Whimbrel cont.

Peter Douglas Jones wrote: Harold, Norman Nuzum and I were at Spaniard Rocks (the Burry Holm isthmus) on a falling tide on Sunday morning. H and I saw whimbrel well. I carefully and several times over counted two flocks which were flying and on the ground within sight of each other but which did not get together while I was watching. The numbers were 33 and 17. Clearly you have better records than fifty.

Yes, but it's good to get a feel of the bigger picture. The map below shows the distribution of Whimbrel records in the county (with 2010 records centred black); this shows migrating birds are not restricted to estuaries and that they can appear on almost any section of the coast.

The periodicity plot shows that the first week in May is the peak passage period, but we should still be seeing birds moving through beyond the end of the month.