There’d been reports of a couple of Roseate Terns at Pembrey harbour on and off for a couple of weeks back in August, so Nick and I headed off early morning to catch the high tide with the hope that the terns would be pushed up a little closer to the pier than usual.
The Roseate is the rarest of our breeding terns with the main colony in the UK being on Coquet island in Northumberland. There were only a few hundred pairs breeding prior to the 2022 bird flu, which was devastating for this most delicate of terns. Out of 300 pairs 90 adults succumbed and an appalling 170 chicks. The population is, as a result, very fragile and unstable.
Our bird at Pembrey was likely to be from the Irish population which has a strong hold on Rockabill, a pair of Islands on the very western edge of the Irish Sea. There are as many as 1,100 pairs nesting there!
The afternoon saw us at a very quiet WWT Llanelli with not many waders from the British Steel or the Michael Powell hide, so we headed to the Broadwalk hide. Straight away we were on to a Juvenile Wood Sandpiper which showed really well at close range. The UK holds about 30 breeding pairs in the boggy high north of Scotland but most of the birds encountered here are on passage.
It breeds in the subarctic wetlands of Eurasia and the Palearctic, nesting primarily on the ground but at times in trees, often using old Fieldfare nests. This was as good a view as I’ve had of this well proportioned elegant wader.
Back to the British Steel hide where we located a lone Spotted Redshank in with a larger group of Common Redshank and a few Black-tailed Godwits. To top off a good day a young fox trotted by staring us out not once but returning for a second look!
No comment yet, add your voice below!