Pembroke 21C seabird ID training

Pembroke 21C are organising natural history identification training sessions again this year. These cover a variety of topics, but including seabird ID on Saturday 16th June, run by Bob & Annie Haycock. There will be a short introductory session at Foundry House, Pembroke, and then a field trip to Stack Rocks.


Contact pembrokemillponds@pembroke21c.org for more information and start times.

Click on image for full list

Talk about Iceland

Pembrokeshire Bird Group Talk: Monday April 2nd, 7:30

A trip to Iceland – Birds, Places, Scenery and Cetaceans presented by Lyndon Lomax.

Was it really cold, is it a forgotten landscape? Is it a very important place for birds ~ both summer and even in the winter ?

Members and non members are welcome and there is no admission charge. For further info please phone 01437 721859

Venue: The Patch, Furzy Park, Haverfordwest

View The Patch at Furzy Park in a larger map

Bird Atlas - A big THANK YOU to contributors

We seem never to stop adding dots to maps of bird distribution in Pembrokeshire. Even after 5 years of local breeding bird atlas-bashing (2003-07) with the possibility of "atlas fatigue" setting in, many observers we have continued to work hard for the National Atlas.

Four winters have been covered well between 2007/08 and 2010/11. All c.500 Pembs tetrads were visited to obtain species distribution records and timed-visits were made to more than a third of these. The latter will provide patterns of relative species abundance across the County - we have achieved more than the minimum coverage needed for this component.

We have made similarly excellent progress for the summer breeding birds component (2008 - 2011), as in winter, meeting all our TTV requirements. Although there are still about 30 out of c.500 tetrads without summer records, the bulk of species have been recorded sufficiently well to contribute the distribution and confirmed breeding status data required for the national picture.

With so far just under 112,000 records of more than 200 species in winter and a similar number in summer now added by more than 300 observers it has been a fantastic achievement - a very big thanks to all of you who contributed records on line or on paper!

But we know there are some gaps that can still be filled, so if you have any outstanding records to add to the Atlas from anywhere, please do so as it would be nice to know that the picture for Pembs is as complete as it can be.

We note, for example, there are no records at all of Spotted Flycatchers in 10km sq SN14 (North Pembs Cardigan/Teifi area). Surely there must be a pair or two in the area?

Also, of the just 149 records of Cuckoo entered to the Atlas in Pembrokeshire during the last four summers, none of these have confirmed breeding status, yet this has been reported only recently on the Blog. It would be great if extra records like this could be added to the Atlas.

Pembrokeshire Bird Conference 2010

SATURDAY 20 November 2010

The Pembrokeshire Bird Conference is on Saturday 20 November 2010, starting at 10am. It will be hosted by the Chevron Oil Company at Rhoscrowther, near Pembroke Dock. Please book with Wendy Barnes-Jones at the Welsh Wildlife Centre 01239 621600; the cost is £15 per person.

Programme:

9.15 Registration

Morning Chair: Sarah Kessell

10.00 Welcome by Chevron Refinery

10.05 Birds of Ceredigion by Professor Mike Hayward

10.20 Pembrokeshire Bird Diary by David Astins

11.00 Coffee

11.30 Nightjars in the Welsh Cloud Forest by Paddy Jenks

12.15 Three Trips and the Most Northerly by Lyndon Lomax

13.00 Lunch

Afternoon Chair: Barbara Priest

14.30 Shearwaters by Professor Tim Guildford

15.30 Quiz by Steve Sutcliffe

Followed by the RAFFLE with Bob & Annie Haycock

1600 Tea

16.30 Passage to India by Derek Moore OBE

17.30 Close of Conference Dr Madeleine Havard

WeBS Sept 2009

The September counts were incomplete - lots of gaps including some of mine, I confess. The counts put on line (including Teifi counts) so far add up to the following:

Barnacle Goose 34
Bar-tailed Godwit 25
Black-headed Gull 1104
Black-tailed Godwit 12
Brent Goose 5
Brent Goose (Light-bellied) 2
Canada Goose 740
Common Gull 2
Common Sandpiper 7
Common Scoter 1
Coot 39
Cormorant 27
Curlew 515
Dunlin 133
Glossy Ibis 1
Golden Plover 2
Great Black-backed Gull 105
Great Crested Grebe 10
Greenshank 12
Grey Heron 23
Grey Plover 1
Guillemot 1
Herring Gull 950
Hybrid duck 3
Kingfisher 3
Knot 7
Lapwing 1
Lesser Black-backed Gull 509
Little Egret 54
Little Grebe 18
Mallard 344
Mediterranean Gull 8
Moorhen 29
Mute Swan 165
Oystercatcher 324
Razorbill 1
Redshank 145
Ringed Plover 65
Sanderling 4
Shag 10
Shelduck 16
Snipe 7
Spotted Crake 1
Teal 163
Tufted Duck 28
Turnstone 46
Water Rail 3
Whimbrel 1
Wigeon 2595
Grand Total 8318

Wetland Bird Survey 2009-10

It's getting around to the season for WeBS counts again.

There are several sites that need new counters, due to the previous counters retiring. So, if you fancy doing a monthly count at one of the following sites, please let me know:

Western Cleddau - Hook to Sprinkle,
Eastern Cleddau,
Millin Pill,
Cosheston Pill,
Westfield Pill,
Pwllcrochan Flats
Trefloyne Pools.

If anyone wants to do a count in August, the official date is August 23rd - regular counters can enter their data directly, if anyone else does a site, send me the data and I'll input it. Dates for the regular season are as follows.

20th September
11th October
22nd November
20th December
17th January
21st February
14th March

BTO atlas - 1st summer

We apologise for being out of contact with everyone regarding the BTO atlas. We have been working away in the background, and have managed to produce this map from last summer's data. The dark blue dots show the areas with lots of species recorded, the white dots where few species are recorded, and a lot of obvious blanks where we'd really like you to do some recording.
This data was sent to us as a spreadsheet last November, so there may well be some data that went in later, especially from paper forms, that aren't included. Also not included are records without breeding codes. Recording whether the bird is in suitable breeding habitat, singing, etc is just as valuable as records of definite nesting.

With regard to timed tetrad counts, there are still twenty or so tetrads available, particularly in SM83, SM93, and SN23. For those of you who have volunteered to do timed tetrads, please remember to do the first visit before the end of May, and the second before the end of July. Records of early breeding birds, or late breeding birds, outside of the April to July period are also useful.

Thanks for all your work so far, and we look forward to producing updated maps full of lots of dots later this year.