To add a sighting, simply leave a reply below. Enter the details of your sighting and upload an image or video clip if possible. You will need to be registered and logged-in to post updates or leave replies.
NB: Maximum size for video clips is 30Mb…
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.
Yellow-browed warbler at the top of Plunch Lane in the trees by the cricket club. Very vocal (calling every 5-10 seconds at 08:40) and actively foraging. See map for position.
Also 51 Med gulls, 97 black-headed gulls and a common gull on Ashleigh Road / Sketty Lane playing fields and 40 Med gulls at Bracelet my biggest count there for a while
19 chough on Langland Golf Course (15th green) at 5.30pm today. Med gulls on Langland beach
This afternoon, 70+ Turnstones on the old lifeboat slip at Mumbles and I counted more than a dozen Swallows all flying out over the lighthouse on their migration.
Per Brian Gibbs @Hurlstoner on Twitter. “Black-browed Albatross just flown east passed Hurlstone Point at 8:30 veering across towards the Welsh coast.”
Hurlstone Point is Porlock / Minehead area (so SE of Gower recording area).
This a dark morph woodpigeon, which is now a regular in our garden. Wet and hangdog, he is the picture of dejection. Other pigeons bully him.
On Cefn Bryn yesterday I came across a smallish brown raptor with distinctive black bars across its wings. Montagu’s Harrier?
Hi Anthony. Merlin (1st winter) and sparrowhawk would be the more likely raptors showing barred wings – with the former being thinly distributed in Gower in autumn and winter and the latter common throughout. Montagu’s harrier is rare in Wales (and the rest of the UK), and is a lot larger than both in terms of wing span.
Kingfisher on Singleton Park boating lake
Green woodpecker on Ashleigh Road golf course, with c. 40 Med gulls and c. 60 black-headed gulls across the three playing fields
Margam Moors- 28+ Meadow Pipits; onto Margam Sands – one Mute Swan flying low over the water before gaining height towards Swansea Bay. c15 Linnets, 11 Swallows,and a imm. Kestrel. A further 2 Kestrels over the river Kenfig estuary; onto Margam Burrows, a Sparrowhawk and a Wheatear then another Sparrowhawk over Morfa Pinewood. With Dave Cornish & Phil Routliff.
Calling chiffchaff Oystermouth Cemetery
Good numbers of blackbirds feeding on yew berries in Oystermouth Cemetery.. is it too early for continental birds to be here? Would have thought so..
3 choughs over the coastal slope between Whiteshell Point (Caswell) and Snaple Point (Langland)
3 ravens over the house in West Cross was a surprise this morning while pegging out the washing…