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Guidelines for Reporting Rarities and Submission of Annual Records
Detailed records of nationally or locally rare species (guidance on these is
here) should be sent to the County Recorder Eddie Hunter (
goweros23@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 Eddie 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.
PLEASE NOTE
Please could we ask that detailed locational information that may lead to the disturbance of the nest sites of species listed under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife & Countryside Act (1981) is omitted from any posts. This may otherwise lead to an offence being committed.
Schedule 1 species that regularly breed in the recording area are Dartford warbler, chough, honey buzzard, crossbill, goshawk, kingfisher, hobby, red kite, barn owl, peregrine, little ringed plover and Cetti’s warbler.
Poplars in Ilston Valley, 1 Spotted Flycatcher adult feeding a very spotty juvenile.
Oxwich Marsh: bearded tit present on main channel this morning.
Two nightjar over the marsh last night.
Starling roost was up to a few hundred birds last week, but a more modest roost at the moment of less than 100. Small swallow roost of c. 50 birds with the odd sand martin present.
Gnoll mallards are also doing poorly with less chicks than last season, however coots and moorhens are with their chicks surviving and fledging. Mandarins haven’t bred there yet but it’s possible for them to start.
Bad year for the 2nd pond mute swans – Only 1 chick.
However, for the pair on the 3rd pond this is the first year I’ve seen them breed with 6 chicks present.
The Med Gulls have returned to Bracelet Bay, Manx Shearwaters flying up channel in good numbers this morning off the head between Bracelet and Limeslade and from the path to Rotherslade Stonechat, Linnet, Swallow and Dartford Warbler seen.
Oxwich this morning. Briefest of visits from 2 Bearded Tits (m & f).
In the last four or five days I have been to Snaple Point three times, and from there a short distance towards Caswell. I saw whitethroats each time, close to the path. The shot attached was taken this evening.