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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.
Oxwich Marsh: 61 blackcap, 20 reed warbler, 16 sedge warbler, 5 Cetti’s warbler, 14 chiffchaff, 3 willow warbler, 2 whitethroat, garden warbler, grasshopper warbler. All trapped and ringed.
8 grey wagtail also captured and ringed. 20+ over during the morning.
Yesterday’s Little Tern, yellow ring but too far to read.
Still one Osprey on a post early this morning, haven’t seen the other one for a few days now.
A skein of 12 Greylags flying over Caswell Drive this morning at 07.1o.
Well done on the local pelagic result, often though of trying from light house on the falling tide but doubtlees the slick would move out of eyesight before any result seen.
Ian,
some years ago I was watching a grey seal, off Port Eynon I think it was, eating a fish and within five minutes of the debris hitting the water two Storm Petrels flew in and began feeding around the seal. I’d been seawatching for an hour or so and seen nothing so it would seem that petrels respond to the offer of food very quickly and from a good distance.
A very peaceful Blackpill this morning. Unbelievably in a couple of hours no people or dogs disturbed the birds, first time in years.
Counts possible as a result:
318 Ringed Plover
197 Dunlin
20 Knot
159 Sanderling
37 Curlew
6 Bar-tailed Godwit
1 Little Stint
3 Sandwich Tern
1 Little Tern
2 juv Herring Gulls (presumably) sporting black rings with blue letters, probably this years crop from local roof nesters.
The Little Tern was smaller than the Ringed Plovers next to it when seen head on!
Osprey on its favourite perch out on Llanrhidian marsh, been there all morning
GOS :Tutt Head – Swansea Bay Boat trip – Today after 2 cancellations due to the weather – one just yesterday… We finally got out – and 10 GOS members headed with our skipper to create a fish oil chum slick and drift with the tide/slick across the bay. Incredibly the slick within 30 mins attracted a Wilson’s Storm Petrel which hung around for 3 minutes or so ….at times close to the boat with an final very close perfect pass .Presumably the continuous rain / mist yesterday had put this bird much closer to shore than usual and we… Read more »
another shot
another with under-wing
A pair of chough feeding in the short turf at Snaple Point this afternoon following some welcome rain. Having a good preen and cleaning their beaks on the rocks.
Osprey standing on one of its favourite posts on Llanrhidian marsh
Its coming up 5pm and both Ospreys are on posts close to one another out on Llanrhidian marsh. I assume these are siblings, unless someone tells me otherwise.
An account of the Welsh Ringing Course 2026 is here: https://www.gowerbirds.org.uk/6211-2/
Jackdaw seen at Pennard Golf Club this morning
At least one Osprey still here on a post in Lanrhidian Marsh this morning
At Loughor foreshore this evening there were 13 Curlew Sandpiper (the number of birds has fluctuated over the last few days with up to 16 seen). The 2 Spotted Redshank i saw a couple of days ago were back again along with 2 Dunlin, 1 Redshank, 1 Greenshank, 195 Black-tailed Godwit, 205 Mallard, 3 Pintail, plus a few Yellow Wagtail flying around calling.
Osprey fishing on the Loughor this morning at 7am
Oxwich Marsh (30/08): 11 grasshopper warbler, 3 tree pipit, small numbers of willow warbler, sedge warbler, reed warbler. 2 goshawk.
Parkmill 30/08: 4 dipper, kingfisher, pied flycatcher, marsh tit
Parkmill 29/08: 3 dipper, 2 kingfisher, marsh tit.
Oxwich Marsh 29/08 (pm) spotted flycatcher
Oxwich Marsh 28/08. whinchat, tree pipit, grasshopper warbler (3), garden warbler, bearded tit still present.
Oxwich Marsh 27/08. 500+ starling, 150+ swallow 60+ sand martin all roosting in marsh.
My Merlin app picked up a Wryneck at Pennard, Swansea yesterday, Sunday 29th August
One Osprey standing on a post on Llanrhidian marsh this morning
Hundreds of Swallows hawking for insects approaching high tide this morning at Daltons Point, Penclawdd.
One Osprey standing on a post in Llanrhidian marsh this morning, no sign of the other one
A quick evening scan from Penclawdd last night revealed lots of terns feeding over the River Loughor, including at least 48 Common, 15 Sandwich, and a single Black Tern
2 Osprey fishing out from Leason Pil this afternoon. Been around for a week or so
Counts from Glan-y-mor Park (Loughor Foreshore) this am, included: 14 Curlew Sandpiper (all juvs), 2 Dunlin, 2 Ruff, 230 Black-tailed Godwit, 1 Bar-tailed Godwit, 23 Knot, 3 Curlew, 1 Green Sandpiper, 10 Pintail, 29 Teal, 1 Wigeon and 1 Mediterranean Gull.
can you spot all 14 curlew Sandpipers!