And so it begins! Pembrokeshire 2013

25/05/13

I make no reasoning for why i love Pembrokeshire.

Being such a stunning county, with endless miles of sheer cliff edge and great habitats, its no surprise as to why i look forward to my yearly visit here!

Our journey was rewarded by a total of 24 RED KITE, but perhaps more surprisingly 62 Buzzard! as well as a single Kestrel and a pair of Yellowhammer.

Upon our arrival at where we were staying, i bode farewell to the family to immediately start scouring the cliffs!

And would you blame me on a stunning day like this!

And i tell you, it felt great to be out! A Rock Pipit towered above me before plunging to the earth, with Linnets and Meadow Pipit's on the Gorse, and Gannets, Fulmars and Shags flying offshore!

The Mipits in particular were showing incredibly well, actually, down to around 6ft!

 

Once  had reached the highest point above the sea along the cliff, i unfolded my chair, and sat, scope facing towards the sea in the hope of a seabird flying past. Numerous Gannet were the only birds of note for almost and hour, until i clocked 2 SANDWICH TERN flying west offshore.

Around this point i was distracted by a male STONECHAT which started singing and displaying in the Gorse, before flying up for a song flight with a backdrop of Stackpole and Freshwater East. Stunning!

Wanting to move on, i headed further east along the footpath, and quickly found another male STONECHAT, but this bird was acomponied by a female, and were showing nicely adjacent to the track, and with the sun behind me, the scope came our rather quickly!

There are few birds that look more smart than a male Stonechat in summer plumage! Further still, and i was lucky enough to find yet another pair of Stonechat, but this time they were joined by two juvenile birds!

One of the short cropped Cow fields held 5 Wheatear, 3 of which were stunning male birds.

An ADDER was also found basking in the sun around and area of dunes, and a Wall Brown Butterfly was found along the clifftop footpath

MB

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

Strumble Head and Goodwick Harbour, Wales 2012

4/06/12

As this was the only forcasted decent weather way of the week, we decided to make the most of it, and spent almost 9 hours 'in the field' at multiple locations around Pembrokeshire, Starting with Strumble Head, so i could get all the 'common' seabirds at once.
We had planned to visit Skomer today, and a very early get up by me (despite being violently ill the previous day) was insured in the hope of getting over, however, my dad got up late, and by the time we left, it was already too late, maybe next year. 4th time lucky!

The good thing with Strumble, is that you dont have to venture far from the car, you litterally park on the edge of a cliff face looking north into St Georges Channel, and being this far out from the 'main' landmass means seabirds pass at a scopeable distance, on sunny and bright days, very far off. and today was one of those 'very far off' days,
Immidiatly obvious was the ever present Gannets, with about c30 diving offshore, with many of them in a huge scrum above a pod of Dolphin and Porpoise. I dont get very much practise at cretations, so therefore my skills at id'ing them is extremly limited, however i was able to identify that about 10 Common Dolphin and 10 Harbour Porpoise were feeding offshore, as they often appeared at the top of the water and often broke the surface, however, it was a slight shame that the Dolphins never 'jumped' out of the water, which would have a made a good sight!

Eventually, a small flock of MANX SHEARWATER joined the meele of Gannets, Fulmars, Kittiwakes and proper 'seagulls'. However, all of these were very distant!
A little seawatching produced very little apart from the mentioned species, hopes of a skua never materialised,a nd despite favorable conditions later in the week, i didnt have any further time seawatching later in the week, which i now regret!
3 PUFFIN which flew past bears a remarkable similarity to a visit to the site last year,in which i also saw 3 Puffin fly past.
However, i was quickly distracted by 4 STONECHAT'S feeding in gorse just below the car park, giving stunning views down to 30ft, stonking views of a very interesting species, and one that i dont usually see in the home county of Worcestershire.
The female gave particularly good views, and i manadged this photo which i was quite proud off, well up there on my personal 'Favorite images' list.

The birds moved about almost constantly (as always with Chats), and with the wind, it made from some dificulties, however, i was happy enough to just sit and watch them, without the need for the scope.

Occasioanlly though, the birds would perch long enough for me to get some video footage.

Acompanying the female was also a stonking male, which similarly, gave absolutly stunning views, in almost perfect light, and with a backdrop of the sea, what could make a better photo?
(Apart from a better photographer!)

It was only when reviewing the photos later did i realise that the bird was grasping onto a wasp in its bill, a highly unlikely food source i would've thought?

The male, was a little lest restless than the female, and occasioanlly perched for longer periods of time than the female.

After a few hours around the lighthouse area of Strumble Head, we then dropped down into nearby Goodwick Harbour. On the drive down the steep hill entering the this picturesque harbour town i clocked onto a RED KITE circling above us, however, by the time we had stopped in the car park a few hundred metres away, the bird had dissapeared, and wasnt seen again.
A 1st summer MEDITERRANEAN GULL flew past, and out of the Harbour, which made for a Pemb's 'Tick', and again, this didnt come back and wasnt relocated. The tide was now rapidly receeding, and the newly exposed mud ment the flock of Oystercatchers were now moving in. Within a short period of time 15 OYC appeared.
In a walk along the breakwater, a single Common Blue Butterfly was noted, but very little else.

We then walked back to the car park, where for the 2nd year running, i enjoyed a superb Ice cream from the van that parks within the car park. Highly recomended if anyone is in the area, some of the best ice cream i've ever tasted!!
With the day having just passed Midday, we decided to move onwards, to Marloes Mere....
MB

PIED WHEATEAR!

26/10/11

As i have already hinted at, As a planned trip to Gloucestershire was already in place, it was a remarkable stroke of luck when a decently rare bird was found nearby!

So after our ounting to the Capital of plastic birds we headed further down the A38 to a place beside the severn estury

Oldbury on severn

The sailing club was nestled n the banks of the river in quite pleasant surroundings, flat open ground, mudflats stretching far into the river, just north of the the Severn bridges in the distance, and looking north to a Power station,

We walked down to the crowd, and i soon saw the bird, a Superb PIED WHEATEAR feeding atop the roof of the sailing club building.

A Gathering of people was expected, can you spot yourself??

The bird was constantly active, but sometimes stopped and stood still, enabling me to get some photo's:

For me, one of the standout features was the tail pattern,(video grab below) which was obvious even to someone with very limited 'wheatear experiance'. with Northern and Isabelline wheatear being the only others i have seen. But the 'grey' ish tone was also quite outstanding too, I dont class myself as being particuarly good at 'feather detail' Id, being better at Looking at the 'whole' bird, but i did noticed the primary projection was really long! and the bird became quite distinctive, even when a female Northern WHEATEAR decided to join it.

Sometimes the bird would drop down onto the ground and give superb views, often less than 30ft away! However, when on the ground, it was even more active than on the roof, and with the increasing bufferty wind, it became harder to gain decent photo's/Video's

However, it wasnt just the Wheatear on show, as mentioned, there was also a 'northern'

A stunning female MERLIN flew through over the top of the sailing club and onto the estury where it decided to have a chase of a Redshank, It flew up the channel behind us, giving stunning views and flew further up and being lost to view, still chasing the Redshank!

A sinlge Rock Pipit was here also, A scattering of Dunlin on the shore, and a Grey wagtail and a Common Gull flew over, we decided to leave just as the rain was about to hit, lucky we left at the time we did, because it rained heavilly!

A happy twitcher :) Rare bird showing amazingly, nice light (untill the rain) and Non of the crowd being dickheads, what more can you ask for?

MB

Tenby Town,- Wales

30/05/11

A trip into the town for a quick spot of time on the beec... looking for seabirds came up trumps with my first Gannet of the year feeding in very close to the shore, oftern only about 30ft out, My first Fulmar of the year sheered past and a calling Rock Pipit flew over.

MB

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