering, dark-centred with pale buff edging.  The tail was similarly coloured, the feathers noticeably spiky, this being particularly prominent when the bird flew overhead, silhouetted against the pale sky.

Underparts: The throat was the most noticeable feature at a distance, being particularly bright buff-cream.  The breast and belly were slightly darker buff but still generally pale as were the thigh feathers.  There was an obvious line down the centre of the breast where feathers overlapped.  The flanks had some darker streaking. 

Bare parts:  The bill was a pale pink, with a hint of darker blue-grey on the culmen and along the top of the upper mandible.  The eye was dark, black-brown, with a narrow white eye ring, most noticeable below the eye.  The legs and feet were pink.

Voice: a rather soft metallic "picc", mainly uttered in flight at a regular interval of about one second, also heard when it was disturbed, as it flew up onto a bracken vantage point to observe what had disturbed it. Theresa heard it first and described it as a "rather less musical chaffinch-like pink" This is the description given in some of the books we subsequently referred to.

Behaviour: At first the bird was rather bold, allowing us to approach to about three metres distance.  It was clambering about among the top of the bracken fronds, which were mainly brown and withering at this time.  It frequently flicked its rather heavy-looking tail, with a slight downward movement before a far more pronouced upward flick.  It was regularly catching and eating craneflies which were abundant among the foliage. Occasionally it flew away, never more than about fifty metres and landed in other bracken patches, but inevitably returned to the original area by undertaking another flight.  Each time it flew it called.  As the afternoon of the 13th of October wore on, the bird became less obvious, spending more time among the bracken, climbing about at half the stem-height, moving from frond to frond.  The moving vegetation was used to relocate the bird.  On the following morning, 14th October, despite twelve people scanning the top of the bracken, it wasn't seen.  The wind had increased ESE 3-4.  It was finally located by accident as it was almost stepped on.  It flew a short distance onto the bracken, and called a few times before flying off again to its favourite patch.  It then remained hidden for long periods, occasionally showing its head and shoulders to an appreciative audience but did, thanfully, sit out in the open on occasion, particularly as the breeze decreased and it became warmer.  During its periods of skulking, it would occasionally stretch its neck up and look around, appearing very corncrake-like.  Tail-flicking was only occasionally seen.

Graham Thompson

Pembrokeshire Bird Report 1999.

Ross’s Gull

Rhodostethia rosea

Vagrant.

The Ross’s Gull has a disjointed Arctic breeding distribution and largely winters in the far north but a few occasionally wander further south.

An adult was at Fishguard Harbour on the 15th and 16th February 1981. It was found by Jack Donovan, while leading a field meeting of the Mid-Pembrokeshire Section of the Dyfed Wildlife Trust. Perched initially on a hand rail by the lifeboat station amid a group of Black-headed Gulls, it flew off into the harbour.

It was relocated the following day, walking on the sands of the inner harbour but shortly afterwards took off, gained height and departed northwards. This was the first recorded occurrence in Wales.

Graham Rees.

(Covers records up to and including 2008).