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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.
Almost daily counts at the new ‘Muddy Patch’ off Loughor Foreshore show that Blacktailed Godwits have doubled in the last five days, with 437 counted there today. Pintail conversely have more than halved, with just 72 today. Other bits and bobs noted today included 64 Little Egret, 36 Shelduck, 5 Knot, 15 Dunlin & 4 Bar-tailed Godwits.
Great northern diver flew into Swansea Bay and landed close inshore on the Swansea side of Blackpill at 07:50 this morning.
Nice feedback on a colour ringed Mediterranean gull seen at Langland a couple of days ago. The bird was ringed near Amsterdam as a pullus (nestling) in 2019. The first re-sightings were at Blackpill in September 2020, and by December it was in Portugal for the mid-winter period. It looks unlikely to have bred (successfully) in 2021, as by June it was seen at Bracelet, it was reported at Caswell in July, and I then saw it a few days ago at Langland, where numbers of roosting / loafing Meds are increasing.
Reference my earlier post photos of mainly Linnets show numbers were in fact over 700 with many more on the ground on Vile fields
Male and female tawny owls calling in the garden at Langland every night for the last week
More than 15 Jays flying west across Vile fields this morning. Saw a similar number over Middleton on Monday. .300 + Linnets with some Goldfinches on cliffs and Vile. Numerous Swallows going east
An evening walk out on the Weobley track saw first 5 Golden Plover but on approach 28 emerged! later as the cockle shell mounds were flooded ( I was retreating to not be cut off) a Dotteral like call was heard very close many times and the bird flew up and eventually landed on the saltmarsh to the east unfortunately the light had gone by this point to make detail and no approach possible by the incoming tide 24 Lapwing, 1 Little Stint, 280 Dunlin , 40 Ringed Plover, 4 Snipe 2 Peregrine 1ad male and a juvenile and a… Read more »
At Whitford point this evening there was 21 Eider, 800 Dunlin, 80 Ringed Plover, 35 Tunstone, 1 Sanderling, 1 Little Stint, 3 Curlew Sandpiper, 1 Greenshank with large numbers of Pintail now returned and 25 Wigeon. 2 Great white egrets were on the landimore side. A Barn Owl flew across the road near to Gowerton Unfortunately again there was disturbance by fisherman at the high tide roosts on land – the west side pushing all the birds off then at the other main east roost site by fishermen in a boat the waders leaving site .Last visit there was 3… Read more »
89 Med gulls and 1 black-headed gull on the upper shore rocks at Bracelet. Both white and yellow-ringed birds present, but too distant for ring-reading.
Steady stream of swallows and meadow pipits heading east, and a number of jays at the bottom of Mumbles Hill.
10.20 this evening: two tawny owls hooting outside my back door.
At Weobley track today- A Barn owl Screeching from the castle pre dawn – on the track …12 Stonechat and a Whinchat in the Cabbage field, 1 Great White Egret, 3 Little Stint, 1 Curlew sand, 1 Green Sandpiper, 68 G B b gull, 12 Wheatear, 40 Ringed plover, 140 Dunlin, 4 Snipe At Port Eynon – at least 125 Med Gulls probably way more based on the frenzy out in the bay which were not included prob min 40 more. There was large BH Gull influx too here going up from 30 too 150. 2 Cr read read plus… Read more »
East…hirundine going east…..
Read the latest news from Gower Ringing Group here: https://www.gowerbirds.org.uk/oxwich-marsh-18-september-2021-last-of-the-summer-whitethroats-and-a-very-old-tit/
Oxwich Marsh: kingfisher (1 w), 3 reed warbler, 4 sedge warbler, whitethroat, 12 blackcap, light overhead passage of grey wagtail, with larger numbers of swallows and meadow pipits moving. Goshawk (2).
Female Garganey on the main pond at Gnoll Country Park, also 5 Tufted Duck.
This looks to be an eclipse male not a female sorry…
at Middleton farm, Mewslade and fields east of the main car park today there was again of plenty of migrants around 25 Chiffchaffs, 8 Willow Warblers 4 Lesser Whitethroat and just 1 Whitethroat ( its been a cracking autumn for Lessers so far), 3 Spotted Fly , 8 Blackcap 1 ad male Peregrine and the young Green Woodpecker. There was a steady stream of swallows heading east for much of the day. Also 2 Yellow wagtails in with 15 Alba Wags around some ponies when the drizzle set in. Also a large flock of around 300 mixed Goldfinch and linnets.… Read more »
Loughor Bridge north and south side.
North (Foreshore car park). Pintail 111, Teal 19, Mallard 69, Shelduck 26, Black t Godwit 165, Little Egret 54, Bar t Godwit 2, Ruff 1.
South. House Sparrow 26, feeding on strand line, Ruff 1, different bird from the one on the north side, much greyer on the breast, the other more buff. North side bird still present when I returned, Bar t Godwit 11, Black t Godwit 68, Wigeon 1 eclipse drake, G W Egret 2, this time both feeding happily together on the south side of the channel.
This Grey Heron was fishing in the rock pools of Limeslade this morning
Jay in the garden at Langland today
A quick visit to check the mudflats of Loughor Foreshore this evening revealled that Pintail numbers have increased to 137 and Black-tailed Godwits were at 190. The attached plot shows increase in numbers over the last few weeks – it will be interesting to see how big this aggregations gets…. A Little Stint and Ruff were bonuses just before the sun set.
Yesterday evening at Blackpill – a Peregrine was perched up on rocks in the bay toward the mumbles. An estimate of around 300 Med Gulls included 5 colour rings 4 White 1 yellow all of which i managed to read. A leucistic 1st year herring gull type was quite distant so hard to see what it species it was. There was an increase in LBB gulls too to recent visits Today at high tide at Blackpill – 8 Bar Tailed Godwits, 10 Dunlin , 15 Med Gull and also the interesting 3CY Yellow legged Gull appeared briefly as the tide… Read more »
Two Jays in my garden in Mayals yesterday morning
Swansea bay, Mediterranean, LBB and black headed gulls, one med gull with yellow ring AY-EE.
Salt house Point @HT. not a very big tide so not many waders. Curlew 26, Grey Plover 1, Whimbrel 1, Pintail 1, Wigeon 4.
Broughton Bay. Gannet 2, Sandwich Tern 9.
Yellowhammer and Green Woodpecker were the highlights of a visit to Mewslade this morning