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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.
1 light bellied Brent goose splishing around oystermouth foreshore
Ffendrod Lake, Muscovy Duck. Grey Wagtail on Beaufort Weir. Red Kite over recycling plant.
Not a great photo but what appears to be a Dartford Warbler in Mumbles earlier today
One seen on East Cliff Pennard on Sunday. Difficult to get a photo because they are so restless. One from Boxing Day on West Cliff,
At Sedgers Bank today, 1 Light-bellied & 31 Dark-bellied Brents plus 4 Purple Sandpipers
Tawe Riverbank and Ffendrod. Apart from the usuals, best were a flock of siskins feeding on riverside alder, several flocks of Long Tail tits, Goosander pair on river and at least 3m 1f Pochard on lake
Someone has put feeders by wooden bridge attracting lots of small birds
46 curlew and 40 Oystercatcher on Ashleigh Road playing fields this morning. Also another 370 Oystercatcher at Blackpill despite lots of New Year’s Day dogwalkers. A Mistle Thrush was singing sporadically from the scrub on the Footgolf Course and there was a female Blackcap on the feeders in the back garden.
Spotted Redshank and Whimbrel in Penclawdd Pill today.
Recent reports (30/31 December) include views of the pallid harrier at Llanrhidian Marsh, Crofty and around WWT Llanelli, plus up to 4 red-necked grebes (a very scarce species in the recording area), 2 scaup and great northern diver at Whiteford.
Also a dead common dolphin in Rotherslade Bay today.
A Slavonian Grebe was in the main pill at Wernffrwd this morning.
Any sign of the Pallid Harrier, Barry? I did a scan of the marsh from Llanrhidian end on Friday morning but no joy. Only a couple of kites, raptor-wise.
Apologies Jamie, only now seen this. I didn’t see it fyi, nor did I see it today
Thanks Barry, and I’ve seen Owain’s post above. I’ll try again next time there’s some decent weather.
On a short visit to the Neath estuary at Baglan this morning there were 12 Curlew, 1 Shelduck, Mallard, Black headed and Herring gulls. As I arrived home in Crynant 3 Ravens flew over the house calling. A Grey wagtail paid a short visit to the garden.
At Crofty today, there was still a couple of Pale-bellied Brent in the flock of 521 Dark-bellied Brent. Also, there was a hybrid PB x DB adult (see video) with a couple of juveniles, which I suspect are the result of a DB x the Hybrid pairing.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/9aWBgfiF9wLVVter5
A Spotted Redshank was with 4 Greenshank at Penclawdd, otherwise similar stuff as reported by Lukas
There was also a colour-ringed Brent, which I’ve submitted details of…
That should read ‘possible’ hybrid. I find variation and hybrids both interesting and very confusing!
Pallid Harrier showing well at Llanrhidian this morning at 10:00am. Later seen in Carmarthenshire from the Steel Hide. Seems to do a daily circuit from Crofty/Llanrhidian to WWT Llanelli.
Also 2 Red Kite, 1 Buzzard, 2 Ringtail Hen Harrier, 1 Kestrel and 1 Merlin hunting over the marsh. Closer to crofty c60 Greylag Goose, c30 Shelduck, c120 Brant feeding on the marsh.