Pembrokeshire- Autumn 2013

I have never been to Pembrokeshire in the Autumn before! So as you could expect, a week away was highly anticipated! We were staying in the freshwater east area and i spent much of the week searching the surrounding area.

Soon after arrival out our beach-side temporary home i was already picking up birds, with 4 Sanderling scurrying along the shoreline close to some fishermen. All of them being juvenile's and these were the first of many over the week. 5 GBBG were also on the sand with a Shag out in the bay.

The next morning i was itching to get out, so i was out at 6:30am, and was soon ammassing a healthy list of species, a 1st winter MEDITERRANEAN GULL spent some time on the Beach before flying off, as did a winter plumaged BAR-TAILED GODWIT and a single juvenile Sanderling.

As time progressed, and having had little luck on the cliffs (No seabirds moving other than Gannets) i moved back down onto the Beach, where a juvenile Sanderling was showing, which as the tide increased became more and more confiding. After a patient wait, this superb arctic wader approached within 15ft of where i was sat, giving superb and intimate views!

Nice view isnt it.

The Sanderling remained all day on the Beach, moving out on the tide then moving back in again. Another wader highlight was soon given when a WHIMBREL fly over calling, as did an Oystercatcher and eventually 2 CHOUGH were seen over the hillside.

The next morning i awoke with optimism again, and i was out searching the area from early on in the morning and i was rewarded with a superb range of species. By far the standout species was that of a superb SABINE'S GULL which hung around offshore for around 15 minuites with a large flock of Gannets, Kittiwakes and Gulls, with 11 SANDWICH TERN'S, 20 Fulmar, 5 MANX SHEARWATER and the same 1st winter MED GULL as yesterday! Hows about that for a bit of seawatching! There was a massive movement of Hirudines and easily 2000 Swallow, House and Sand Martin flew over, all going south and straight out to sea! Watching them skimming only a flew feet over the top of the headland before dropping down to sea level was breathtaking! A TREE PIPIT put on a similar preformance heading straight south calling. Actually on the headland it was quieter, with a single Stonechat, 2 Whitethroat and i flushed a GREY PARTRIDGE while walking through waist high foliage.

Here was the view from my self designated 'Seawatching spot'.

A brief watch later in the day around 12:30 revealed a dark morph ARCTIC SKUA was followed the coast heading SE.

A small flock of Gannets entered the bay, and i tried to take some digi-scoped flight shots,

Again, a nice early start had me out scouring the clifftops. The Hirudine passage was still going incredibly strong with 1000+ Swallows and about even numbers of House and Sand Martin at around 100 birds. 'Alba' Wagtails were also on the move, and 50 flew over, as did a measly 20 Meadow Pipit. In contrast to yesterday, there was very little seabird activity and an after an hour I gave up and scoured the gorse. I had closer views of the CHOUGH pair, but could not locate their feeding area. It was while doing this I heard the 'raspy' call of a Dunlin as one wizzed past over my head. Passerines were still a little hard to come by, but 2 Whitethroat and 2 Stonechat were found. Late in the day, 3 Sanderling came up on the tide, but didn't hang around for long!

 

11/09/13

A visit into Tenby town always produces Rock Pipits and I wasn't disappointed when I found 3 birds on the south beach.

 

12/09/13

Do you know those days where you really couldn't ask for much better? That one day where the slightest bit of dampness in the air and a little fog and every bush seems to have some sort of life in it. These next two days certainly lived up to that expectation, not because of the rarity of what was seen, but just for that feeling of interaction you get when you come face to face with a variety of migrants, that you know in just a few weeks would be flying across oceans, plains, deserts and countries to reach their wintering ground. That brief moment when you can almost feel that slight feeling of anxiety, that desperation to move onto pastures new.

Quickly I found 3 SPOTTED FLYCATCHER doing exactly as their name implies, flycatching off a wire fence along a hawthorn hedge only 50ft from the sea, obviously waiting for that moment to launch themselves off towards Cornwall of beyond. In the fields adjacent to this hedge, 5 WHEATEAR and at least 40 WHITE WAGTAIL were scurrying around, relentlessly searching for sustenance for its upcoming journey. Multiple Chiffchaffs, Blackcaps and Goldcrests, Constant streams of Linnet, Goldfinch, 'Alba' Wagtails and Meadow Pipits overhead.

A late evening jaunter on the beach was rewarded by a flythrough flock of 15 Dunlin.

 

13/09/13

If the previous day had been good, today was brilliant! 'Our' SPOTTED FLYCATCHERS were still hanging on, but had been joined by a 4th bird overnight, and the hedge was absolutely teeming. 5 Willow Warblers, 5 Chiffchaff, a Whitethroat and multiple Goldcrests were also flitting from the hedge to the wire fence, obviously a prime feeding spot. The adjacent horse paddock was similarly teeming, but with Wagtails, Pipits and Goldfinch. 30 White Wagtail remained, with small flocks of Meadow Pipits in the weeds (Although 150+ flew over) and 50 Goldfinch were feeding on Thistles.

A very good start and I quickly had itchy feet to search the rest of the coastline. A LESSER WHITETHROAT was feeding on Trewent Point, and I was briefly exited as I saw a black 'mask',blue head and a peach breast perched on the top of a hawthorn. Shrike flashed through my mind but a change of viewpoint revealed the head on bird to be a male WHEATEAR, 3 others (totalling 4) were present in more typical habitat.

 

 

6 Stonechats were found, but my personal highlight was when a bright orange autumn male REDSTART perched on a wire fence, only feet from the cliff face. Within a minute, the bird had flicked of and down the cliff face not to be seen again. Migration in Action!

 

And finally, after nearly 5 days, I finally located the CHOUGH feeding area, and I was treated to stunning views of the pair as they fed in a paddock!

 

 

On returning back to Freshwater East, 9 SANDWICH TERN were feeding in the bay and spent about 30 minutes doing so before flying off again. Small numbers of Gannets were also following a similar routine. Just to add to the total of 'Sarnies', much later in the day 2 more flew in and perched distantly on a Boyd.

The final day of the holiday was a brief stop at Saundersfoot, where another 3 SANDWICH TERNS were feeding, with 40 Gannet, 2 Rock Pipit and a Grey Wagtail!

MB

1st time love

29/08/09

upton warren

no this post isnt about love for all those soppy people out there.this is about my friend andys first visit to upton warren,and god did it leave him well impressed.he now knows wy i love the place so much,showed him every hide over the visit being in each hide from 30 mins-3 hours depending on what was happening.went for the east hide at the moors first as he is always gloping over the fact he never see's large flocks of lapwing.it took him a bit to adapt to these new surroundings(at first he found it difficult to pick out anything).nothing but 2 buzzard,a whitethroat and a jay on the north moors at the east hide i asked whether the black tern was still around. they said it was on the railing infront of the concrete hide.he found it hard to pick up on the railings on the far side of the lake but seen it through my scope.after noting a common sandpiper we headed to the concrete hide.from here we had a few flypasts from the black tern but couldent pick up much else.the west hide had more to offer,with the feeders now back in use my andy started clicking away at the birds,a kingfisher briefly landed on the water gage:

but flew off soon after,it was then followed by 2 other kingfishers,so there were 3,nice.at the bottom of the reeds near the muddy area i saw the arse end of a water rail running for cover.i quickly called it and that was then a lifer for andy,one which for a long time i have said to him,if you don't see or hear a water rail your unlucky.loads of willow warblers were around the feeders too with a total of 7 along the west path and from the feeder hide and 2 chiffchaff,the feeder birds were momentarilly sent into blind panic as a male sparrowhalk swooped through but missed everything.highlight here were:

- shoveler

10c teal

1 peregrine(viewed through scope on masts from east hide)

1 water rail

1 common sand

1 black tern

3 kingfisher

7 willow warbler

2 bullfinch

2 reed bunting.

but all the exitement came from the flashes. i was pointing out all the so called 'common' waders to andy whie he was reminding me a lot were lifers.take green sands now i have seen hundreds but for andy these were lifers.it just shows no matter how many times ive seen them someone else will need them..at 6:50 pm the flashes started to liven up a shout of a golden plover got me onto the arse end of a GP as it dived behind cover in the flash.a few birders went out to see if it was visible from the gap in the bush along the path(and to check it wasent either of the rarer species).one of the birders came back in and said 'nothin to get exited about' while again andy reminded me it was yet another lifer for him.now it was just for the sabine's gull.after yet another day of negative news the previous night i didnt want to get his hopes up.we spent a lot of time switching things.i used his camera while he used my scope etc.the GP posed beautifully for the camera.that was untill this b*****d tried to have him for his tea:(look out it's behind you)

luckily the golden plover got away and decided to land right in front of the hide,giving the best views of GP i have ever had,although it did look a bit wary,but eventually settled down and spent the night feeding.

a few pics for the flashes:

other birders came and left eventually leaving just andy warr,andy,my dad and me in the hide after all the others drained hope of the sabine's comming into roost.

at 7:55 a call from my dad of a gull with a black head,after a few schetchy details me and andy warr were onto the SABINE'S GULL yet again.andy(my friend andy) was a bit ferantic asking where it was as he couldent pick it up.i got up aimed my scope at it and said 'look through there'.he took a peak and grabbed for his camera and tried to take some shots now knowing where the bird was.all the images came out all grainy and horrible but yo can tell its of a sabine's.i txt the news out to brian stretch and recieved one on the golden plover asking if i'd seen it,i simply said 'yes'.andy warr called a few people saying the sabine's was back at the flashes.what a way for upton to show how good it is,a few scarce birds,some commons and a mega(well in my terms,not like the tufted puffin in kent) highlights here are:

3 LRP

1 GOLDEN PLOVER

7 green sand

2 common sand

28 curlew

3 snipe

1 SABINE'S GULL

1 BLACK TERN

20c stock dove

1 cetti's warbler

andy got 7 lifers today (i think) but it will be some time before he can catch up with me.wink,wink

MB

a rail a,tern and a gull

6/08/09
upton warren
heading for the west hide there was a large tt flock along the path,spent about 5 mins scanning the flock for anthing,only things in there was 1 willow warbler and 3 chiffchaff(yes you can tell them apart),went straight into the west hide and called a water rail.it disapeared but i wasent sure as i didnt get my bins on the bird (in reeds).2 black tern were here(both juv) and shown at the top end of the moors:

i scanned the assembled gulls for larus sabini,but they only consistesd of black heads :(

then turned my attention back too the feeder area and a water rail was there standing in the cut reeds and just spent 30 mins walking up and down the newly cut reeds,at one point directly in front of the hide on the waters edge giving a great oprotunity to film it:

a kingfisher landed on the stick in front of the hide briefly but flew off before i could get my scope,

it is good to see the bird tables/feeders coming back into life with 7 bullfinch(3 juv),3 reed bunting and numrous greenfinch with a lone young goldfinch,a woman in the hide said 2 sabine's gulls had been found at westwood pool and i must say i was tempted(but its permit holders only),but it was soon after that i recieved news of the bird at the flashes so after telling the 2 other people in the hide(one traveled quite far to see it,can't remember where though),they both left for the flashes but we stayed in the hide for a bit,nothing new came in so after 20 mins we headed down to the flashes.highlights here are:

1 shovler(not good for seeing them from the west hide)

1 water rail

3 common tern

2 BLACK TERN

1 kingfisher

1 cetti's warbler

1 willow warbler

3 chiffchaff

7 bullfinch

3 reed bunting,

again the hide was packed and i took to sitting at the back of the hide.i was pointed onto the bird on entering the hide,which for the first time was out the water(note the end of the video goes dark because someones head gets in the way:

(sorry no video here,uploading failed)

while in the hide i heard someone mention something about sheepwash but didnt hear anything else,the sabine's flew off showing off it's upperwing pattern,despite thinking it would land again,ti didnt it just kept going and going untill it was a distant speck,this gave me a chance to look for some other stuff,a juv LRP was here and 2 common tern landed on the posts,i then looked south and saw 2 terns commin in from the south,my dad asked what i had and i sai i had the 2 black tern from the moors,a few other birders looked at them but the rest of the hide was intently scanning the gull flock,the sabine's gull reappeared and landed with the gull flock at the back,it shown for the rest of the night.highlights here were:

1 LRP

10c green sand

30c curlew

1000c BHG's

5 l b b gull

1 SABINE'S GULL

2 common tern

2 BLACK TERN

4 stock dove

1 cetti's warbler(hen pool,heard from path)

MB

can it get any better

24/08/09

upton warren

the answer is yes it can

for some unknown reason we pulled in at the sailing club first,but i wanted to check the flashes out later for the roost,so after having a quick scan of the sailing pool resulted in 1 common tern but nothing more else apart from mallard.

at the moors we walked to the lapwing hide and there was quite a bit showing. a jay flushed from the bush behind the hide and flew into the educastioon reseve.a few minuites later i glanced over out the left side of the hide and there was a jay on the fence.i quickly grabbed my scope+camera and the bird was flying,then yet another jay came from the bush behind the hide and landed in a tree,it then flew to the bushes along the river and then all 3 birds popped out but were a little distant for dodgyscoping.we noted a bit of k-fisher activity on the broudmeadow and then suddely one zoomed towards us and landed on the stick giving stunning views,then the sun came out and of cause the sun was reflecting of the water behind the k-fisher but i till tried and got an acceptable video:

a few common terns were still hanging on and the cormorants were up to 6.then over to the west hide hoping for a water rail or even better a bittern but my luck had turned and none shown.a common sand flew from one of the tern boxes onto the islands.highlights here were

3 shoveler

2 teal

1 common sand

4 common tern

2 kingfisher

3 jay

a birder then entered the west hide and i told him what was about.his reply was shocking 'well theres 6 black tern on the sailing pool'.on this news i quickly gathered my stuff said thanks and rushed to the car.i had to get rid of another bogey bird.they werent there earlier so had to be recdntly arrived.i grabbed my bins and my scope and jogged to the bench.from here saw there indeed were 6 black tern(2 adult summer-winter,rest juv,family flock maybe)the views were good but we saw they were comming in much closer on the south shore,so we headed over there,i couldent expect a lifer to act the way these birds did the views were so close but so quick,one bird repetidly flew a metre or 2 away from us as it dip fed.i noticed how differant its flight was compared with 'sea terns' after watching these for some time(lost count how much time)

we headed towards the steps when a perigrine flew over carrying a white dove in its tallons which was still alive,featers were flying everywhere it flew towards the masts and was lost to view not to be seen again.we dropped into the hen pool where a 'showy cettis warbler shown well,a few reed warbler and a female gadwall.

walking to the avocet hide produced nothing.on entering the hide i asked if anyone had seen the black terns,they all seemed rather shocked.none of them had seen them,they all decided to stay put but not long after the black terns joined us anyway givving good but not as great views

one of the adult black terns landed giving me an op to try and get some pics.ok i admit there crap but you can tell its a black tern.then they flew back to the sailing pool they returned to the flashes at 7:40 pm then flew south at 7:42 pm.it wasne tlong before we were joined by more birders looking for the black terns,at around 8pm one birder came in,sat down and said 'ive got the sabine's',there was a mad rush to get on the bird then when we were all on it it gave great views of it doing its best to avoid the BHG's.mone of my videos show the amazing beauty of larus sabini. unfortunatly it only flapped its wings once revaling its upperwing patter which birders simply die for.but i was lucky enough to be filming the bird as it done just that so enjoy this as much as i have:

the rest of the night is pritty self explanitory,we watched the sabine's gull untill dark but kept an eye out for anything else,i never get tired of this bird.i got loads more films but a lot are dark and doesent show the bird doing much so i will leave them out

highlights are:

1 gadwall

3 shoveler

30c teal

1 perigrine

1 LRP(juv)

1 dunlin(juv)

10c green sand

3 common sand

10c curlew(came in when it was dark)

2 snipe

1000c BHG's

1 SABINE'S GULL

8 common tern

6 BLACK TERN (lifer)

5 stock dove

2 cetti's warbler

4 reed warbler

1 willow warbler

again i will end the post like this what a day and what a start to a week(well 9 days) over my dads 21/08-30/08/09

some more good stuff coming up soon,and a post just fr you martyn one about slimbridge,the home of ultimate plastics(with a load of wild birds thrown in)

MB

THE HOLY GRAIL

22/08/09

upton warren

had another one of those dying txts from brian stretch late thurday night about a adult sabines gull that had roosted at the flashes,i only though one thing it'll be gone by tomorow mouning,awoke friday mouning to the news of it still at the flashes but flew off about 4 hours before i even awoke,it flew north so i thought it wasent migrating south which could buy some time.i just hoped it would stick untill saturday.after hearing no news that night i came the conclusion it had gone.

it was only at about midday the next day i heard it again roosted last night.from the earlswood job(for some reason i didnt wright them in my records book so,nothing from earlswood today).we had just finished cutting the hedge when i recived some more news on a juv mediteranian gull at the flashes and within an hour we were there(it only takes 20 mins from earlswood but we had other things to do).as all the news was coming from the flashes i decided to get down there,on walking by the bench there was andy warr looking over the flashes through the gap.he said the med gull was only showing from the hide so we went up there.i was immediatly put onto the med gull which was an upton tick

it shown well even if the photos dont show it(it was next to the island to the right of the hide,the one with lots of vegitation on it).it wasent long before i was onto a dunlin(juv) at the back of the flash.not long after my dad decided to join andy by the bench and i decided to stay in the hide to log a bit more stuff.at the back of the flash there was a curlew,wait a minuite,isnt that a dark eystripe and bold supercilium and an all dark/short bill.WHIMBREL.only the scond whimbrel ive seen and this record was confirmed a few days after when i was told someone else had seen it that night.2 curlew flew into the flashes at dusk.at this point i decided to join my dad.there was a much larger crowd now about 30/40 birders.

while scanning the incoming gull flocks someone called a little egret,i got onto it flying across the flashes but i decided it was too dark to get a photo(about 8:10 pm).not long after this a birder called the sabine's flying in from the north with a big gull flock.about 5 seconds later i was onto it passing high over the hen pool.i watched it flying lower and lower untill ity dissapeared behind a tree on the 2nd flash(LIFER 189).i joined the hourds of birders as we sprinted for the hide. i got a look in and watched an amazing bird through my scope wth what looked like a full hood(it was very dark).i quickly got out my camera and fired away 1 film:

this shows how dark it was.i let a woman look through my scope and surrendered my position so someone else could get a look.as i got tothe end of the 1st bourdwalk,someone asked me if i was midlandsbirder and i replied in amazement 'yes'.how can someone recognise me without seeing a picture.i guess its to do with that im a teenager and there arnt many more young birders that visit upton.he introduced himself as the pokerbirder (nice to meet you).the rest of the night was spent on a high,i would love to say what my friend andy replied saying after i said i'd seen the sabines gull.and i didnt even send him the supporting cast(well not untill the next day anyway)

highlights are:

1 little egret

1 LRP

1 dunlin

10c green sand

2+ common sand

2 curlew

1 whimbrel

800+ BHG's

1 mediteranian gull(juv)

1 SABINE'S GULL(lifer)

5 common tern

3 stock dove

what a day!

MB

by the way the title comes from what a birder said while walking with him to the flashes.he called it the 'holy grail' of a gull