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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 Cettiā€™s warbler.

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Jess Stone
Jess Stone
21 January 2025 15:10

I was working on fence repairs in Whiteford this afternoon and switched on the Merlin app on the phone. Besides all the normal birds you would exspect it to pick up, in the middle of the list was Chiffchaff. Anyone believe that, isn’t it a bit early

Ed Hunter
21 January 2025 19:10
Reply to  Jess Stone

Hi Jess, yes we do have small numbers of Chiffchaffs wintering. The sewage works below Overton had 3 by it the other day

Brian Pawson
Brian Pawson
21 January 2025 12:28

A bit earlier on Ashleigh Road playing fields at 10.30 today, there were 41 curlew, 55 oystercatcher, 1 bar-tailed godwit, 3 Mistle thrush and 4 common gulls.
Then at Blackpill at 11am there were 47 sanderling, c670 oystercatcher and another 14 bar tailed godwit.

Alun John
21 January 2025 12:10

Over 30 curlew on Ashley Rd playing fields… Along with loads of oystercatchers.. a few common gulls and a song thrush

Stephen Chambers
Stephen Chambers
21 January 2025 11:25

Male Blackcap feeding in our Bishopston garden this morning.

Terry Tovey
Terry Tovey
20 January 2025 23:27

Monday 20th fenrod lake
105 Canada geese,22 mute swan,14 tufteds,2 pochard,a pair of goosander,30 +mallard,4 long tailed tits,coots,moorhens,one grey lag, usual gulls.

Josh Greatorex-Davies
20 January 2025 21:25

Crofty this morning/lunchtime on a falling tide: pair of Red-breasted Mergansers which then flew towards Pembrey, distant pair of Scaup, female Marsh Harrier, Merlin, Black Redstart, and a Spoonbill. Also c300 Brent Geese which were very mobile.

Derek Jones
19 January 2025 22:12

Here’s some photos of a Buzzard, Cormorant and Little Egret seen on the GOS Crofty walk this morning. Enjoyable as ever catching up with GOS members in spite of the cold!

Buzzard
Cormorant
Little-Egret
Mark Hipkin
19 January 2025 20:09

Baglan Bay over high tide from Baglan Burrows looking for divers didn’t produce any, sadly. Only birds of note 6 Common Scoter and c30 Great Crested Grebes Luckily a dash to the Burry Inlet for the falling tide saved the day with a pair of Scaup showing distantly from Salthouse Point. Nice assemblage of expected species also on view but no counts taken. A quick check of the ‘Crofty Triangle’ for the Black Redstart, which I’ve dipped 3 times previously, was forth time lucky. The bird feeding with a small group of Meadow and Rock Pipits on the salt marsh.… Read more »

Jeremy Douglas-Jones
19 January 2025 12:08

GOS Crofty Walk this cold morning: forty species seen including a leucistic house sparrow seen in the same place as that seen two years ago.
Reed Bunting Collared  Dove Great Egret Little Egret Brent Goose Great Crested Grebe Herring Gull Greater Black Backed Gull Black Headed Gull Red Kite Wood Pigeon Water Pipit Meadow Pipit Grey Plover Gren Sandpiper House Sparrow Blue Tit Pied Wagtail Bullfinch Chaffinch Oystercatcher Pintail Curlew Dunlin Shelduck Wigeon Pigeon Robin Dunnock Peregrine Buzzard Redshank Linnet Starling Jackdaw Cormorant Mallard Blackbird Shoveler Teal Greenshank

Jon Parker
19 January 2025 13:06

A couple of raven were in the trees the far side of the motocross track, along with a flock of mixed finches – greenfinch, chaffinch, goldfinch.

As I was walking back, a large raptor disturbed the waders that we had previously been watching but it was too far away in the mist to be certain of what it was – possibly the kite again.

Ruth Jones
19 January 2025 18:41

Thanks Rob and Jeremy for a great walk this morning.

Leucistic-House-Sparrow-I
Lukas Le Grice
19 January 2025 08:41

Yesterday did a big day across Gower – a total of 97 species seen. Highlights include:

Whiteford: 1 Slavonian Grebe, 1 Great Northern Diver, 1 Red-breasted Merganser, 2 Marsh Harrier, 1 Hen Harrier, and 1 Stock Dove

Mewslade: Lots of activity right offshore including 1 Black-throated and 54 Red-throated Diver, 25 Guillemot, 3 Razorbill, and 25 Gannet.

Overton: 1 Goshawk, 1 Chiffchaff

Llanrihidian at dusk: 4 Hen Harrier, 1 Green Sandpiper, 2 Grey Wagtail and 7 Great White Egret

Owain Gabb
18 January 2025 21:01

Oxwich Marsh: jack snipe
Pwll Du: red kite, goshawk, marsh tit.
Reports from Mewslade and Oxwich Point of black-throated divers, with 54 and 29 red-throated diver also present respectively (Lucas de Grice / Ed Hunter) suggesting a substantial movement.

Derek Jones
18 January 2025 15:03

A Black Redstart on Crofty Marsh this morning – about 100m from the dung pile.

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P1181175
P1181184