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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.
Redstart singing on Langland Golf course this morning. Also greenfinch, whitethroat and fledgling stonechats. Small elephant hawk-moth in the grass on the edge of the golf course.
Family party of linnets on Newton Cliff, Caswell.
The only (assumedly) breeding meadow pipit I am aware of between Caswell and Limeslade is still displaying on the edge of the Golf Course
Scarlet tiger moths on the wing between Langland and Rotherslade
Yesterday’s 68mm of rain (source: Radio 4 at 0658 today) had the result that our sunflower hearts were depleted by only a quarter of the daily norm. Whether this affected nestlings I don’t know. Perhaps the adults eat sunflower hearts while getting grubs for their young; and yesterday (adults) chose to be hungry rather than wet. Goldfinches predominate; and this year’s young goldfinches come for sunflower hearts; or sit near the feeder waiting for a parent to feed seeds to them. We also have chaffinches, dunnocks, house sparrows, woodpigeons, titmice, nuthatches and a pair of bullfinches – all for the… Read more »
In the Neath valley and surroundings its been a good year for Cuckoos dotted around the regrowing clear falls and hill edges -with around 8 found. I eventually found a singing White-throat territory with the usual spots been empty this year. Just one Grasshopper Warbler found in the area covered and just 2 singing Sedge warblers – these been up at Coelbren. But the area is very dry – No lapwings or curlew this year for second year running. Spotted Flycatcher at 3 spots so far. Still a good flock of 50 Common Crossbill about in the forestry.pics show Cuckoo,… Read more »
Flight of 13 Shearwater flying up channel this morning and seen from Limeslade.
10 crossbills just flew over house towards pine trees around Langland Corner.
Lockdown walks quiet over the past couple of days. Fledged pied wagtails at the Tivoli (Oystermouth), some brutish great black-backed gulls at Knab Rock, and lots of fledglings – with house sparrows at Limeslade and more stonechats on the coast. Drinker and six-spot burnet caterpillars crossing the coast path, and this mullein moth caterpillar on great mullein.
A loose flock of a dozen Swifts flew in over Higher Lane Langland yesterday. Looked like a migration flight.
Juvenile Blue and Great tits, Robin, House sparrow and Goldfinches in my garden in the last couple of days. On my local walk today there was a female Blackbird with a juvenile by the River Dulais but no sign of the Dipper. Walked part of the St Illtyd Way on the west side of the valley and heard Wood warbler and Garden warbler in the same areas as before so probably breeding. Also heard Leser redpolls further on in the forestry.
Outside Hunts Farm, East Cliff, 2 June: skylark, house martin, red kite, chough, kestrel, blackcap, chiffchaff, greenfinch, green woodpecker and this buzzard.
Family of Nuthatch in garden today. 4 Young. Adults showing them how to catch bugs by flying out from branch like a flycatcher. Did this a dozen times with high success rate! Not a behaviour I have seen before with Nuthatch. Has anybody else seen this?
Also, female Gt Spotted Woodpecker taking nuts from feeder and hammering them into apple tree as a cache. Did this for 10 peanuts in succession.
Afternoon walk Baglan Burrows 2pm in the heat of the day not the best time for birds in the current conditions. The highlight today was a Cuckoo calling from the scrubby alder wood, other birds included Skylark singing and one bird carrying food also a family of Stonechats, singing Whitethroat, Linnet and Goldfinch, 6 Lapwing flew from the Neath river and into the Energy Park. Common Blue was the most numerous butterfly today 20+ also Small Heath c6, Small Blue 4 also a few White butterflies but couldn’t get a good enough look to identify them ! likewise a large… Read more »