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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 Rob Jones (
goweros10@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.
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.
Castell Du on the run up this evening. Curlew 2, Canada Goose 110, Little Egret 6, Little ringed Plover 1 adult, Common Sandpiper 5, LBB Gull 42, Herring Gull 39, GBB Gull 2, Yellow legged Gull 1 adult*, Greenshank 1, Pied Wagtail 33, Oystercatcher 5, Goosander 2 *distant and out on the mud but, bearing in mind HGxLBBG has to be considered in these parts, the bird showed the characteristic square head shape, dark looking eye ring and some signs of late summer streaking appearing on the head, as well as the characteristic wing pattern in flight of YL Gull… Read more »
Yesterday morning at Crofty Point High Tide: 1 Common Gull, 2 Great-crested Grebe, 70 Oystercatcher, 50 curlew. Also 3 Sandwich Tern flew in and landed
This afternoon.
Penclawdd Redshank 77, Little Egret 3.
Dalton’s Point. Oystercatcher 469, Curlew 26, Black-tailed Godwit 49, Little Egret 29
Llanrhidian. Great White Egret 1, Green Sandpiper 1.
Bwlchymyndd foreshore car park. Great White Egret 1, Little Egret 7.
This evening on the HT.
South of the Loughor Bridge. Curlew 11, Whimbrel 1, Black-tailed Godwit 23, Oystercatcher 48, Greenshank 1.
Oxwich Marsh: garden warbler, grasshopper warbler (breeding female), kingfisher, 45 siskin. Read more about latest ringing news here: https://www.gowerbirds.org.uk/late-july-2022-a-good-day-at-oxwich-and-another-skokholm-visit/
River Afan mouth and Port Talbot Dock: 3 Sandwich terns with up to 100 Mediterranean gulls, 5 whimbrel, 7 common sandpiper. Per Darryl Spittle
We have updated our Events page. Owen Williams, who probably knows as much about the species as anyone, will be doing a talk on woodcock on 14th September. See: https://www.gowerbirds.org.uk/event/the-woodcock/
Six Swift feeding over Clydach this evening.They’ll soon be gone.
Amongst the Stonechat and Goldfinches along Fairwood common… Viewed a basking Adder – A first for me…26/07/22
July 26th, grasshopper warbler reeling edge of Llanrhidian, family of ravens tussling with two buzzards. Bird with size, shape and flight of a sparrowhawk circling over Llanrhidian church at 515pm, but underside of tail completely dark, and small white rump seen side-on, pale lightly barred underside , ? light grey or brown back, no facial moustache – I haven’t a clue what this was ! Not in my books – an escaped something, any ideas ?
Active this morning in the hedgerow and reedbeds on Penclawdd Marsh. 2 Blackcap, 2 Whitethroat, a singing Willow Warbler and a singing Chiffchaff. Also an active pair of Sedge Warbler and a Cetti’s Warbler which was a nice surprise! At 9:30 a male Marsh Harrier flew over – a first for me at this location.
One dipper seen this Tuesday afternoon halfway through penllegare woods “dipping” for food.
A couple of early morning walks around west Gower recently have recorded good numbers of yellowhammer (inc 6 singing males in fields north of Horton and further birds elsewhere), barn owl pellets and breeding swallows in various disused buildings and around farms, and lots of corn marigolds (a likely historical introduction to the area).