Llanelli Naturalists Newsletter - December 2003 - No 70
Neil Matthew

Traditionally birds have been classed as resident, winter visitor, summer visitor, passage migrant, or “partial migrant”. British species can belong to one or more of these categories. The last group, “partial migrant” refers to birds which , though some remain in the country, a portion prefer to migrate, either inwardly or outwardly. The Robin in your garden is likely to be there most of the year round  but those hopping or rather skulking around in the rocks and bracken of Skomer or Skokholm in August or September have arrived to set up winter territories. Winter blackcaps are not the same birds as we have here in summer. Our Goldfinches are mostly summer visitors, taking off to Spain for the winter. Chaffinches on the other hand are boosted greatly by the arrival of continental birds in the autumn and the same is true of many other species such as Woodpigeons and Starlings.

In Carmarthenshire some species are vastly commoner in the winter than in the summer but are not always thought of as winter visitors. Along the Tywi for instance the first winter visitor is not the Redwing which you can hear calling as it flies overhead at night in the first or second week of October, but is more likely to be the small buoyant brown blobs on the water often to be seen in twos or in small groups. These Little Grebes are common on the river, building up in numbers from their first appearance in September or even August. They are seen in calm water often diving next to a riffle which serves to stir up small items of prey. Watching their behaviour indicates that some of these birds are related, happily fishing together, while others are chased away. Pairs or small family groups may travel together perhaps. Far fewer occur in the summer and then not on rivers but on still-water bodies: the breeding population may have increased recently due to the creation of various small trout fisheries. Numbers on the Tywi in the winter are not known but are probably in three figures.

The same observations can be made of the Water Rail which tends to arrive at around the same time in September. It is more often heard than seen, its squeals and grunts advertising its presence in riverside brambles or scrub. A period of patient waiting can result in the sight of  these curious birds emerging, again occasionally in small groups. When the river is high or at flood level they can sometimes be seen rooting around underneath hawthorn hedges: five were seen on one such occasion. Adults and juveniles can be seen together suggesting that perhaps these birds also move in family groups. They are only fairly rarely encountered as breeding birds in the summer. It is not only the Tywi river which is favoured: the species can occur widely along any river or even small ditches in the county.

Snipe and Woodcock are common in the winter but are extremely rare as breeding birds. The latter must occur in thousands as ones or twos are regularly flushed from nearly every wood in the county from November onwards. At dusk as Rooks and Jackdaws can be seen flying in to roost, Woodcocks, nearly always single birds, can be seen flying out to feed in the fields at night.

The Green Sandpiper is quite a curious bird: although only found in small numbers it can be considered a characteristic species of the Tywi.  It announces itself startlingly when flushed by its loud distinctive call  and strongly contrasting plumage, white rump and seemingly black wings. It is commonest in late summer but can occur at any time of the year and a few usually winter here: I think June is the only month I haven’t observed it.

Some species are apparently migrants at a very local scale. Perhaps the record for this could go to the Yellowhammer which in Carmarthenshire is rarely to be found far from its favoured bracken and gorse covered ffridd habitat. There are one or two places in the upper Tywi however where the yellowhammer moves down to the valley floor in winter to take advantage of some wild bird feeding facilities there. These movements have not been noted in the mid or lower parts of the valley which is wider and where there is a greater distance to fly from the hillsides!