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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.
! Swallow headed East over our garden in Tycoch at 11.30 this morning – with the blue sky and sunshine for a moment I thought it was Summer!
Low tide count ,Margam Sands with Phil Routliff. – Cumulative numbers of three sections- 108 Great Crested Grebes,9 Cormorants, 47 Oystercatchers,49 Ringed Plovers,166 Sanderlings,7 Curlews,216 Black-headed Gulls,341 Herring Gulls,5 Common Gulls,6 Lesser black-backed Gulls,2 Great black-backed Gulls,36 Carrion Crows, a Peregrine & a Sparrowhawk.
Two Choughs at Whiteshell Point today at 14.30, working their way along towards Langland. Also a single Shag perching on the rocks on the next promontory.
Firecrest (male), 2 jack snipe, 8 chiffchaff at Oxwich this morning.
Hi Owain,
Just wondering, where were the jack snipe at Oxwich
Thanks
Hi Lukas
They were in a series of rides I have cut out behind the weather station you can see from the main road. This area is not publicly accessible unfortunately. However, they are relatively regularly reported from the South Pond hide when people go there regularly. They were my first on site this winter. Also about 25 snipe in the same area.
Two woodcock on the road and one in the field this morning as well.
Regards
Owain
Blackpill, in spite of the wretched dog walkers, 1stw Iceland Gull. Sorry for poor quality of the record shot.
Reported to me yesterday via a very reliable source of a lesser spot regularly visiting a garden and feeder on the outskirts of Bishopston.. I will investigate further..
Yesterday evening at the pull-in at the end of Greenacre’s Road 100 knot, 200 dunlin, 2 common gull, and a hen harrier.
The day before yesterday at the pull-in there were 3 greenshank and a snipe.
Purple sandpiper on the Old Lifeboat slip at Mumbles Pier yesterday via Twitter:
https://twitter.com/DaiHerbert1/status/1331944346225176580/photo/2
Blackpill, Swansea: Two Brent Geese were showing well at high tide this evening. A flock of several-hundred Knots was whizzing around there yesterday, and 8 Shelducks and a Little Egret were there the day before. A couple of videos on my Twitter: https://twitter.com/NaturemanV .
Penclawdd Pill lunchtime 1 Common Sandpiper
Salthouse Point afternoon Hen Harrier, looks from pictures like an adult female, 3 scaup mid channel 2 female 1 male.
Superb photos. Best I’ve seen of a Gower bird
This morning out on Penclawdd marsh 1 little grebe/ 2 common sandpiper/ 30 reed bunting/ 3 green woodpecker/ 150 knot (flying in the distance.)
Penclawdd, (westernmost layby) mid-afternoon: Red Kite over Gower ridge. Hen Harrier (female) hunting over marsh, also Oystercatcher, Dunlin, Curlew, Redshank, Common Gull, Little Egret.
Penclawdd Pill: 1 common sandpiper/ 1 ringtail hen harrier
Penclawdd pill 1 Greenshank, 1 Kingfisher and 1 Red Kite over the saltings.
Salthouse Point 1 female Merlin
Oxwich Marsh: 4 chiffchaff of which two were tristis-type birds, kingfisher, numerous snipe, flyover lesser redpoll.
A very successful field trip today when 17 of us went to Brunel Dock / Neath Estuary. Rob Jones found us 42 species including red kite, kingfisher, heron (4), egret, snipe and sky larks (4) and good numbers of Curlew (80+), to name just a few. Oystercatcher (250+) turnstone, common sandpiper, water rail, stonechat, and many more. A great day, so Whiteford next month looks promising: don’t miss it.
Prince of Wales Dock, Swansea (overlooked by the Premier Inn, Rasoi restaurant etc). Had prolonged (close if we were in the right place) of a Great Northern Diver slowly making its way around the perimeter of the dock. Incredibly I then heard an unknown bird call which turned out to be a Little Gull which landed in the centre of the dock and bobbed around near a Black Headed Gull which was good for size comparison. When we left there at 11.50 am both birds were still there.
Hen harrier just flew past – Penclawdd Marsh
Ringtail hen harrier from Penclawdd marsh today and yesterday. Also 2 great white egret and a peregrine falcon.
Mumbles Pier
Good wader roost on the old lifeboat Slip.
150-200 birds.. mainly dunlin with turnstone and a few redshank.. I can’t see any purple sands..
And redstart so briefly seen in flight on the cafe roof..
Black redstart this morning behind Mumbles pier café.
Since yesterday’s post has vanished?
Mumbles Hill 1 Chiffchaff
And today
Salthouse Point 1 Red-breasted Merganser female Type
Penclawdd 1 ringtail Hen Harrier 10.30am and 3pm and probably the same bird near Llanrhidian roost site 4pm. 1 Common Sandpiper in the pill.
Rhosili 1 Great Northern Diver off the Crabart.
Where in Penclawdd exactly was the ringtail hen harrier?
Lukas,
Both times I was parked in the car park and the bird flew in from the west the other side of the river, diverted to visit the old sewage works and then continued east and disappeared behind the same. It’s just working the marsh, as was it or another at Llanrhidian. Good luck. Sounds like there’s a male working the Gower commons. All may appear at dusk if you’re watching the Llanrhidiam roosting?
Thanks a lot ian!
I ended up getting great views of the harrier from my house overlooking the marsh near Berth Llwydd.
Female eider diving close to rocks, Oxwich west, 1530 Nov 18th.
Fenrod lake pm 65 Canada geese, 20+ mute swan,15 tufted duck, one male pochard, one female teal,15 coot, 50+ black headed gulls, 12 + moorhen, 10 house sparrows, 2 chaffinch,usual mallards and hybrids