Stackpole Head- PUFFIN'S!

6/06/12

Stackpole head has always been a favorite area in Pembrokeshire, a nice mix of birds, nice beaches and stunning sea cliffs. It always makes for a decent couple of hours, even if theres not many birds about!
Over the last few years, there has been a seeming decline in numbers of everything here, so my hopes wernt exactly too high. However, all the 'usual' suspects are still around, just in less numbers!

The weather everyday since the Sunday had been rather atrocious, and therefore all birding time was pritty much canceled! We did witness the Lifeboat docking at it's station on the Wednesday, and a quick walk along the beach in Tenby during howling wind and driving rain lead to a suspected sighting on a Skua sp. However, the views were ever so brief as it ducked in behind a wave, with no bins, and when using one of the telescopes on the seafront (which were terrible btw!) i couldnt relocate it. Which is a shame, because ive only ever seen one skua previously!

On the thursday morning however, there was a gap in the weather, and i had a PAINTED LADY buttefly on the plants outside the window.

Later in the day, moving to Stackpole head, it was similarly sunny, but with a very gusty wind. It didnt takes long before we started picking up the birds, Skylarks were (as usual) everywhere! And Meadow Pipit were 'seeping' all around us.

A couple of WHEATEAR also joined us on the cliff top, and after abit of time, a female approached us, and gave stunning views!

Soon after, we were also joined by the male bird. Presumably a 1st summer because of the brown tinged wing feathers.

What a stunner!

However, the main reason for visiting these cliffs was to try and see one of the Icons of coastal birding in Wales. The CHOUGH.

We soon picked up a flock of these birds calling from the other side of the head, and we soon located then on the cliff edge.

We were treated to views of an immature bird. A plumage which previously i have never seen, which was now fully indipendant from its parents.

And talk of the devil, Here are the two stunning corvids! Glossy black with blood red bills and legs.

And just flying out to mob one of the ever present Herring Gulls.

The birding here is not just confined to the cliff tops. Clinging on to the vertical rock face below is a bustling colony of seabirds, with both the 'common' Auks well represented. And, as we were a week later than most years, most of the colony were in attendance, and we were treated to large numbers on hte cliff faces, and forming rafts below us on the swell.

And it was while scanning these rafts that i picked out a few white faces. Even at the extreme range we were from the bird (1/2- 1 mile) i could easilly tell that i was watching a PUFFIN on the water! Great stuff!
I knew they were here from previous sightings, however, i had never seen one actually perched/swimming, so it was great to get views of them in the water.
We moved along the cliff, closer to where the birds were, and soon realised that there was infact more than one bird here. And i soon counted 6 birds swimming about, including these two birds, which swam on the sea not too far away.

A SHAG was near the top of the cliffs at its nest.

However, i was soon distracted by the numbers of ROCK PIPIT which had decided they wanted to show well, and i was soon in the presence of a showy male bird, which casually stroled around about 30ft away, often pausing to sing or preen.

A couple of times. the bird was knocked off ballence by the strong winds, which made for some odd poses!

We were also treated to amazing views of this bird, whch showed a very ragged tail.

All in all, a very good visit, and it was nice to see Stackpole 'back on form'.Decent birds, ok weather, what more could you ask for?

MB

Stackpole Head

31/05/10

across barafundel beach and up the track through the woodland, to an head completly covered in walkers etc, and many of the 'common' birds were keeping down, but a plethra of year ticks followed,

a female wheatear flew along the cliff edge while another female stuck around just long enough to get one photo:

, which although not a year tick was still very nice, but on looking down onto the water, a SHAG was perched on the rocks:

the usual rock pipits, meadow pipits and skylarks were singing but all were extremly wary, but then i stumbled uppon this bird at very close range and just stood there, well untill a pair of dickwad walkers casually strolled past forcing the bird into the air, even though they saw me photographing the lark:

on looking down the cliff edge the GUILEMOTS were breeding again on their usual ledge giving superb views, anong them was a number of RAZORBILL which also showed very well, and i got perhaps my bet views of a pair ever!!!!!

the usual gull's (Actually 'sea' gulls) were constantly on the move, with all the common birds noted, and i got this shot which for some reason i am particullarly drawn to:

Loads of FULMAR were flying along the edge with the occasional one perched on the rock face:

But of cause the real reason for being up on this beautiful cliff face in stunning weather was to see the CHOUGH that are here, and they didnt dissapoint which despite not reaching the flock leval as last year reached a nice 4 birds including a pair which shown very nicely with a male wheatear:

throughout the time up on the cliff we could hear oystercatchers, but were unable to locate them, untill my dad was scanning the cliff when he saw a pair of OYSTERCATCHERS at its NEST 100+ ft up a cliff face!!!!!!!!

i mean is this normal behaviour, cause i have never heard of it???????

MB

stackpole day 2

28/05/09

even though visibility out at sea was bad but with just 15 mins of seawatching(too restless to search the area) we had both 2 manx searwater and 2 sandwich terns.both are the second record ive ever had.both a biot distant though and little plumage detail could be seen through the fog.i must say though it was pritty much the same stuff as mentioned before.a flaged juvernile kitiwake flew past the head.

i have 4 highlights for this trip though the 2 mentioned above and 1 whinchat which gave close but brief views over the hike around the head,and 9 yes 9 chough.that was a proppa sight and got some quite good pics(well come on it is me your talking about)

the fulmars were perticulary photogenic and came verrrry close

the painted ladys i mentioned in the last post were still pasing through and we counted about the same number as last time

a random great black an one of the many beaches

and a rock pipit

over the whole 2 trips to the head we counted only 2 male wheatear and both were super flighty and we found one of their nests in a hole in the ground.i managed 1 video of the male

the pipits and larks were scurrying around my feet again and while doing this we stumbled upon a skylark nest which we were guided away from by the adult(m or f god knows)

the razorbills gave close views at a nest hole/ledge/crack thing.

a pair of choughs

highlights are

fulmar 15+

2 manxies

3 gannet

2 shag

3 oyc

6 g b b gull

15+kitiwake

2 sandwich tern

same totals as last time 4 guillemot and razorbill

9 skylark

15c rock pipit

4 meadow pipit

5 wheatear

1 whinchat

1 lesserthroat

9 chough

13 linnet

i didnt go birding again during the holiday spending most of my time playing footie or in the pub(not that good for a 14 year old to say that)it was a good holiday and i will do one last post showing the best pics and videos of the holiday.

im goin to make a small poll.

what do you think is the best bird i saw on the holiday.for me it is the ring ouzel on the way there.but its up to you

MB

sorry for the recent lack of posts,had a lot of school stuff to do.

stackpole head

25/05/09
from our usual parking place at stackpole quey we decided to walk to bosherman lakes to see if the gargany was still presant then past broad haven beech,past stackpole warren onto the head then over barafundle beech back to the car.
in the woods surrounding the lily ponds we heard a pied flycatcher but despite a lot of effort to see it we failed.very little else here because of the constant desturbance to the site.and we also didnt see the garganey.at broadhaven and stackpole warren we found our first rock pipit and both whitethroats.from here on it was constant rock,meadow and skylark song so i wont mention them again.heres a video of a rock pipit anyway:

we also found a few fulmar nest along this and all the strech we covered and we counted at least 15.a few gannets were flying ofshore but non came close enough for a pic.2 each of cormorant and shag were seen.on one of the many inexesible beeches along the cliff we saw an oystercatcher(later 2 more joined it making 3)there was a few wheatear around but none were perticulary showy(unlike the birds here)and we only saw females,which we found a bit odd.and i managed a bad video of one feeding.then that sound came again and i was thriled to see 2 chuffs(chough) flying in but dropped into some thick grass and i couldent pick them out with my scope.there was a large raft of common seabirds on the water just off the cliff edge.i did notice one thing with these flocks they are only one species flocks(in the video guilemots)and the razorbills always stayed a lot further off but you saw them flying too and from the cliff.(watch the video theres a lot of bird in it,in this raft there was about 100 birds)

and while watching these what flys off the cliff but a PUFFIN its squat body and massive bill making it stand out from the other rushing parents.i watched it all the way untill it fles around the next headland in the vaige direction of skomer island(where there is a large amount this year,around 17,000 birds,normally 10,000,this is the largest amount for almost a decade and posibly longer,there are also SEO,S giving good daily views on there so now would be a great time to visit for a day or overnight to witness the huge number of 250,00 manxies,almost a quarter of the worlds population,coming back to their nests)was it me or did that sound like an advert in a panflet telling you to go

heres a nest ledge:

highlights are:(CAPITAL BIRDS ARE YEAR TICKS)

15+ FULMAR

5 GANNET

2 SHAG

1 perigrine falcon

3 OYC

2 common gull(very odd record that one)

6 g b b gull

12 KITTIWAKE

1 PUFFIN

300c GUILLEMOT

100c RAZORBILL

8 skylark( only 8)

11 ROCK PIPIT

6 meadow pipit

7 WHEATEAR

2 garden warbler

1 blackcap

2 lesser whitethroat

1 whitethroat

1 PIED FLY

4 CHOUGH

5 linnet

ALSO GOT IN ON THE PAINTED LADY INFLUX COUNTED AT LEAST 80 WHILE WALKING AROUND.a very nice day but a very tiring walk

MB