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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.
First fledged reed bunting, chiffchaff, reed warbler and sedge warbler of the year at Oxwich this morning.
Castell Du , over the last few days , upto 95 Sand Martin many resting and looked to be foraging on the dried out mud/sand on the edge of the marsh . 1 Common sandpiper , 4 plover
First Barn Owl for some years observed in Middleton at 9pm a couple of nights ago.
South of Loughor Bridge, counts on the mudflats on the falling tide this evening included 195 Black-tailed Godwit, 7 Bar-tailed Godwit, 5 Knot (one colour-ringed), 23 Little Egret, 12 Curlew, 554 Oystercatcher and 22 Shelduck. North of Loughor Bridge were 45 Shelduck and 91 Mallard.
20 June Brunel docks Briton ferry.
In the reed bed dock 2 adults and 3 young mallards,Coots
With 4 young, 1 adult morhen with 1 young,also there were a heron swallows ,house sparrows,and whitethroat .
By the tidal dock were 1 adult goldfinch with 1 juv,a pair of bullfinch ,blackbirds with juvs, dunnock the usual herring and lesser b b gulls, a oyster catcher sitting on the jetty,
Monday 17 June. Southgate. Very mobile Chough pair. Kestrel seen hovering/feeding just feet above the water. Single Shelduck seen on rocks below west cliff.
Oxwich Marsh: first fledged Cetti’s warblers of the year yesterday.
The GOS walk in Abegarwad last night was a great success. The rain didn’t reach biblical proportions until were in the cars on the way home and we achieved what we set out to do: we saw three Nightjars, all displaying very well, and heard a fourth. 25 very happy walkers. Many thanks to Ed Hunter for leading us again.
A respectable movement of Manx Shearwaters at Port Eynon this afternoon with 4169 counted going down channel in an hour, also Gannet 12, Guillemot 16, Razorbill 2. The movement was still going on at the same rate when I left at 1600hrs.
Port Eynon this afternoon from the blue badge car park.
200 Manx Shearwaters heading down channel in 1 1/4hrs some very close in, Kittiwake a 1st summer down channel, Gannet 1 adult heading up channel, Turnstone 3 on the foreshore.
Yesterday afternoon at Rhossili.
Gannet 17 feeding in the bay amongst a melee of around 200 large gulls. Chough 2 flying up and down the cliff, Wheatear 1 female feeding at least one young in a crevice just below the cliff edge. No sign of a male.
Neath saltmarsh, viewed from miland road side
3 adult mute swan,2 little egrets,2 mallard, 31 lesser b b gull,40+herring gull,25 starling,12 wood pigeons,also jackdaws, carrion crows,and maps
Large flock of Swifts hawking over River Tawe near the Mond (seen from car)
Kingfisher up Cwm Clydach this morning. First I have seen here.
Record shot of puffins (with guillemots) on the sea off The Worm yesterday taken by Mark Hipkin (and posted here with his permission). Not a species regularly reported in the recording area – with most records from this location.
If you would like to receive email updates from Saving Swansea’s Swifts, the group set up by Swansea City Council with support from GOS, please register here:http://eepurl.com/iRuXrk
bit of a good shock this morning , a Caspian Tern resting on Glamorgan side of the estuary at Castell Du , top of the Loughor estuary . hung around for a bit before flying down the estuary where it was relocated by Llangenech in Carms . It was then seen flying by several observers back over our side of the estuary . big lump of a tern !
2 or 3 nightjars calling on Kilvey Hill this evening. I had a clear view of one of them perched, calling, and circling a few times catching insects.
Linnet, willow warbler, skylark, meadow pipit, stonechat, and plenty more small birds, on the mountainside, on the outskirts of Crynant this morning.
Redpoll/ lesser redpoll too.
I don’t see enough to tell the difference.
Evidence indicates Hoary, Common and Lesser are all in fact a single species. British Birds are mostly considered to be Lesser Redpoll.
Thanks for the information Barry.
A crossbill over Langland this morning.
15.47 today Monday: three silent swifts over Brynfield Road. My first in Gower.
Fenrod lake 30/5
35 mute swan ,45+ Canada geese,40 est herring gulls,15 lesser b b gulls one with a silver ring on but unable to read the number,usual coots,moorhens,and mallards,also robin,blue tit,house sparrow, chaffinch.and 10 + wood pigeons
A red kite was over morriston.
Over 50 swifts were foraging over the edge of Eglwys Nunydd Reservoir / the adjacent M4 as I drove past it this evening. Presumably the misty conditions had pushed them down.
Over the weekend a kestrel and stock dove at Oxwich Marsh, together with the first fledged siskin and greenfinch of the year.
At Pontwalby a female Goosander with 6 small chicks. Another female flew into Rheola
Pond calling then flew off back in the river direction almost immediately.3 active Grey Heron nests in the local Heronry