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A really enjoyable trip on the Helen Clare out in the Celtic Deep today, my 5th and last pelagic of 2024. The highlight was 4 Great Shearwaterswhich 1 by 1 passed our chumming spot (the 1st still had the opportunity to choose the same moment to pass the boat as my one and only visit to the on-board loo!). Some sightings of singles European Storm Petrels but no one stayed on the smooth. As the water was calm and the smooth calm we had time to return via The Smalls and Grassholm, which was a good move. The highlight is…
A nice walk around the airport as the dark sky builds from the north. The famous rocky field at the west end looked perfect for a Buff-breasted Sandpiper, we approached (by appearance) with a faithful girl. Ruff in the pools created by the almost famous leaking water trough on the east runway. We flushed a single snipe here, and heard (but not seen) both Bar-tailed Godwit and Ringed Plover – it’s worth knowing your calls!Besides a wonderful 42 Wheat in the rocky field, the airfield is quiet.Ruff is really small, proving it’s a girl. Fresh plumage, with clean pale fringes…
Great find Caroline of Spotted Sandpiper at Marloes Mere. It was still there on Wednesday, and was also reported on Thursday morning but was not seen in the afternoon or evening. 3rd record for Pembrokeshire!I visited Strumble Head for some sea watching yesterday with Pembs and visiting birders. We have some beautiful birds, including a juvenile Sabine’s Gulla Balearic Shearwater (which I couldn’t manage), 10+ Arctic Skuas2 Great Shakes and a handful (I saw 3) European Storm Petrels.2 Arctic Skuas heading west over a stormy seaA decent selection of waders at Gann over the last 2 days, although not many…
I was delighted to meet Blair Jones from Gwent at Gann, who decided to visit there after our pelagic trip was canceled due to the weather. This proved to be a wise move, as the dark ages dropped an adult Little Tern to the lagoon in front of us. After making a few circuits around the top end looking for food, it sat on some mud surrounding one of the islands for 5 minutes or so, before flying south down the lagoon. Perhaps it continued because we couldn’t find it again.Old Little Tern. Although they breed in small numbers in…
Friday saw the first West Coast Pelagic of 2024 aboard Helen Claire with Dale Sailing out to Celtic Deep. At our furthest we are about 54km from St Ann’s Head. On our way out we had a little pod of bow-riding Common Dolphinand the strange sight of Puffin, Guillemot, Razorbill and Manx Shearwater. Small group of Northern Gannet is to and from Grassholm. There is usually no shearwater raft, and only a single passage European Storm Petrel.Once in our designated area we cut the engines, and started ‘chumming’. Fulmars began to arrive, starting with one bird and reaching 11. A…
Brian Southern and I were very fortunate recently to spend an evening with Paddy Jenks at a site in North Pembrokeshire studying European Nightjars. As dusk fell, the expected and almost expected sights and sounds of Nightjar failed.Despite the weather being colder and windier than predicted, and the distinct lack of Nightjar activity being seen or heard, Paddy set up a mist net and very quickly caught 3 Nightjars – a male, and then a second a man and a woman at the same time. In 3 previous attempts over the years Paddy had gotten nothing, so this was a…
After an unsuccessful (again) couple of hours on Castlemartin Corse looking for Pallid Harrier, I headed down to the Rhoscrowther (east) end of Angle Bay to see what was there on the incoming tide. A sum of 22 Brent Goose (21 pale bellied, 1 dark) was immediately apparent, and then I looked at the 60 or so gulls present and was surprised to quickly pick out a first winter/2nd calendar year Ring-billed Gull. The bird was in the stream channel, and twice picked up what was probably some type of mollusc and flew up to about 20m before dropping it…
Some of you may remember that Lisa and I found a color-ringed / satellite tagged Curlew in Castlemartin Corse on 6th January (at the east end near the church – referred to by this post).As suspected we didn’t get all the rings, but with the ones we recorded and with the help of some nice people we tracked down the bird: it was ringed in Germany! More specifically, it was called as a breeding adult on 3 May 2022 in Amstvenn in northwest Germany near the border with the Netherlands.Even better, the satellite tracker provided some great information that I…