Anser Birding trip to Pembrokeshire and Skomer Island 26 to 28 June 2006
Anser Birding Trip Report
Pembrokeshire June 26 to 28 2006
Leader Phil Shepherd
Guests Bettie, Alan, Jan, Helen, Keith, Kath.
Day 1 Monday 26 June
WWT Slimbridge to WWT Llanelli
The group assembled bright and early at WWT Slimbridge, boarded the mini-bus (a 15-seater with plenty of space) and got away promptly at 7am. We arrived at our first stop - WWT’s National Centre Wales, on the Loughour Estuary near Llanelli, shortly before opening time. The Centre Manager came to meet us and let us in to the site and within five minutes we were at the excellent British Steel Hide watching our first birds. This is a quiet time of year in Britain’s estuaries, but we quickly logged 2 second summer Mediterranean Gulls (amongst the Black-headed and Lesser Black-backed), 18 Little Egret, 6 (non-breeding) Black-tailed Godwit, 3 Grey Plover, 22 Gadwall, Pochard, Lapwing, Redshank, Oystercatcher, Great Crested Grebe, Sedge Warbler, Whitethroat and a Kingfisher both perched and in flight.
Phil was keen to press on to his beloved Pembrokeshire, so after a quick coffee whilst watching a Jay taking peanuts at the Centre’s feeding station, we were again heading west.
Porthgain
After driving through rain and drizzle the group was very relieved to see dry and calm conditions on arrival at the fascinating old village of Porthgain on the rugged north Pembs coastline. Phil, of course knew this would be the case! This is a wonderful spot with a long history of quarrying industry, and hard drinking at the 400 year old Sloop Inn.
The locally-caught crab was available at The Shed café, so we stocked up on freshly made sandwiches and headed out on to the Coastal Path. This stretch, half way between Fishguard and St. David’s, is one of the most scenic of the entire 180mile length of this superb National Park. We walked as far as Traeth Llyfyn, one of Pembrokeshire’s best beaches and best-kept secrets, seeing Raven, Chough (including an adult feeding a begging pink-legged youngster), Meadow and Rock Pipit, Skylark, Wheatear, Linnets and Stonechats, with a small flock of Common Scoter and fishing Gannets and porpoises offshore.
Carrion Crow, Rook, Jackdaw and Magpie were all also seen during the day, giving us the complete list of UK corvid species in the space of around 4 hours.
Dowrog Common
After a tea and coffee stop back at The Shed, we continued on to Dowrog Common near St. David’s. This is an area of lowland heath – a rare habitat in Wales - forming part of a network of sites with nearby Tretio Common and Waun Fawr, traditionally managed by grazing with ponies. Dowrog is the best part and is a Marsh Fritillary site, but these didn’t show during our visit.
We hoped to find Grasshopper Warbler here, but there was no sign or sound of this elusive creature – yet. Sedge Warbler and Whitethroat were common, giving us great views and a good opportunity to study their songs and calls. Stonechat, Linnet, Meadow Pipit, Kestrel and Buzzard were present and Phil saw a Whinchat just as we were leaving the site – a good reason to return at a later date.
St. David’s
We checked in to the Grove Hotel, a beautiful stone-built house on the edge of town, at tea-time to discover that it was Fish Week in Pembrokeshire – a celebration of fish, fishing and sea-food around the county. Needless to say the evening meal at the hotel was largely fish-based; and excellent.
Phil offered an evening trip to nearby Whitesands Bay, where a very pleasant hour was spent sitting on a promontory called the Ram’s Nose watching thousands of distant Manx Shearwaters streaming south past St. David’s Head on their way back to Skomer and Skokholm for the night.
Day 2 Tuesday 27 June
Skomer Island
The Grove’s excellent breakfast set us up in fine form for the big day on Skomer. We bought lunch supplies from the only supermarket in St. David’s and took the windy scenic coastal road down to Martin’s Haven opposite the island. Phil’s spatial awareness was put to the test taking the bus around the sharp bends in Little Haven on the way. A vehicle one inch longer wouldn’t have made it!
Skomer’s popularity is growing, so extra crossings by the Dale Princess are laid on during busy periods. We made the 10.30am boat and by 11am we were stood on one of the most important seabird colonies in the world. 250,000 Manx Shearwaters breed here – over half of the global population. Enough said. Thousands of Puffins, Guillemots, Razorbills, Gulls, Fulmars and Kittiwakes breed on the cliff faces and Chough, Peregrine, Curlew, Oystercatcher and Short-eared Owl all add to the spectacle. This is a sacred, magical place – the first few minutes can be overwhelming, seeing these fantastic birds all around you.
The Assistant Warden met our wave of visitors at North Haven, where the boat lands, and gave us an introductory talk. Very obvious at this point was the amount of building work being undertaken on the island. The Warden’s House is being re-built, with further accommodation for assistants, and the old farmhouse in the middle of the island is being renovated to provide some accommodation for overnight visitors.
We decided to walk anti-clockwise around the island (most folk go clockwise) and were soon into Short-eared Owl habitat. Views of this species are far from guaranteed so we were thrilled to pick up a fairly distant bird hunting over the bracken heath. We spent the next 20 minutes watching this bird put on a spectacular show for us – it flew within 50 yards a few times, caught a Skomer Vole (I’m ticking it – I saw it wriggle) and then went through the ritual of confusing the watching gulls by landing in several different locations, with its prey, before finally disappearing into the bracken. Or maybe it was just lost?
We carried on up to the Garland Stone at the northern tip of the island for some sea-watching. A dozen grey seals, of a variety of ages, were hauled out around the rocks, porpoises and Gannets were fishing, auks were everywhere and Chough were feeding on the slope below us. Grassholm (the third biggest Gannet colony in the world) was visible to the west and Skokholm to the south. This is Pembrokeshire at its very best.
We enjoyed our picnic lunch further around the island at Skomer Head. Baby Guillemots were visible on the ledges, Manx Shearwaters were cruising distantly offshore and more porpoises were obvious in the very calm sea.
The busiest seabird colony on Skomer is at The Wick, a deeply indented bay with high cliffs. Auks and kittiwakes were here in good numbers, plus fulmars and Chough, but the real highlight was the puffins. This is the best accessible part of the island for close up views of these wonderful birds carrying sandeels back to the chicks in their burrows. This is also the best location to closely observe their behavioural displays of ‘billing’ and giving flowers!
We got back to North Haven around 4pm and picked out an individual of the bridled form of Guillemot whilst waiting for the return boat at 4.30pm. Razorbills at this spot were almost within arm’s reach, giving us stunning close-up views – including down into their yellow gape.
Leaving this wildlife paradise behind is always an unsettling experience. The desire to stay for ever is powerful and the thought of motorways, traffic and our version of civilisation fills me with trepidation. Still, that’s easy to say on a sunny summer’s day!
Marloes Mere
We called in at Marloes Mere on the return trip to St. David’s, a small freshwater wetland near the village of Marloes. This area is part of Trehill Farm, managed sensitively under stewardship agreement, restoring the former wildlife value of the area. This was a very peaceful spot and a good place to wind down after the sensory onslaught of Skomer. We added Little Grebe to the trip list and saw a newt (smooth or palmate) standing guard outside the YHA toilet block!
An early night was had by all, after an exhilarating day and before an early start…
Day 3 Wednesday 28 June
St. Justinian’s
Phil offered a pre-breakfast trip to the cliffs at St. Justinian’s, directly opposite Ramsey Island and where the local lifeboat is stationed. We took a quick Little Brown Job test, with the group correctly identifying Linnet, Whitethroat, Chaffinch and juvenile Robin before we got to the cliffs. Ramsey Sound was unusually calm, rendering the porpoises easy to spot, and making the white water around the ‘Bitches of Ramsey’ clearly visible. We had hoped to see Dolphin here, but had no luck this time. Peregrine had been notable by its absence thus far on the trip, but compensation came in the form of a male and female together in hot pursuit of a tail-less pigeon they’d forced into the sea and were trying to reclaim. Peregrines and water don’t mix, so the hapless pigeon soon fell foul of some Great Black-backed Gulls who made short work of it whilst we and the peregrines looked on.
Back to Dowrog and Strumble Head
We raided the delicatessen back in St. David’s, after breakfast, of most of its local produce before heading out to the remote and lonely Strumble Head near Fishguard. We called back in at Dowrog Common en route and could immediately hear a Grasshopper Warbler ‘reeling’. We bundled out of the minibus, following the general direction of its song and soon had great views of the bird in the ‘scope in full sunshine, perched on a long grass stem reeling its head off - wonderful. A distant bird perched in a willow turned out to be a female cuckoo (a much talked about species on this trip!) being mobbed by Reed Buntings.
We pressed on through the lanes towards Strumble and had the completely unexpected pleasure of seeing Gryff Rhys Jones (a great advocate of Welsh and English heritage) with a film crew in the roadside car park near Garn Fawr!
Strumble Head is Wales’ premier sea-watching site, with a long list of mouth watering species to its name. The vast majority of these, however, are logged during autumn passage – late June in calm conditions is a relatively quiet time. Nevertheless, we enjoyed views of porpoises, a seal, gannets, kittiwakes, auks and distant shearwaters during our final hour by the sea. Two of the group (including Phil) went back to the minibus for a few minutes to pick up cameras which, of course, is when what sounds very much like a Great Skua flew past chasing gannets. A typical birding moment!
We squeezed in a quick dash up Garn Fawr (a small hill near Strumble) for one last (and possibly the best) jaw-dropping view of the Pembrokeshire coastline before heading back to WWT Slimbridge by around 4pm.
My thanks to the Group for an extremely enjoyable few days in one of my favourite parts of the world.
Phil Shepherd
July 2006
Pembrokeshire June 26 to 28 2006
Leader Phil Shepherd
Guests Bettie, Alan, Jan, Helen, Keith, Kath.
Day 1 Monday 26 June
WWT Slimbridge to WWT Llanelli
The group assembled bright and early at WWT Slimbridge, boarded the mini-bus (a 15-seater with plenty of space) and got away promptly at 7am. We arrived at our first stop - WWT’s National Centre Wales, on the Loughour Estuary near Llanelli, shortly before opening time. The Centre Manager came to meet us and let us in to the site and within five minutes we were at the excellent British Steel Hide watching our first birds. This is a quiet time of year in Britain’s estuaries, but we quickly logged 2 second summer Mediterranean Gulls (amongst the Black-headed and Lesser Black-backed), 18 Little Egret, 6 (non-breeding) Black-tailed Godwit, 3 Grey Plover, 22 Gadwall, Pochard, Lapwing, Redshank, Oystercatcher, Great Crested Grebe, Sedge Warbler, Whitethroat and a Kingfisher both perched and in flight.
Phil was keen to press on to his beloved Pembrokeshire, so after a quick coffee whilst watching a Jay taking peanuts at the Centre’s feeding station, we were again heading west.
Porthgain
After driving through rain and drizzle the group was very relieved to see dry and calm conditions on arrival at the fascinating old village of Porthgain on the rugged north Pembs coastline. Phil, of course knew this would be the case! This is a wonderful spot with a long history of quarrying industry, and hard drinking at the 400 year old Sloop Inn.
The locally-caught crab was available at The Shed café, so we stocked up on freshly made sandwiches and headed out on to the Coastal Path. This stretch, half way between Fishguard and St. David’s, is one of the most scenic of the entire 180mile length of this superb National Park. We walked as far as Traeth Llyfyn, one of Pembrokeshire’s best beaches and best-kept secrets, seeing Raven, Chough (including an adult feeding a begging pink-legged youngster), Meadow and Rock Pipit, Skylark, Wheatear, Linnets and Stonechats, with a small flock of Common Scoter and fishing Gannets and porpoises offshore.
Carrion Crow, Rook, Jackdaw and Magpie were all also seen during the day, giving us the complete list of UK corvid species in the space of around 4 hours.
Dowrog Common
After a tea and coffee stop back at The Shed, we continued on to Dowrog Common near St. David’s. This is an area of lowland heath – a rare habitat in Wales - forming part of a network of sites with nearby Tretio Common and Waun Fawr, traditionally managed by grazing with ponies. Dowrog is the best part and is a Marsh Fritillary site, but these didn’t show during our visit.
We hoped to find Grasshopper Warbler here, but there was no sign or sound of this elusive creature – yet. Sedge Warbler and Whitethroat were common, giving us great views and a good opportunity to study their songs and calls. Stonechat, Linnet, Meadow Pipit, Kestrel and Buzzard were present and Phil saw a Whinchat just as we were leaving the site – a good reason to return at a later date.
St. David’s
We checked in to the Grove Hotel, a beautiful stone-built house on the edge of town, at tea-time to discover that it was Fish Week in Pembrokeshire – a celebration of fish, fishing and sea-food around the county. Needless to say the evening meal at the hotel was largely fish-based; and excellent.
Phil offered an evening trip to nearby Whitesands Bay, where a very pleasant hour was spent sitting on a promontory called the Ram’s Nose watching thousands of distant Manx Shearwaters streaming south past St. David’s Head on their way back to Skomer and Skokholm for the night.
Day 2 Tuesday 27 June
Skomer Island
The Grove’s excellent breakfast set us up in fine form for the big day on Skomer. We bought lunch supplies from the only supermarket in St. David’s and took the windy scenic coastal road down to Martin’s Haven opposite the island. Phil’s spatial awareness was put to the test taking the bus around the sharp bends in Little Haven on the way. A vehicle one inch longer wouldn’t have made it!
Skomer’s popularity is growing, so extra crossings by the Dale Princess are laid on during busy periods. We made the 10.30am boat and by 11am we were stood on one of the most important seabird colonies in the world. 250,000 Manx Shearwaters breed here – over half of the global population. Enough said. Thousands of Puffins, Guillemots, Razorbills, Gulls, Fulmars and Kittiwakes breed on the cliff faces and Chough, Peregrine, Curlew, Oystercatcher and Short-eared Owl all add to the spectacle. This is a sacred, magical place – the first few minutes can be overwhelming, seeing these fantastic birds all around you.
The Assistant Warden met our wave of visitors at North Haven, where the boat lands, and gave us an introductory talk. Very obvious at this point was the amount of building work being undertaken on the island. The Warden’s House is being re-built, with further accommodation for assistants, and the old farmhouse in the middle of the island is being renovated to provide some accommodation for overnight visitors.
We decided to walk anti-clockwise around the island (most folk go clockwise) and were soon into Short-eared Owl habitat. Views of this species are far from guaranteed so we were thrilled to pick up a fairly distant bird hunting over the bracken heath. We spent the next 20 minutes watching this bird put on a spectacular show for us – it flew within 50 yards a few times, caught a Skomer Vole (I’m ticking it – I saw it wriggle) and then went through the ritual of confusing the watching gulls by landing in several different locations, with its prey, before finally disappearing into the bracken. Or maybe it was just lost?
We carried on up to the Garland Stone at the northern tip of the island for some sea-watching. A dozen grey seals, of a variety of ages, were hauled out around the rocks, porpoises and Gannets were fishing, auks were everywhere and Chough were feeding on the slope below us. Grassholm (the third biggest Gannet colony in the world) was visible to the west and Skokholm to the south. This is Pembrokeshire at its very best.
We enjoyed our picnic lunch further around the island at Skomer Head. Baby Guillemots were visible on the ledges, Manx Shearwaters were cruising distantly offshore and more porpoises were obvious in the very calm sea.
The busiest seabird colony on Skomer is at The Wick, a deeply indented bay with high cliffs. Auks and kittiwakes were here in good numbers, plus fulmars and Chough, but the real highlight was the puffins. This is the best accessible part of the island for close up views of these wonderful birds carrying sandeels back to the chicks in their burrows. This is also the best location to closely observe their behavioural displays of ‘billing’ and giving flowers!
We got back to North Haven around 4pm and picked out an individual of the bridled form of Guillemot whilst waiting for the return boat at 4.30pm. Razorbills at this spot were almost within arm’s reach, giving us stunning close-up views – including down into their yellow gape.
Leaving this wildlife paradise behind is always an unsettling experience. The desire to stay for ever is powerful and the thought of motorways, traffic and our version of civilisation fills me with trepidation. Still, that’s easy to say on a sunny summer’s day!
Marloes Mere
We called in at Marloes Mere on the return trip to St. David’s, a small freshwater wetland near the village of Marloes. This area is part of Trehill Farm, managed sensitively under stewardship agreement, restoring the former wildlife value of the area. This was a very peaceful spot and a good place to wind down after the sensory onslaught of Skomer. We added Little Grebe to the trip list and saw a newt (smooth or palmate) standing guard outside the YHA toilet block!
An early night was had by all, after an exhilarating day and before an early start…
Day 3 Wednesday 28 June
St. Justinian’s
Phil offered a pre-breakfast trip to the cliffs at St. Justinian’s, directly opposite Ramsey Island and where the local lifeboat is stationed. We took a quick Little Brown Job test, with the group correctly identifying Linnet, Whitethroat, Chaffinch and juvenile Robin before we got to the cliffs. Ramsey Sound was unusually calm, rendering the porpoises easy to spot, and making the white water around the ‘Bitches of Ramsey’ clearly visible. We had hoped to see Dolphin here, but had no luck this time. Peregrine had been notable by its absence thus far on the trip, but compensation came in the form of a male and female together in hot pursuit of a tail-less pigeon they’d forced into the sea and were trying to reclaim. Peregrines and water don’t mix, so the hapless pigeon soon fell foul of some Great Black-backed Gulls who made short work of it whilst we and the peregrines looked on.
Back to Dowrog and Strumble Head
We raided the delicatessen back in St. David’s, after breakfast, of most of its local produce before heading out to the remote and lonely Strumble Head near Fishguard. We called back in at Dowrog Common en route and could immediately hear a Grasshopper Warbler ‘reeling’. We bundled out of the minibus, following the general direction of its song and soon had great views of the bird in the ‘scope in full sunshine, perched on a long grass stem reeling its head off - wonderful. A distant bird perched in a willow turned out to be a female cuckoo (a much talked about species on this trip!) being mobbed by Reed Buntings.
We pressed on through the lanes towards Strumble and had the completely unexpected pleasure of seeing Gryff Rhys Jones (a great advocate of Welsh and English heritage) with a film crew in the roadside car park near Garn Fawr!
Strumble Head is Wales’ premier sea-watching site, with a long list of mouth watering species to its name. The vast majority of these, however, are logged during autumn passage – late June in calm conditions is a relatively quiet time. Nevertheless, we enjoyed views of porpoises, a seal, gannets, kittiwakes, auks and distant shearwaters during our final hour by the sea. Two of the group (including Phil) went back to the minibus for a few minutes to pick up cameras which, of course, is when what sounds very much like a Great Skua flew past chasing gannets. A typical birding moment!
We squeezed in a quick dash up Garn Fawr (a small hill near Strumble) for one last (and possibly the best) jaw-dropping view of the Pembrokeshire coastline before heading back to WWT Slimbridge by around 4pm.
My thanks to the Group for an extremely enjoyable few days in one of my favourite parts of the world.
Phil Shepherd
July 2006
posted by Anser Team at Friday, July 14, 2006
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