Welsh Bird Report No. 31: 2017 Edited by Julian Hughes CONTENTS Review of the birding year 2017 2 Weather summary for Wales in 2017 5 Bird recording in Wales 6 Rare and scarce birds in Wales 8 Treatment of records in the Welsh Bird Report 9 Acknowledgements 10 Systematic List for 2017 11 Escapes 188 Ringing Report for Wales 2016 and 2017 190 Nest Recording Report for Wales for 2016 and 2017 199 The Welsh List: A Checklist of Birds of Wales (2nd Edition) 200 County and other bird reports 2017 204 Species Index 205 Front cover: Dunlin (Colin Harvey). Back cover: Grey Heron (Edward Macdonald). Published in January 2019 by The Welsh Ornithological Society Registered as a charity in England and Wales, no. 1037823. Price ­ £12 Birds in Wales 15:3 (2018) 1 WELSH BIRD REPORT NO. 31: 2017 Wetland boom The creation and restoration of wetlands along the north and south coasts is paying dividends. 26 Cattle Review of the birding year 2017 Egrets during the year is almost as many (32) as had ever been recorded in Wales prior to 2010, while Many, perhaps most, WOS members contribute to regular bird surveys and monitoring ­ and many also a minimum 95 Great White Egrets is almost double the previous year's record high (including a group count butterflies, dragonflies, plants and a whole host of other biodiversity; these volunteers are the of eight in Gower that constitutes a new Welsh record). Both are candidate future breeders, following backbone of wildlife monitoring in the UK, and the envy of many other countries. They not only give in the yellow footsteps of Little Egrets, which bred in Radnorshire and Flintshire for the first time, the their time, but also pay for the pleasure, whether travelling to a regular counting site or, in the case of latter among a colony of Rooks. bird­ringers, buying all their kit and stacks of rings each year. Volunteers give thousands of hours of their RSPB nature reserves on Anglesey hosted three Bittern nests for the second consecutive year, and males time to these surveys in Wales each year. It's fitting, then, that we have been able to include trends in boomed in four other counties, hopefully a sign of future spread. Marsh Harriers bred on Anglesey again, bird populations here for the first time, enabling the Welsh Bird Report to provide a more complete with a fourth nest in Gwent. snapshot of the state of birds in Wales in 2017. Lapwings had a successful nesting season, with good productivity, but they are now largely confined to Wintering waterbirds nature reserves, at least in lowland Wales, where fencing plays a valuable role in keeping mammalian Flicking through the pages of this report, you will find several waders that have hit the lowest levels predators away from nests. Fences won't help Common Cranes, though, birds that require big recorded by the Wetland Bird Survey: declines in Ringed Plover, Grey Plover, Bar­tailed Godwit and landscapes. As well as a repeat breeding attempt on the Gwent Levels, another pair held territory in the Dunlin continue without any sign of arrest. These breed to the north or east of Britain, and the declines Vale of Glamorgan, both stemming from the reintroduction project in Somerset. may reflect changes on their breeding grounds or result from their wintering closer to their nesting All at sea areas. Either way, combined with increasing evidence from studies across the world, it's hard to avoid The crisis for Kittiwakes, apparent across Britain, continues to worry marine ornithologists, with most the words ‘climate’ and ‘change’. There isn’t really much good news for waders, but despite only just Welsh colonies declining and another year of low nesting productivity. Lesser Black­backed Gulls are hanging on as a breeding species in Wales, counts of non­breeding Redshanks have hit a record high in declining at most coastal colonies too, as are Herring Gulls in Pembrokeshire, but both species utilise Wales. urban rooftops, so well done to Gwent Ornithological Society for undertaking a survey of those less­ monitored sites. Guillemots are doing well, with record counts from the Great Orme and Bardsey (Caernarfonshire), although there were fewer Razorbills here. Wales' only Little Tern colony at Gronant (Flintshire) had a great season, thanks to kind weather and hard work by a team of wardens, which resulted in the highest number of pairs and the second best year ever for fledged chicks. By contrast, Wales' only Sandwich Tern colony, at Cemlyn (Anglesey), had a very poor season, as did Common Terns, Arctic Terns and Black­headed Gulls at the lagoon, because of predation by Otters. New defence measures were put in place ahead of the 2018 season. Finally, while the Wetland Bird Survey index for Common Gull hit a new low, the increase in that for Mediterranean Gull shows no sign of slowing. Post­breeding gatherings of Mediterranean Gulls are now Sandwich Tern (Bob Garrett) Redshank (Bob Haycock) 'Short­stopping' to the east is also behind the fall in Bewick's Swan records in recent years. Only two sites now hold regular flocks, with maximum counts of nine in Gwent and 23 on the Dee (Flintshire). Ducks are not doing so badly, but most birdwatchers in Wales will appreciate that they now see far fewer Pochards each winter, with barely any records from western counties; the highest count in Wales was just 69 birds, at Kenfig (E.Glamorgan). The decline in non­breeding Coots has, perhaps, gone under the radar, numbers having fallen by almost half since 2000. 2 Birds in Wales 15:3 (2018) part of many a Welsh birders' summer, with flocks of 260 at Blackpill (Gower), 240 at Aberystwyth As always, the weather plays its part in our sightings, and many birders have become adept at 'reading' (Ceredigion) and 236 at Pwll (Carmarthenshire) in July and August. Colour­ring sightings show that these pressure charts and wind predictions during migration. Storm Petrels and Leach's Petrels occurred in birds gather from across northwest Europe. good numbers in autumn and there was a similarly strong autumn passage of Arctic Skuas off the west coast. Migration watchers always hope that they'll bump into 'the big one', and 2017 brought that feeling Breeding bird index for some lucky birders: Wales' second Myrtle Warbler (Pembrokeshire) and King Eider (Ceredigion) in The Breeding Bird Survey has been a game­changer in enabling us to track the fortunes of birds in Wales, June, and third Rock Thrush (Gwent) in October. Two Dark­eyed Juncos turned up in May, on Skomer and I'd urge every reader to volunteer for this important monitoring scheme (and if you already do one (Pembrokeshire) and Dolgellau (Meirionnydd). With just one previous Welsh record (in 1975), no­one square, why not take on another?). would have predicted that two would appear in four days! Several species hit new low points on the graph in 2017. Some will come as no surprise: Swift, Kestrel, Starling and Yellowhammer have been on the list of conservation concern for some time. But less obvious, until you read the figures, are all­time lows for Magpie, Rook, Wheatear, Chaffinch and Weather summary for Wales in 2017 Greenfinch. The all­Wales index for Willow Warbler almost certainly masks a reduction in southeast Wales, especially in the lowlands, and again climate change is likely to lie behind this. This summary is based on the Met. Office monthly summaries for Wales at metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/summaries/2017/ There are statistics to celebrate too. Wren, Goldfinch, Stonechat, Reed Bunting and Song Thrush hit new highs (since the BBS started in 1994), the last two are species that were on the Red List a couple of The trend for the UK as a whole is for a warming climate, and that was the case in 2017: nine months decades ago. were warmer than average, making it the equal warmest year on record in Wales (with 2011). Most places were within 10% of the yearly average for rainfall but it was wetter in west Wales, where sunshine Plugging the gaps hours were slightly below average. Notable extreme weather events during the year included Storm There are many species that are too scarce to register accurately in national schemes, and for these, Doris in February and widespread snow over Wales and central England on 10 December. contributing data to BirdTrack and records to county bird reports continues to be really important in January began wet, but cold drier conditions soon spread from the north. It was unsettled in the second plugging the gaps in our knowledge. week, with snow in many places on 12th and 13th. The second half of the month was generally dry, Seaducks are one group of birds that, in the absence of aerial surveys, rely on ad hoc counts by keen quite cold and settled with a fair amount of sunshine for much of Wales, but it turned mild, cloudy and seawatchers in winter. After a run of poor years, there were good counts of Scaup in the first winter wet during the last few days. The mean temperature was 0.4°C above the long­term average, and it was period, with a minimum 97 across Wales in February. Records of Long­tailed Duck were the best for a dry month, with 53% of average rainfall. many years, with four sites each holding at least half a dozen birds. By contrast, Eider numbers are falling February began mild and unsettled, but turned colder, with easterly winds and some snow in places on the Burry Inlet (Gower) and Aberdysynni (Meirionnydd), and it seems that only the Menai Strait during the second week.