Getting out of Worcester for Half Term/Pembrokeshire

This blog is not about the wildlife in and around Worcester because last week was the school half term holiday. This meant that we would be heading out of Worcester and off to Pembrokeshire for a few days camping. We arrived on Saturday morning, put our tent up and headed to the small town of Newport for a walk along the costal path. We had not got far from the carpark in the town when we had our first, and possibly one of the best, wildlife encounters of the whole holiday: a Sandwich Tern. It was a very special moment for me as it was a life tick and I do love terns. Unfortunately by the time I had the bird in my sights and got a positive ID it flew off, so no photo.

Newport

Razorbills

There are 12,000 breeding pairs of sandwich Terns in the UK, with their strong hold in Anglesey. They begin to arrive in the UK in March from their wintering grounds as far away as South Africa. They can live up to 30 years so they will get some serious miles under their belt in their lifetime. Not sure what this individual was up to as Anglesey is quite a distance from Pembrokeshire, but it certainly got my holiday off to an excellent start.

Fulmar on Nest

Stonechat on Gorse

Day two of the holiday we headed to the Island of Ramsey. It was our second visit and it is really becoming a special place for our family. Predictably it is full of sea birds: Kittiwakes, Fulmars, Guillemots, Razorbills. There were also good numbers of Stonechats, a few Wheatears and we got some good views of a Spotted Flycatcher. However, the stars of the show are the Choughs. They are great fun to watch flying around in the air and scratching on the grass. In addition to being great fun to watch they were also the subject of a photo my son took which has recently been shortlisted for the British Wildlife Photography Awards.

Choughs

Choughs are the rarest member of the crow family the lives in the UK. Despite there only being 300 breeding pairs in the UK they are increasing in number. This is down to some excellent conservation work taking place to ensure that they have the right habitat for breeding and feeding. They nest on ledges on rocky cliffs or in sea caves and then require rough grazed land to do their feeding, where they scratch around looking for invertebrates in the short grazed grass. It is the maintenance of this type of farmland on Ramsey that helps their continued success on the Island. With more wide spread management, of this type, on the farmland around our coasts we could see more of these beautiful little corvids.

Walking on Ramsey

  

Walking on Ramsey

Ramsey is also a breeding location for Manx Shearwaters. They are a seabird that nests in burrows under the ground. They return to the Islands from their wintering grounds in South America in March, where they will return to the same burrow to breed again, with the same partner. Burrowing in the ground makes them vulnerable to rats. This means they only really can be found on Islands that do not have rats.

Razorbill's

Stonechat

We were told that a good spot to watch Manx Shearwaters was at Strumble Head and they start flying past in the evening at around 7 o'clock when they return to their burrows. We arrived at around 6:30 and waited. Initially it was fun watching Auks, Gannets and Dolphins and the half hour to 7 went quickly. It was not long after 7 when we spotted our first small group of around 8 birds flying in. We sat watching them until 8 and must have seen around 300 Shearwaters. There are approximately 400,000 breeding pairs in the world, 90% breed in Britain and 50% in Pembrokeshire, so our 300 was really just the tip of the iceberg.

Harbour Porpoise 

Gannet

In total we spotted 74 different species of bird. However, the real highlight of the holiday was the truly beautiful Pembrokeshire coast. We really enjoyed the days walking along the cliff watching the seabirds and admiring the range of wild flowers. Here are some of the wild flowers my daughter photographed: 

Bird's-eye Primrose

Bladder Campion

Milkwort

Common Spotted Orchid

Sheep's Bit

Kidney Vetch

Red-tailed Bumble Bee on Sheep's Bit