Detailed records of nationally or locally rare species (guidance on these is
here) should be sent to the County Recorder Rob Taylor (
gowerbirdrecorder@gmail.com) as soon as possible after the sighting. An appropriate description should be provided of the species, your previous experience of it (and similar species), the circumstances and weather conditions in which the sighting occurred and any other pertinent information (such as photos). He will then circulate to the local or national records committee as relevant.
Day to day observations, including of nest sites, flocks of birds and species of local interest, should be collated in the Annual Record Form and sent to Rob as an email attachment following each calendar year. Receiving these by the end of January is ideal as an early start can then be made on compiling the annual report.
At Blackpill this afternoon on the tide there was 57 Oystercatchers, 4 Shelduck, 2 Great Crested grebes and 7 Med gulls. also a flyover Greenfinch.
Here is a nice comparison shot of a Juvenile Med Gull and Juvenile Black headed Gull taken on the Port Eynon field trip on the 1st August
Swansea Marina Barrage
2 med gulls, 12 BH gulls of various ages, 2 herring, 2 lbb’s & 1 juvenile common gull…
6 shag..
Marsh tit in my garden in Dunvant – visiting since 2 August and still here.
Caswell to Langland this morning. A Grey Heron on the rocks at Whiteshell, Gannet and Fulmar seen.
At Blackpill yesterday evening there was 16 Med gulls, 2 Little egrets and 4 Curlew. I could see no colour rings on the Meds or large gulls present
Still 21 Swifts feeding over Glynneath today….will not be long before they are off south
Before a walk to map the extent of ‘new’ saltmarsh that has established off Loughor Foreshore in the last few years (which turned out to be ~10ha), I did a quick count of all I was about to disturb! In decreasing levels of abundance there were; 743 Black-headed Gulls (not a single Med!), 69 Lesser Black-backed Gulls , 34 Oystercatchers, 29 Herring Gulls, 7 Dunlins, 6 Little Egrets, 2 Great Black-backed Gulls, 2 Little Ringed Plovers (a nice surprise as it’s a species I’ve not recorded here previously) 1 Mallard and 1 Yellow-legged Gull. I never counted the corvids! In… Read more »
Barry,
Interesting that you had LRPs. I could find none on my recent visit at the regular site further up the estuary despite finding good numbers there earlier during my spring visit. I wonder if they’ve moved from there or are just migrants stopping off. Im hoping the new vegetation will attract other fresh water migrant waders in the future although in my experience these areas can disappear as soon as they come.
Bird activity at RSPCA Llys Nini has increased significantly in the last couple of weeks; the Swallows in the horse shed have hatched their second brood, not long after the first brood successfully fledged, and there are juveniles of most of the residents including Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Goldcrest, Nuthatch, Green Woodpecker and Bullfinch. After the cold spring it’s been pleasing to see some juvenile Blue Tits too, though we’ve not seen a juvenile Great Tit at the site so far this year. Goldfinches are particularly evident with a flock of c50 taking a liking to those thistles and knapweeds that have… Read more »
Female Tufted Duck with five youngsters on Singleton Park Boating Lake in Swansea this evening. A Tuftie with a single young was on Brynmill Park Lake a few days ago.