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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.
Raven at Mumbles Pier. Still no Kittiwakes (my records show seen on 10 Feb last year). Greenfinches singing on Mumbles Hill. Many Stonechat pairs on cliff path over to Rotherslade. A Kestrel made several passes over the clifftops.
Female blackcap in back garden near oystermouth castle. Guessing overwintering bird but keenly awaiting first migrants of year. Cmon you chiffchaffs, it’s just about time 🌞
Plenty of song birds about this morning around Rotherslade. Blue tit, coal tit, robin, dunnock, wren, goldfinch, greenfinch, blackbird and stonechat all singing
Near Kenfig Ind estate- the Siberian Chiffchaff showed very well , 2 Chiffchaff also present one particularly pale in parts -but not a Sibe as shows several wrong features. This bird shows far more than the Chiffs present and very well- most on the flooded pool in the submerged branches ( its favorite spot) then returning to the trees by the track.Called again today a few times
( see map attached to my twitter post if needed , as map will not attach to the website, must be the app used?)
Spotted and photographed the 4 waxwings in Port Talbot! At precisely the grid ref shared in a previous post below. My first ever “twitch” all thanks to this site. I sat and watched the waxwing for around an hour. All four seemed remarkably comfortable with the small group of paparazzi that had assembled to snap them. They were feeding happily and with a good number of berries left hopefully they’ll stick around a while longer! Ina frustrating stroke of fate when I got home to get my pictures off my camera I’d discovered that I’d misplaced the memory card reader… Read more »
A solitary male blackcap has around my Tycoch garden throughout the winter (and bossing the bird feeders). It has been silent all winter. It has just starting singing, which I am taking as an indicator that it will soon be migrating back to central Europe – where apparently all our wintering blackcaps originate from.
East Gower cliffs: a pair of Dartford Warblers in sheltered Gorse dominated area. Male observed singing sub-song (not full song). Photographs by Ting Lan Chiee. Also an adult Mediterranean Gull moulting into breeding plumage at Langland Bay.
Howser, welcome home! Drop me an email if you fancy a birding outing while you’re back – jamie205bevan@btinternet.com
We spotted, and photographed, the four waxwings at Port Talbot this morning, literally a minute after Peter left, after we’d all been searching unsuccessfully, for a couple of hours.
Beautiful birds.
Dipper at Cwm Clydach today. Also Grey Wagtail pair. On Swansea Canal Treecreeper pair, Nuthatch. Single male Goosander on river.
Signs of spring in Langland. A firecrest in the garden this morning (assumedly on passage), and a singing male blackcap yesterday and this morning, along with the long-staying female blackcap present for the past few months (this bird is ringed).
Just a note about Firecrest breeding status in South Wales
Firecrest is in the early ( but quite accelerating) process of colonizing East Glamorgan from Gwent, so we should be next in line….
Well worth learning the song of Firecrest as we should – I would think have already some birds waiting to be found.
Firecrest is Schedule 1 so if you do find a singing bird please do not put it on the website and inform Birdtrack or the County Recorder (also with April and May birds) unless at migration site like Rhossili or Tutt Head
The 4 waxwings mentioned by Ed are still here. There are loads of berries so they should stick around hopefully
Im going to pop over on the weekend hopefully they are still about!
At Port Talbot Dock– the 4 Waxwings were showing very well today in the early Pm at GRID REF SS76139 89592 in the 4 small ( but still with fruit) Rose-hip bushes by the road. This seems the most reliable spot , they also flew too the treetops across the road but returned soon later.You can park at SS 76357 89687 just off the roundabout. At Kenfig River mouth a calling ringed Siberian Chiffchaff feeding in flooded willows/ reeds showed really well for 45 mins , also a Jack Snipe in the same area At Blackpill 14 Med Gull, 7… Read more »