Lapland Bunting – records – Pembrokeshire Avifauna

Calcarius lapponicus– BRAS Y GOGLEDD – Passage migrant.

Photo – one of two Lapland Buntings which dropped in on North Plain, Skokholm on 27 March 2017. This was the first spring record since 1995, the first March record ever and only the fifth spring sighting for the Island. Richard Brown, Skokholm Blog.

Earlier records are summarised in Lapland Bunting 1994

The Lapland Bunting was recorded almost entirely as an occasional autumn migrant with up to a handful of records each year. Occasionally larger numbers were recorded, as were individuals at other times of year.

Since the Birds of Pembrokeshire was published in 1994, numbers of records have been variable, with a new county record of 34 birds on Ramsey in 1993. Another large influx occurred in 2010 with mostly small numbers being recorded at a variety of coastal locations, though there were flocks of 20 on Ramsey on 16 Oct and 16 on Skomer on the 21 Oct.

Numbers stayed relatively high for the next few winters, with increasing numbers of records over wintering birds, including 4 at Dale Airfield in January 2013, and a minimum of 10 at Marloes on 1st Jan 2017, some apparently staying throughout the month.

The table below shows the number of individuals recorded in each month, though it is always possible that some individuals were recorded in more than one place, and many more may have gone undetected.

Year	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
1993	4									19	34
1994									2	3	1	1
1995					1				2	13	1
1996									1	5
1997									2	1
1998									1	2	2
1999										7
2000									7	6
2001										2
2002									8	13	1
2003									1	5
2004									1	4
2005	1									1
2006		3								1
2007					1				1	2	2
2008				1					1	2	3
2009									2	8
2010									8	65	24
2011			1	1					8	25	5
2012		1	2						4	13	19
2013	4	5	2	1					3	4	19
2014	4	1	2	1					3	2	3
2015										3	1	4
2016									2	3	22
2017	11		2							1	16
2018			1							1
2019										8	6
2020									3	3	1