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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.
South of Loughor Bridge on rising tide.
Shelduck 2, Med Gull 2, adult and 1st summer, Oystercatcher 223, Redshank 1, Whimbrel 3, Curlew 3, BH Gull colour ringed bird ringed in Poland, details to come.
Castell Du this evening
Pied Wagtail 52, Sand Martin 474. Most resting on the mud flats, Little Egret 15, Common Sandpiper 1, Green Sandpiper 2.
Port Eynon this evening
Ringed Plover 3 adults, Med Gull 1 adult, Fulmar Petrel 2, Gannet 4, Manx Shearwater 28 including a flock of 8 rafting on the sea. Most seabird moving up channel although a few going down including both Fulmar Petrels.
Llanrhidian 5 Lapwing
South of Loughor Bridge this evening on a rising tide.
Curlew 31, Bl t Godwit 315, Whimbrel 6
The female of our herring gull pair may have had blood on it yesterday; certainly it does today – just a little where the throat meets the breast. Neither is showing signs of distress or injury, beyond the bare fact of the blood. Feeding together from a carcass, do you think? Unconnected: herring gulls above the house today are flying as if taking flying ants.
Worm’s Head 13th July, still plenty of activity on north face of outer head: guillemots (including bridled form pictured), razorbills, kittiwakes, fulmars. c200 shearwater skimming the sea just off shore. 2 wheatear, linnets and a collared dove on middle island. One large seal looks as if he may have been recently hit by a boat propeller.
17 Med gulls at Bracelet this morning and 10 swifts over Mumbles.
This afternoon two Yellowhammers on a telegraph line on Frogmoor and singing well. Also on Ryers Down a brown hare.
‘Yes’ to Derek’s black-tailed godwits. Male herring gull has been around our garden with mate for more than a year. Today it has been in trouble.
Further to Jeremy’s post below, c. 30 Med gulls around Blackpill about an hour before dusk yesterday. These included a white darvic-ringed bird ringed in Flanders, Belgium in May 2017. Its sightings history suggests it spends late summer and autumn at Bracelet (having presumably bred elsewhere), but by early spring is at Langstone Harbour, Hampshire, so it is unclear where it is in winter. It has not been recorded on its breeding grounds since it was ringed in 2017, and it is unclear where it breeds / has bred in the intervening period. Also a grasshopper warbler reeling at Oxwich… Read more »
Nine Med Gills at Bracelet at 0700 today. They seem to have returned from their breeding grounds.
Need help identifying these please. My best guess is Black-tailed Godwit but I’m happy to be corrected. 20-30 of them on Penclawdd Marsh (opposite Greenacres) as the tide was coming in this morning.
Spot on Derek.Cracking shots.
Great! Thanks Dewi.
The latest update from Gower Ringing Group is here: https://www.gowerbirds.org.uk/ces-update-a-trip-to-skokholm-and-rooftop-gulling/
It was a busy week that included CES, a trip to Oxwich, gull ringing on a warehouse roof, nightjar monitoring and a few days on Skokholm for two of our trainees.
First fledged Cetti’s warbler of the year captured at Oxwich today
Yesterday 10.30
Group of 5 Chough and a Raven on coastal path below Thistleboon.
Peregrine Falcon…Performing some nice aerials/hunting high on Kilvey Hill over the farmland overlooking Crymlyn Burrows… 15.30 on 07/07/21
Lone Lapwing in flight Felindre … 21.30 on 08/07/21 (couple of pairs have been breeding in area Spring)
Kestrel, Red kite, Buzzard, Pheasant,Blackcaps,Stone chats, Linnets,wheatear,meadow pipit, skylarks,greenfinch, goldfinch – Cwmdulais, Mynydd Garn fach ,Mynydd Y Gwair,Tor Clawdd…17.30-19.30 on 08/07/21
Peregrine Falcon…Performing some nice aerials/hunting high on Kilvey Hill over the farmland overlooking Crymlyn Burrows…07/07/21
0700 today a group of 20 Manx Shearwater seen from Bracelet, flying up-channel. Yesterday 6 Auks doing the same: too far out to tell if R’bill it G’mots. A few Gannets seen every morning this week.
New garden tick (West Cross).. common crossbill with 2 greenfinches on the Conifer in the front garden.. alerted to it by the constant calling.. didn’t stay long enough for me to grab the camera.. but got decent view’s with the kitchen binoculars.
A pre roost flock of 250 jackdaws over the Dylan Thomas pub Llansamlet this evening
A flock of 14 juvenile Starling spent the best part of the day in the garden trying to tackle the “suet tower”(as you can see the roof has gone due to the sqabbling). I think that this flock represents the second broods in the area. Hopefully an indication of a successful breeding season.
At lan coed house llandarcy the house Martin colony was busy with at least 12 occupied nests
Ravens and 100 + jackdaws over a red kite was over Briton ferry bridge
Two choughs between Langland and Caswell this afternoon. Cormorant overhead flying west.
We have updated our events page with a number of confirmed field trips. See: https://www.gowerbirds.org.uk/events/
We will continue to add updates as additional events are confirmed.