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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.
Fenrod lake morning ,110 Canada geese,20+ mute swan.chaffinches,chiff chaff.tufteds.mallards.and small numbers of herring,lesser b b and black headed gulls
Pennard Valley 21st..
Two kestrel, presumed parent & youngster..
3 buzzard flying high and tussling…
2 swift over..
Several very vocal chough..
And the usual suspects, chiffchaff, whitethroat, stonechat, lots of house sparrows..
A heart stopper with a fly through collared dove (hoped it was the turtle!)😏
And many many small copper butterflies
Turtle Dove just returned to my garden after being absent for almost two weeks. Ringed on right leg, will try and identify ring if it returns tomorrow.Recorder informed.
This juvenile Turtle Dove has visited my garden on Pennard Cliffs this morning in the company of the regular Collared Doves. This now means the species has visited the site every year from 2018 with the single exception of 2021.
Cwrt Herbert playing fields this evening 37 wood pigeons lots of juvs among them also 50 plus starlings again good. Few juvs among them
A peregrine seen and heard on cliffs between Brandy Cove and Southgate on 16th (seeing off a buzzard) and on 17th July. Also saw 3 high above Bishopston School on 11th July.
Oxwich Marsh: female grasshopper warbler with brood patch captured, indicating local breeding. 48 reed warblers including good number of juveniles. Juvenile whitethroat, sedge warbler, siskins, wrens.
A little late posting…..
Cattle Egret at Penclawdd Marsh on the 14th. It was associating with the local group of horses (see pics). Also, a good variety of songbirds. Singing Blackcap, Whitethroat, Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler. Lots of Meadow Pipit and Reed Bunting in the grasses and reeds as well as a singing Skylark.
Whimbrel today in the Loughor River with a large group of Curlew and Oystercatcher.
Excellent record Lukas
Flock of around 15 Swifts screaming through Manselton. Gone now. First lot I’ve seen here this year.
Now a big flock of mixed Gulls feeding on flying ants. Includes Black-Headed and Med Gulls.
A flock of about 12 Swifts screaming over my house here in West Cross, quickly dispersed when a Peregrine flew close by and continue to soar high above.
Nice to spot a few Dartford Warblers In the recording area today 16/06/22
An hour later and the Med Gull count is up to 60. Three Gannets over the Mixon Sands, a flock of 8 Shearwater flying up channel. At the pier, the Kittiwake colony is full and busy and on the Middle island a Little Egret was amongst a group of Herring Gulls waiting for the tide to go out again.
47 Med Gulls at Bracelet this morning.
Lovely to confirm a second brood for a pair of Dartford Warblers busily feeding young in a nest on Gower. The visits were incredibly frequent every minute and a half bringing in what looked like white ant eggs? or some kind of larvae , whatever it was they were certainly making the most of the source.
Spotted Flycatcher pair still present at RSPB Cwm Clydach. About 100m up from footbridge, on the left.
Cattle Egret (per Birdguides) on the marsh (associated with horses) at Penclawdd this morning
Swift nest found in Trebanos this morning (new record for Swift Mapper), with behaviour indicating another potentially occupied nest along the main road (Swansea / Pontardawe Road).
Lots of swifts screaming over Langland this evening. All very high, so no indication these are local breeders.
Now 14 Med Gulls at Bracelet.
Port Talbot Dock foreshore (per Darryl Spittle): 42 Curlew, 7 Oystercatcher, 5 Redshank, 3 Common Sandpiper and 46 Mediterranean gull
High tide at Bracelet: a Gannet off shore and 5 Med Gulls on the rocks in the bay, one with a metal ring and a white, coloured ring: not legible at that range.
Having used the road behind Amazon for a few weeks there’s lots of herring and lesser b b gulls nesting on the roofs of the factories today I counted 40+ juvs of both species on open ground there’s probably more to come also 180+ starlings again lots of juvs amongst them ,3 buzzards over jays,magpies green and g s woodpeckers and pied wagtail seen at various times
Our pair of herring gulls has just about reached the end of its third barren breeding season. At 5.00 this evening, the female was on our close-cropped back lawn busily feeding in the grass on flying ants at its feet, clicking its mandibles as it did so. It made one or two snaps in the air, which it may have decided were not an energy-efficient way of feeding. In the next day or two we must see dozens of gulls harvesting ants a hundred feet above us.
Goldcrest nest found on the pavement in Manselfield Road this morning 😍