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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.
6.00 to 9.00am at Port Eynon with Ed Hunter and Chris Brewer. Ed picked up an osprey immediately over our heads and heading south towards Devon. Another high spot was an Arctic skua chasing a tern no further from us than the East Helwick buoy: kleptoparasitism in action. Ed showed me his brown booby on the back of his camera; and he will post it on this site.
2 gannets very close in at Oystermouth Square
Absolutely amazing Seawatch today from Port Eynon 6.30 til 9 ish . First a Great Skua closely followed by a really close in Pomerine Skua which i could have photographed but the camera was in its bag … so i got it set up. -Kittiwakes – 350 and Sandwich Terns (150 totals for both) streamed through with a handful of Commic terns and a constant stream of Gannets. Then a Brown Booby!!! close in landed in the swell briefly seen but panic set in as I lost it, After 20 mins it had drifted with the tide toward the buoy.… Read more »
Per Ed Hunter (Twitter). Port Eynon, Gower today (23/08) – A Brown Booby! at 7.30am – landed on sea when lost in the swell for bit then picked up again before flew west also 1 Pom, 1 Great and 4-5 Arctic skuas,3 Storm Petrels.
Photo of booby on Twitter.
Our herring gull pair is still with us. Two or three days ago the male (now distinguished only by size) seriously injured its right leg and now hops pathetically, falling frequently onto its belly and staying down. The pair was getting excellent protein in the shape of crabs (of four species, shore, edible, velvet and spider). Now it will do poorly if it lives on what we feed it. The female, having only recently attained full adult plumage, is now getting the grey winter flecking in her head feathers. 0630 today a pied wagtail and four ringed plovers at Port… Read more »
Tutt Head Bracelet: 08:30-0945: 2 storm-petrel, 7 Manx shearwater, 9 gannet, 6 common scoter. Harbour porpoise. 2 Sandwich tern off the pier.
1.5 hours at Bracelet Bay 32 Gannet, 2 Manxies and one very distant dark phase Skua powering through, only id’d as a skua because of the flight, far too far away to be certain or tell which sort. All passing westwards. Numerous Kittiwakes but not counted as milling about and nesting locally.
Per Edward O’Connor: 2 Black, 47 Sandwich, 3 Common Tern, 6 Storm Petrels, 1 Bonxie, 1 Arctic Skua, 242 Manx, 69 Kittiwake and 23 Fulmar past Port Eynon, Gower in two and a half hours this morning
Flock of six choughs on Langland GC above Whiteshell point thus afternoon.
flock of 30+ linnets on Pennard Golf course this afternoon.. and 20+ house sparrows around a chicken coup top of Sandy Lane.. always hoping to find a tree sparrow amongst them..
Interesting to see about a dozen swallows sitting on one of the putting greens at Pennard this morning.. feeding? Or just resting out of the winds..
3 green sandpipers on Oxwich pill, 25 yards upstream from wooden footbridge on beach Aug 17th, circled marsh several times, calling and flashing white rumps, before settling further upstream.
Not a sighting but does anyone know how to get in touch with Tony Cross, I’ve tried his virgin e mail address but have got no response?
I can help you Paul. I am on holiday at the moment, but will send through when back in the office.
Thanks Owain
Oxwich Marsh 15/08. Grasshopper warbler, tree pipit, kingfisher.
Ed Hunter took the lead in a three mile GOS walk at Port Eynon this weekend; we saw twenty-six species, a very good tally considering the “pour” weather. We started at the Salt House with an incoming tide and soon found Dunlin, Turnstone, Sandwich Tern and dozens of Ringed Plover. To the top of Port Eynon head and into Overton bay where we saw a juv Kestrel, and a Buzzard being mobbed by a Sparrow Hawk. There were Swallows and House Martins and out at sea a couple of Fulmars. Back down to the Salt House and we found Common… Read more »
12 chough to and fro on the cliffs at Pennard in the last week, which means four arrivals from elsewhere.
It’s getting more difficult to distinguish the young by bill and leg colour or flight manner, but some of them are still begging for food.
13th August, at least 67 turnstone on old lifeboat slipway , Mumbles
Penclawdd carpark: c80 redshanks, 4 little egrets, 3 pied wagtails. Dalton’s Point: swallows and 12 little egrets (ten of them together). Marsh road: a house martin. Wernffrwd: c390 starlings on wires (counted photographically, but still a circa figure). Little Wernhalog: peregrine and bullfinch.
Hundreds of Swifts flying NNW over Middleton Wednesday evening. Have probably nested again this year in Lewes Castle.
Today delightful female Wheatear on cliffs above Mewslade beach together with small flocks of Linnets and Goldfinches about 50 in each. Also a number of juvenile Stonechats with adults, Meadow Pips and Dunnocks. Swifts, Swallows, Choughs and Raven overhead.
Yellowhammer calling opposite Nitten Field.
2 common sandpipers Pwlldu bay 10/08/2020 3pm
2 common sandpipers Pwlldu Bay east side, Monday 10th August 3pm
Bracelet Bay
Only 2 med gulls in the car park this afternoon
Mumbles Pier
Great to see so many fledged kittiwakes forming rafts around the old lifeboat station. Constantly being harassed by a couple of juvenile Great Blackbacked Gulls (they look huge in comparison)
Wernfrydd
Marsh road this afternoon 26 grey lag geese including juvs two Ravens,a few goldfinch, 8 house sparrows including six juvs,two reed bunting, three juvenile stonechats, 15 swallows, a few meadow pipits,linnets starlings,and a kestrel.