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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.
A Great White Egret on the Crofty-side of the marsh between Pwllyfroga Farm and Wernffrwd Church this morning.
Nice photographs Derek, thanks for sharing.
Cheers Rob.
Red throated diver seen at Pwll Du head over the weekend by Angharad P Jones
Oxwich Marsh this morning: drop off in snipe numbers with very few present (200+ last week), woodcock, kingfisher, 4 brambling (inc nice male), Siberian chiffchaff (tristis)
Two (possibly 3) black redstart on the cliffs near Pobbles this morning. Are they both juveniles?
Also,what are these duck (apart from presumed eider)?
The female came very close.
I’d have said mature male.. 1st winter male or female.. (Collins says same plumage) and eiders..
Thanks for help. I can rarely tell winter plumage, young, etc with species I don’t see often.
Nice Photographs Gary, thanks for sharing.
Just seen this from my balcony this morning. Apologies for the bad photo as taken through my binoculars. I’m thinking Great Northen Diver, but not sure.
Should add, this the just by the Marina in Swansea.
Looks good for one Josh. Certainly one of the two larger divers that occur in Gower (great northern and black throated), and the head profile of this bird and lack of obvious white flank patch suggests the former. Great northern also a lot more common in the recording area, with regular records from Swansea Bay (mainly at the western end of late -which may just reflect accessibility and current observer bias)
Red Kite over Berthlwyd 2:00pm. Also several dozen blackbirds around Pitton Cross area this morning at 9:30.
Red Kite over Mynydd Bach School this afternoon.
A flock of more than 50 lapwing on the marsh near the old firing range between Wernffrwd and Llanrhidian this afternoon.
Rafts and strings of probably scoter off Oxwich (but too far offshore to be sure) first seen on Nov 14th. Large numbers of chough are now uncommon — back to the usual single-figure groups. Some usual suspects still visible — a photo from this morning.
Sorry — photo didn’t load.
Margam Abbey Pond
Margam Abbey Churchyard
Alive with winter thrushes.. many many redwings, mistle thrushes, song thrushes, blackbirds.. no fieldfares..
Fly through sparrowhawk sent everything into hiding..
A great trip to Kenfig pool and Sker Point with very good company and great birds to match! After Jeremy left a intriguing Martin was glimpsed at dusk by 3 of the team including myself but disappeared to presumably roost. It will be interesting to see this in the morning in better light.
Other interesting birds seen not previously mentioned included 10- 15 Common Scoter 4 Red Breasted merganser and a Water Rail. The Snow Bunting was at Sker point and flew towards Kenfig Rivermouth