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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.
Highlights today from the very big tide at Wernffrwd/Crofty
included 6 Great White Egret, 29 Little Egret, 1 Ruff, 1 Spotted Redshank , 9 Greenshank in with 30 Redshank, 63 Shoveler ,4 Gadwall, 7 Whimbrel with 70 Curlew,18 Pintail 63 Knot, 18 Dunlin and 2 Bar tailed Godwit and a flyover calling Yellow Wag. Best was 6 Light Bellied Brent Geese although always ace to see a Ruff or Spot Red locally. With an additional 12 Little Egret toward LLanrhidian. Big tides are ace!
At Penclawdd Pil -3 Common sands and a Greenshank were in with the usual Redshanks
A reminder that we have our first online talk of the autumn coming up. Sam Kenyon will talk to us about initiatives for curlew population recovery on 24 September. See: https://www.gowerbirds.org.uk/event/farming-and-curlew/
At Weobley today on the high tide this AM – the Buff Breasted Sandpiper was still present at 10.30 but only appeared 3 hours after High tide. Feeding on the lumpy turf across the channel ( *needed to wade over once tide had retreated) 400m east of the wooden structure. It then was flushed by a Peregrine and landed near the large cockle pile 100m west of the wooden structure.It was seen again around 3.30pm when also a Grey Phalarope was seen ( area of marsh unknown.) But presumably this channel area – as all relocating reports refer to the… Read more »
one of the Little Stints
A Yellow Wagtail from today
A Peregrine over Loughor Bridge 16.30 today. 21 Little Egrets upstream.
7/9 castle quay neath 29 mallard 2 adult mute swan with 5 cygnets giants grave 10 long tailed tits 6 blue tits and 18 wood pigeons
Blackpill last night 6 Bar-tailed Godwit and 9 Knot
This morning an extra bit of disturbance when an Osprey flew overhead and was chased away by a juv Crow, or just kept going towards Mumbles more like.
Yesterday afternoon/evening at Weobley on the rising tide
1 Buff-breasted Sandpiper, 6 Curlew Sandpiper, 3 Little Stint, 1 Knot, 5 Sanderling, 1 Greenshank, 1 Lapwing, 40 Curlew, c300 Oystercatcher, c1500 Ringed Plover, and c800 Dunlin. Also, 2 Osprey perched on posts towards Llanrhidian
From the Weobley Castle saltmarsh track this PM (16:30-18:30)
– 1 Osprey, initially flew upriver towards Wernffrwd, then later successfully hunting Great/Burry Pill at high tide.
– 1 Marsh Harrier (adult female), approx. 200 yards down the track and then flew towards Marsh Road.
– 1 Peregrine hunting the many Ringed Plover, Dublin, Oystercatcher on two occasions (unsuccessfully). c.70 Golden Plover high over the marsh. At least 3 different Green Sandpiper seen, along with a couple of Snipe.
– 2 Kestrel and 11 Wheatear the best of the other sightings here.
Lastly, at dusk, a Barn Owl over Llanrhidian Marsh.
After a successful trip to see nightjars on Kilvey again on Monday 25th we headed up again last night (2nd September) to try our luck.
Pleased to report at least two individuals seen with brief churring also heard.
Same behaviour displayed as previous visits with very close, inquisitive birds chuttering away and flying at decent height this time to catch insects.
Definite drop in temperature this week so will see how long they stick around but don’t imagine long!
I went up there on evening of the 5th, but didn’t see or hear Nightjars. Where’s the best place to look?
At Daltons Point this late afternoon on the falling tide a Grey Phalarope was feeding on the mud edge and on the water. it was chased by some Redshanks and moved to the incoming channel between Daltons point and Salthouse point. Also 2 Bar Tailed Godwit , 5 Teal and 63 Redshank. At Port Eynon in evening 60 Med Gulls over the dunes on arrival left inland with 10 on the beach later. Few Sandwich terns tonight with 7 then later another 2. 26 sand martins were landing on the sand eating insects. 2 Yellow Wagtails flew over calling when… Read more »
Overton Seawatch 31/8 w/ Mark Hipkin
12 Common Scoter, 1 Long-tailed Skua, 13 Arctic Skua, 5 Skua Sp, 50 Kittiwake, 1 Sabine’s Gull, 48 Commic Tern, 35 Sandwich Tern, 4 Euro Storm-Petrel, 40 Fulmar, 1 Cory’s Shearwater, 1 Sooty Shearwater, 700 Manx Shearwater, 3 Balearic Shearwater, 140 Gannet and 7 Shag.
A summary of the Welsh Ringing Course, held in Gower between 29 August and 1 September. https://www.gowerbirds.org.uk/welsh-ringing-course-2025/