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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.
9 Swifts screaming over Manselton. Groups of 4 & 5 which briefly merged and then separated
Mynydd Gellionnen early morning Lesser Spotted Woodpecker.
An afternoon trip out to Worms Head over low tide with Lukas, yesterday, was eventful. The primary target again was Puffins and we got onto a bird in flight below the breeding ledges almost straight away. Sadly the bird didn’t settle on the water instead disappearing behind Outer Head from our viewpoint just short of the causeway leading to Outer Head. Then the Coastguard turned up on one of their annual training exercises with the Helicopter lowering one of the crew near to Devil’s Bridge. This caused mayhem among the seabirds most of which took to flight to move much… Read more »
Brill record Mark and Lucas, the helicopter training by the auks has long been a questionable practice and raised b4 as you know… it could be done elsewhere without disturbing the auks off the cliffs and the other spp. Shame it still continues same happened on Saturday too. A new training cliff area could be found without seabird impact I am sure
4 Swifts low over rooftops Manselton
Our events page has been updated. There are 22 events planned for the coming 9 months or so. See: https://www.gowerbirds.org.uk/events/
This morning on the run up
Castell du
As well as the usual suspects a full bp Cattle Egret feeding in the channel with Little Egrets.
Loughor Bridge
Oystercatcher 850, Bar t Godwit 3, Bl t Godwit 2, GCG 1
Oxwich Marsh
Fledged reed warbler, chiffchaff and willow warbler this morning.
Totals of 31 blue tit, 16 siskin, 16 reed warbler and 17 goldfinch ringed / recaptured.
GOS Field Trip on the Gower Explorer A very enjoyable field trip this morning. We left Oxwich Beach at 09:00 to head to the Worm to counts the cliff-nesting birds. On the way we had a prolonged encounter with a group of common dolphins. At least 6-7 individuals (although potentially a few more – they were hard to count) followed us, swimming beneath the boat, and occasionally breaching. They included a calf. The Worm colonies proved challenging to count due to sea state, but it is clear that in excess of 200 kittiwake nests, 350 guillemots and 30 razorbills are… Read more »
Very nice write-up, Owain. And great that you are going back out again and hopefully compare counts. There’s obviously a much clearer picture of number of breeding seabirds that can be counted from the boat. I’ve never really got my head around how many Guillemots and Razorbills breed there.
I look forward to reading the second trip report. Hopefully, you’ll get favourable weather.
A few photos of the Dolphins- which were off Port Eynon
Also some auks and Kittiwakes
A lesser blacked back gull looking after 2 fledged chicks on mumbles rooftop newton road over last week. The chicks are usually led over the roof ridge and down behind chimney stack into shade in morning where they flop down on the sloping roof tiles for most of the day . I have been fearful for their safety as they so clumsy and leggy. And it’s a long drop down
5 rooks on Murton Green at the junction of Manselfield Rd and Murton Green Road. I was driving at the time so there may have been more. 10:45am today.
Loughor Bridge on the run up this evening. Slightly surprised to see 8 GC Grebes on the river at this time of year, Shelduck 18, Oystercatcher 510, Curlew 6, Gadwall 1 drake, Black t Godwit 6. A single species flock of 11 Med Gulls up river, all adults bar two 1st summer birds. I don’t see as many Meds on the north side of Gower as on the south, usually just ones and twos, so this is the largest flock I’ve seen here. GW Egret 1, seen several times diving head first into the water, like a Gannet, from a… Read more »
More starlings than usual this summer in Gorseinon. Looks like it’s been a good breeding season. This flock of 478 was one of two similar sized groups swirling around over the street.