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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.
A couple of Swifts flying And screaming over the house this afternoon. They will soon have disappeared on their migration after a year in which I have seen less than in any year I can remember.
Oxwich Marsh this morning: kingfisher, grasshopper warbler (3), garden warbler (3), lesser redpoll (flyover). Also the usual reed warbler, sedge warbler, Cetti’s warbler, willow warbler, a few blackcap, chiffchaff etc. Large numbers of siskin and goldfinch.
At 0730 a grey heron feeding firstly in one, and then in a smaller, pool on the top of Cefn Bryn. A bad day for Cefn Bryn’s frogs.
Towards the end of a very long day’s walk in the rain 5 August: a brown hare a couple of hundred yards south west of Llandewi Church. Beyond that, a buzzard over Stouthall and a couple of ravens between Sluxton Farm and Middleton.
Ashleigh Road western field: 36 black-headed and 62 Mediterranean gulls
Ashleigh Road central field: 3 black headed and 1 Mediterranean gull (nothing at Sketty Lane)
West Cross: 49 black-headed and 1 Mediterranean gull
Mumbles Head: 14 common scoter
Last couple of weeks a jay family on the feeders (Castle Road Mumbles), with fluffy juvenile very noisily demanding food from parents.
July 26 afternoon Pennard Cliffs group of 5 choughs flying and feeding.
August 1 early evening redstarts (at least 2) on lower walls of Dryslwyn Castle near Llanarthne
A brief view of a Wheatear at Southgate this morning at 0700.
Blackpill: 107 oystercatcher, 1 dunlin
Sketty Lane: 60 Mediterranean gulls, 24 black-headed gulls. No gulls at Ashleigh Road
Blackpill: 2 common sandpiper.
Sketty Lane: 22 Mediterranean gulls, 25 black-headed gulls
Bracelet: 22 Mediterranean gulls, 3 black-headed gulls
Visit to Pant-y-Sais with Rob Jones. Very quiet birdwise apart from a few Redpolls in songflight and the odd Cetti`s.The best sightings were of insects which included four Musk Long-Horn Beetles and a few Four-Banded Longhorns,apparently quite rare. A Green Sandpiper flushed from Red Jacket Pill plus a Kingfisher. A pair of Mute Swans had just one cygnet on the Tennant Canal at Jersey Marine village.
Wheatear on the rocks between Horton and Slade this morning
Blackpill: 104 oystercatcher, 121 black-headed gull, 5 Mediterranean gull, 5 curlew at high water.
Sketty Lane playing field: 17 Mediterranean gull, 29 black-headed gull
Ashleigh Road western playing field: 74 Mediterranean gull, 26 black-headed gull
Ashleigh Road middle field: 3 black-headed and 1 Mediterranean gull.
Bracelet: 27 Mediterranean gull
Mumbles Pier area: 50+ turnstone
Rothers Tor: digger wasp Cerceris rybyensis and beautiful orbweaver spider