Lesser Yellowlegs - accepted records 1990 - 2009

Eight records, 6 since 2000 accepted by BBRC, these being:

2001 Pembrokeshire Fishguard, adult/first-winter, 13th December (M.Betts); same, Pembroke, 15th (T.Purcell, G.Thompson).

2001 Pembrokeshire Pembroke, since 15th December (Brit. Birds 95: 495), to 17th March. See also Ceredigion/Pembrokeshire below

2002 Ceredigion/Pembrokeshire Teifi Estuary, 22nd-25th May (H.Roderick, G.Walker et al.).

2003 Pembrokeshire Dale, juvenile, 19th October to 16th November (J.Best, S.Devonald, T.J.Price). Newgale, juvenile, 5th-6th December (P.Jenks et al.).

2003 Pembrokeshire Dale, juvenile/first-winter, 15th February (A. M. & M. A. Taylor).

2004 Pembrokeshire Dale 11th April (D. J. Astins); presumed same as 2003 bird above.

American Black Duck - accepted records

Anas rubripes

British Birds Rarities Committee

2001 Pembrokeshire Heathfield Gravel-pits, male, 20th, 28th January, 10th, 14th March (S.E.Berry, M.Young-Powell).

2008 Pembrokeshire Marloes Mere, female, 16th March to 19th May, photo (D. Astins et al.).

Booted Warbler - accepted records 1993 - 2013

British Birds Rarities Committee

1993: Dyfed Skokholm, 25th-28th September, photo. (J.E. & J.W.Donovan, I. & K.Johnson et al.).

2000: Pembrokeshire Skomer, 14th-15th September 2000 (S.Avery, M.J.Pilsworth).

2013: Singles Ramsey on 22nd September and Skokholm on 25th September. Both accepted by BBRC as the 2nd & 3rd county records and only the 5th & 6th for Wales. The only other earlier records for the county came from Skokholm 1993 and Skomer in 2000. 

Source: County Bird Report, 2013 which quotes 2nd and 3rd county records in 2013.

Citrine Wagtail - accepted records

Motacilla citreola

British Birds Rarities Committee

2000 Pembrokeshire Skomer, first-winter, 28th September (S.Avery, J.G.Brown, M.J.Pilsworth).

Wilson's Storm-petrel - accepted records 1990 - 2000

Oceanites oceanicus

British Birds Rarities Committee

1990 Dyfed Strumble Head, 6th September (P.Bristow, G.H.Rees et al.).

1997 Pembrokeshire Strumble Head, 5th September (C.Benson, R.H.Davies, G.H.Rees). Mainland sightings are still very rare: the Pembrokeshire record is the third from that headland, but, in Britain, St Ives, Cornwall, leads the way with seven.

1998 Pembrokeshire Strumble Head, 11th September (C.Greyall, G.H.Rees et al.).

2000 At sea Sea area Lundy, 51°31’N 05°41’W; about 41 km WSW of Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, two, 6th August, photo. (D.J.Astins, J.Bennett et al.).

2000 At sea Sea area Lundy, 51°33’N 05°34’W, about 32 km SW of Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, 7th August (D.C.Palmer et al.).

Red-throated Pipit - accepted records 1990 - 2009

Anthus cervinus

British Birds Rarities Committee

1991: Skomer, 6th-8th September (Miss K.E.Lawrence, J.Parke, S.J. & Mrs A.C.Sutcliffe et al.).

1992: Skokholm, 17th September (M.Betts); 27th (M. & P.Betts, J.E. & J.W.Donovan).

2000: Skomer, 19th-21st October (D.J.Astins, M.J.Pilsworth, O.Roberts).

2002: Skomer, 22nd-26th April, photo. (J.G.Brown, J.Darke, S.E.Duffield et al.).

2009: A single on Skomer on 23rd October 2009 (D Boyce).

Sources Pembrokeshire Bird Reports, 1991, 1992, 2000, 2002, 2009.

Rosy Starling - accepted records 1990 - 2001

Sturnus roseus

British Birds Rarities Committee

1990 Dyfed Skomer, juvenile, 28th September (C.Orsman, S.J.Sutcliffe, H.A.Williams).

1995 Dyfed Strumble Head, Pembrokeshire, juvenile, 18th-19th September (C.Benson, G.Jones, G.H.Rees).

1996 Pembrokeshire Pembroke Dock, adult, 13th-14th January, photo. (M. & Mrs C.Rowe).

1999 Pembrokeshire St David's, adult, 16th-22nd May 1999, photo. (J.W.Donovan, S.White et al.).

1999 Strumble Head, juvenile, 29th-30th August, photo. (S.E.Berry et al.).

2000 Pembrokeshire Skokholm, adult, 8th-10th June (G.Thompson et al.).

2000 Strumble Head, juvenile, 10th-12th September (S.E.Berry et al.).

2000 St David's, 20th-21st June (Mr Jones, L.Lomax, O.Roberts et al.).

2001 Pembrokeshire Strumble Head, 17th June (M.Deans, L.Gregory, D.K.Underwood).

2001 Pembrokeshire Haverfordwest, juvenile, 16th October to 21st November, photo. (F.Lanthorn, B.Morgan, G.H.Rees).

Rosy Starling was dropped from the BBRC list in 2001, and subsequent records are evaluated by the Welsh Rarities Panel.

Marsh Warbler - 2009 - first for Pembrokeshire

I was walking down South Valley, Skomer, about 10ish this morning (2nd November) when a Blackcap flew up followed by a second bird that I thought was going to be a Garden Warbler, but it was an acro!

I watched it off & on, more off than on, for an hour or so & got quite a few not massively helpful photos & was leaning towards it being a Marsh Warbler.

Looking at the photos on the computer & doing some reading up I'm still not 100% sure, partly because it's been suggested any very late acro isn't going to be a Marsh Warbler and partly because I'm not sure if the photos undisputably show the wing formula.

The vast majority of Marsh Warblers have the 2nd primary longer than the 4th - in the photos of this bird primary 2 looks about the same, possibly longer in one photo, possibly shorter in another depending on the angle - there is one photo of the closed wing slightly from underneath that possibly shows the 2nd primary clearly longer than the 4th, if the dark mark is the tip of the 2nd primary! So not sure on that.

If you draw a line across from where the emargination ends on the 3rd primary of a Marsh Warbler it should line up with tip of about the 7th primary, on Reed Warbler it should fall level with about the 10th primary - all the photos seem to show it being about the 7th or 8th primary depending on what angle you draw the line at. Bit happier about this feature.

Bill looks stout in most of the photos, more pointy in a couple - leaning towards Marsh on this. Obvious pale tips to the primaries? - apparently not a brilliant feature in the autumn, this bird has got pale tips but I'm not convinced anything above and beyond a Reed Warbler. The claws look very pro-Marsh to me, fairly plain, lacking obvious contrast between the dark upperside and yellowish underside.

I've seen quite a few 'interesting' looking autumn acros on the east coast that just looked and sounded like Reed Warblers to me but this bird never looked like a Reed Warbler & it was making a low 'chuck' call which isn't a call I would associate with a Reed Warbler.

Dave Boyle

The only previous claims were on Skomer on 23rd Sept 1993 and on Skokholm 21-22nd September 1995.  Both were NOT ACCEPTED by the Welsh Records Panel. The above is therefore the first record for the county.

Great Spotted Cuckoo - 2009 - first for Pembrokeshire

At around 9:30am on 10th March, my wife Marion and I set off on a walk from the Pencarnan Caravan site intending to check raven nest sites along the coast path in the vicinity of St Justinain.  On arrival at the northern edge of Trefeiddan Moor both of us were quick to pick up the obvious presence of a largish bird sitting still on the edge of a stand of withy at a distance of 150m or more.

Using binoculars for the best part of two or more minutes, and until the bird flew, we described the bird to each other.  Because a strong breeze blew from our right, and the distance involved, I placed my bins against a telegraph pole to steady the image.  When the bird flew, we followed its short flight of 100 or so metres to another withy stand where it alighted and once again sat silent and still.  At this point we walked closer, but before we could add anything further to our description, it flew towards a dense area of withy and gorse on the edge of the moor and out of view.  We never saw it again.

The first words spoken as we viewed the bird were "it's a cuckoo" - which was obvious because of its general shape, size and horizontal posture, "a foreign cuckoo" exclaimed Marion.  Next we remarked upon its two-tone colour: dark above and white below.  While steadying the image, I was able to discern pale spotting of the upper parts and what appeared to be a single larger spot in the area of the primary/secondary wing coverts on the edge of the wing.  Marion said the throat was cream in colour, something I could not discern, no doubt, because I have colour perception limitations.  She admitted later she did not know that great spotted cuckoos have yellowish throats.  I was in no doubt we had found our first British great-spotted cuckoo.

When we lost sight of the bird, I returned to our caravan to collect my telescope.  Following a long period of searching, about four hours, we reluctantly conceded defeat.  Any chance of find the cuckoo the following morning was quickly dashed with the arrival of a slow moving warm front that delivered drizzle and poor visibility to the area for the remainder of that day.  We serched the area over the next few days but to no avail.

We have seen many different types of cuckoos, in Europe, Africa, America and Asia.  From our extensive experience and on the basis of size, jizz and plumage, we are sure that this bird was a 1st year great spotted cuckoo.

John Best

Pembrokeshire Bird Report 2009

This has been accepted by BBRC as the first record for the county and only the third for Wales - the previous two were of a dead male found at Plas Penhelig, Aberdyfi, Meirionnydd on 1st April 1956 and one at Newborough, Anglesey 3rd - 15th April 1960.

American Black Duck - 2008 - 2nd Pembrokeshire record

Anas rubripes

The afternoon of Sunday 16th March was one of those 'toss a coin in your head' afternoons.  I'd been out cycling for four hours in the morning (honestly, I had), and after cleaning the bike, taking a shower, and demolishing a sizeable lunch, I was pretty tired.  It was a choice between going for a snooze, or heading down to Dale, as I tend to on a Sunday afternoon, to check the gull roost.

My better half, Ellie, was up for taking our dogs for a good walk, so I dragged myself out to the car and we headed off for Dale from our home in Haverfordwest (just 600m from the Rose-coloured Starling and did it visit our garden? Nope!). For some reason I suggested we went to Marloes Mere first, which would be my first visit of the year, so that I could check the Mere and surrounding fields while Ellie and her mum took the dogs down to the beach.  We'd still have time for the gull roost afterwards, which would give me a chance to see if the first-winter ring-billed gull was still around, and what the count of Mediterranean gulls would be (the previous Sunday it had been an impressive 17).

After checking the north-east portion of the Mere from the northern Scammell hide, which revealed my first wheatear of the year as well as feral snow goose, I dragged my weary carcass back through the car park and out to the southern Britton Hide, built in memory of my good friend Mark.  As everyone knows the original hide had blown down in the severe storms of December 2006, but a sponsored bike ride from Marloes Mere to the Welsh Wildlife Centre in Cilgerran during Easter 2007 had raised the funds to rebuild it.  Whilst it still needed some finishing off at the time, it still provided shelter from the elements and some cover for viewing the southern and western end of the Mere (I think some Birdforum comments that it looked a shed were justified at the time, but not now!)

With the scope set up I quickly locked on to a darkish-looking female-type mallard, dip-feeding on the largest open area of water viewable from the hide.  It was with a drake mallard, but alarm bells were ringing immediately due to the consistent chocolate-brown body and wing feathers, contrasting somewhat with paler cheeks, neck and supercilium.  There were no paler centres to the body feathers, particularly the flanks, and there was no white visible on the sides of the tail.  I couldn't make out anything on the closed wing, and the bird frustratingly did not flap or open its wings at all to show me the all-important speculum.

I rang Jon Green from the hide (I just knew he'd be in, he doesn't get out much you know) who very helpfully double-checked literature for me, and then Richard Dobbins who was unfortunately too far away at Llys-y-fran to make it to Marloes before dark.  He did get hold of Steve and Anna Sutcliffe (whose number I didn't have to hand), who live just a few miles away, who checked their coy of BWP and then joined me for the last 20 minutes or so of light.  Sadly the bird continued to feed the whole time, and as the light faded we still hadn't seen the all-important speculum. 

I had a good vibe about the bird though, and in the past instinct has tended to prevail (eg black scoter, Isabelline wheatear, semi-palmated sandpiper), so on returning home and after checking literature for myself (as well as blogging my poor attempt at a 'phone-'scope photo), I decided to circulate the news as a probable black duck.  From the plumage pattern and tone alone, I couldn't see how it could be a hybrid, which had been my one main concern. The fact that no white trailing edge to the speculum/secondaries could be seen at rest also boded well.

Thankfully the bird showed well the next morning, including revealing the clinching purple-blue speculum with black leading and trailing edge - not a trace of white!  Other good features were the white under-wing feathers contrasting markedly with the flanks, and the detailed pattern of the olive-toned bill with dark basal two-thirds of the culmen and nail, with an olive 'wrap' across the distal third.  All of the female mallards present had quite different orange-toned bills - and they weren't chocolate brown either!

The Marloes Mere black duck was only the third for Wales, following the famous male at Aber, Caernarfon from 1979 to 1985, which produced several hybrid young, and our only previous county record, a male at Heathfield in January and March 2001, which was sadly only seen by two observers.  Thus for many, this bird provided a new Pembrokeshire bird for the list, a Welsh tick, for some a 'lifer' and for me justification for my persistence with the under-watched peninsular (mind you, can name a part of Pembrokeshire that could be considered to be well-watched?).

The bird remained well into May, usually paired to a drake mallard, until the vegetation grew so high that most of the ducks 'disappeared'.  Whether she stayed to breed will never be known, though certainly no dubious-looking black duck look-alike youngsters were ever seen and by the time the vegetation died back, neither was the black duck.  Where did she go?

For obvious reasons, I dedicate 'my' black duck to Mark Britton, who remains sadly missed.  His hide continues to be a real asset to us - seven months after the black duck was found from it, a lucky lucky lucky visitor found  blackpoll warbler in the willows in front of it - and at the time he was watching it, I was less than a mile in a straight line away on Dale Airfield!  Birding can be cruel sometimes.  Black duck, blackpoll warbler, what black next . . . .?

David Astins

Pembrokeshire Bird Report 2008

American Bittern - 2008

On the morning of the 1st December, I was out with Janet Atkinson carrying out a winter TTV for the Atlas, when Robin phoned. Robin got to the point quickly, he had been out yesterday and picked up the remains of a bird, which after cleaning up, he thought was an American Bittern! As the bird was dead, I told Robin we would be with him as soon as we could, but we would finish the survey first.

I had little doubt that Robin would be wrong iwth his identification.  I had recently spent three weeks sharing a room with him in Madagascar and was aware of his keenness to collect thing and his desire to idenfity everything! From shells to seeds, from chameleons to lemurs, as well as birds.

St David's Airfield, long disused (no more of the theory the bird came in by plane) has been left to return to marshy heath and is managed by the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park.  Robin was looking for waterfowl in a particularly wet area to the north of the runways and came across a bedraggled, partly decomposed bird.  The the legs and long bill were clearly visible, suggesting a bittern-type bird.  Robin, a collector of "things" decided to take bits of the bird home - he wished now of course that he had taken the whole corpse if that had been possible.  But not suspecting a mjor rarity, "pieces" were taken.  The head including bill (badly decomposed), one leg, and one very black slimy wing.

Back at home, Robin started to clean up the pieces, the leg was easy, the head and bill were cleaned chemically to leave the skull/bill.  The skull/bill fitted a diagram of a bittern species in the literature.  But it was the wing that was the revelation! If it was a Eurasian Bittern, the flight feathers would be strongly barred.  This is what he expected but, on cleaning, it was obvious that they were black, with some feathers tipped with a rusty brown.  The greater coverts being this rusty colour and the primary coverts tipped this colour too.

The wing pattern fitting the illustrations of an American Bittern.

On viewing the bird's parts I agreed that we had an American Bittern, measurements were taken, including had/bill, leg and the primary length, all of which supported the diagnostic wing pattern.  I posted a photo of the wing on PembsBirds, the county blogsite and amazingly we had 900 hits to this site in the next 36 hours.  How popular the bird would have been if seen alive.

The bird presumably arrived a few weeks earlier in the autumn, perhaps soon after the Blackpoll Warbler, which only one lucky person saw.  This is (BBRC acceptance required) the fourth record of American Bittern for Pembrokeshire.  1972, 1905 both shot, in 1946 one seen on Ramsey Island, which is off the end of the St David's Peninsula where the airfield resides. 

Richard Dobbins

Pembrokeshire Bird Report 2008

Blackpoll Warbler - 2008 - first for Pembrokeshire

While on a few days break at Marloes, Pembrokeshire, I visited the nature reserve at Marloes Mere on Tuesday 7th October during some bad weather,with some strong westerly winds and heavy rain showers, observing from the Mark Britton hide.  While watching some goldcrests, chiffchaffs and willow warblers, feeding in willow scrub close to a pond, I noticed a warbler I did not recognise.  It was slightly larger than a willow warbler and slower in movement, spending lengthy periods sat in one place.

The bird had a yellowish wash to the neck and breast with a paler belly.  I then decided to go back to the B&B to get my scope and camera.  Through the scope I noticed faint streaking either side of the breast, heavy streaking on the rear neck and mantle with some streaking on the crown.  Also very obvious were the pale-edged secondaries, primaries and tail feathers, and also the distinct double wing bar, which can be seen in the photos.  In flight the tail showed white edges.  The bird gave a brief meadow pipit-like call, but higher pitched and shorter.

The overall back and head colour was olive, greyer on the shoulders.  I photographed the bird by simply placing a compact canon camera on the eyepiece of a Kowa 30X80.  The pic of the rear of the bird, although poor, shows the extent of the streaking on the mantle just about, also some of the shots show the bird had pale flesh-coloured feet.

I observed the bird between 11:00 ann 15:00 on and off, and the next day the bird could not be re-located, probably due to a clear night and fine sunny conditions on the 8th.  Unfortunately no-one else was around to see the bird.

As a fairly experienced birder I realised this may have been an American vagrant, and after checking my limited bird identification books, the nearest I can come up with is a possible female or immature blackpoll warbler.

Mark Spirito

Pembrokeshire Bird Report 2008

Post-script: the photos clearly showed an immature/female blackpoll warbler - the first for Pembrokeshire and has been accepted as such by BBRC.