Red-breasted Merganser - 1894

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

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Goosander - 1894

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

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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.

Smew - 1894

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

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Velvet Scoter - 1894

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

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Scoter - 1894

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

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Eider - 1894

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

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