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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.
Yesterday at Lougher Bridge: 2 Ruff were the stars in with the 207 Black tailed godwits, 42 Little Egret, 2 Great White egret, 179 Mallard, 3 Teal, 3 juv Shelduck. 101 LBB Gull. 1 Adult Herring x LBB Gull, 265 Bk headed gull, 31 Cormarant At Rhossili:90 Sandwich Tern were roosting and commuting from the Crabbart, 6 Gannet, 3 Sparrowhawk, 2 Red Kite, 90 Linnet, 2 Yellow Wagtails flew through calling at the head not stopping. 1 Chough was with a group of Jackdaws feeding with lots of attention. Just one adult Kestrel seen. At Crofty ( saltmarsh near playground)… Read more »
Oxwich Marsh over the weekend (summed totals of unique birds captured and ringed) included: 66 reed warbler, 63 sedge warbler, 54 blackcap, 26 tree pipit (with numerous others seen / heard), 11 whitethroat, 10 willow warbler, 9 chiffchaff, 7 garden warbler, 7 grasshopper warbler, kingfisher, nightjar.
I visited the empty Stout Hall, Gower this afternoon. In an upper floor bedroom a barn owl was present. It had been there regularly from the droppings and pellet. The manager showed an interest in putting up an Owl box.
Two Common Swift still lingering above Clydach this afternoon.
There was a juvenile Spotted Redshank on Broad Pool this morning, along with 2 Teal and 30 Sand Martins.
At Overton, amazing numbers of migrants, especially Sylvia warblers, including 26 Chiffchaff, 4 Willow Warbler, 42 Blackcap, 1 Garden Warbler, 1 Reed Warbler, 4 Lesser Whitethroat, 62 Common Whitethroat, 1 Spotted Flycatcher, 1 Yellow Wagtail and 11 Tree Pipit.
(LLG,MH)
Nightjar seen hunting on Pennard Cliffs early this morning. Daily ringing captures in the garden included Sedge Warbler ,Willow Warblers, Blackcap, Whitethroat and the second juvenile Redstart of the last week, both have been female.
Couple of nice juve warblers too—any thoughts on ID? I’m thinking maybe sedge/reed and whitethroat?
Yes, reed warbler and whitethroat. The latter is a young bird based on iris colour. Can’t age the reed warbler from this view.
seven curlew on the beach by Margam moors, around 07:30 on 19th August. (didn’t get them all in one frame, too scattered).
Lesser black backed Gull enjoying Dick Barton’s chips in West Cross yesterday.. ringed as a chick in Bristol 2023
After some tinternet research this birds was probably ringed on the rooftop of Swansea Civic Centre by our very own Gower Ringing Group supporting the Legend Pete Rock
Dai Roberts reported seeing 2 Ospreys (flying together), plus Harrier and Peregrine flying over Whiteford yesterday 20th
Oxwich Marsh: blackcaps starting to come through this morning. Also an influx of whitethroat and steady willow warbler passage continuing.
6 Little Egrets on Oystermouth shore this morning. Growing numbers of Oystercatcher and BHGull. Occasional visits by 6 Curlew.
A juvenile Goshawk caught a rat that was feeding on bird seed spilt on my driveway this morning, here on Pennard Cliffs. The bird paused on the ground for several seconds allowing a good close view but flew off as I raised my camera to photograph it unfortunately.
Another juvenile Goshawk visited the garden in July 2023 which was then caught in my mist net and ringed.
20 + swifts above Llewellyn Parc this evening
Ringed Plover 10 and Sanderling 9 at the stream on Oxwich Beach now at 13.40.
2 striped hawkmoths this morning in Langland
67 species at Whiteford yesterday morning with Mark Hipkin. Wader counts included c1200 Oystercatcher, 448 Ringed Plover, 50 Dunlin, 39 Whimbrel, 170 Curlew, 9 Bar-tailed Godwit, 7 Turnstone, and 3 Knot. Other birds of note were a Lesser Whitethroat, 3 Yellow Wagtails, 4 Spotted Flycatcher, 3 Tree Pipits and a Guillemot.
Whiteford sands on Sunday morning saw a build up in numbers of waders with c. 840 Oycs, 412 Ringed Plover , 131 Dunlin , 6 Sanderling , 4 Turnstone , 4 Redshank (2 juv) . one Common Ringed Plover had rings with red over black on right tarsus and black on left tarsus . i’ve drawn a blank in my efforts to find where it was ringed ? If any ringers out there would know , would be good to find out . juv Willow warblers and Tree pipits were numerous in the small area I covered( 8 and 7… Read more »