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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.
31st January, River Tawe from Ynystawe Park to Plasmarl foot and cycle bridge. 13 goosander, 3 tufted duck, 22 mallard, 21+ teal (teal on Ynysforgan flood relief pool), 2 dipper, 6 moorhen, heron and a kite
30th January late afternoon, 2 firecrest in holly tree above stream east side of Pwll du Bay
29th January. Llanrhidian. 4 great egrets, female hen harrier, 2 snipe, 20 teal, 65 shoveler, c800 golden plover in flight on shoreline, 23 greylags overhead.
sorry, 5 shoveler, not 65 !
Brynmill Park Lake – 1 Kingfisher this morning, on small island in south-west corner; appeared to fly off over Brynmill Lane to Singleton Park. Also , last year’s Mute Swan youngsters showing courtship behaviour with each other.
Fenrod lake ,
75 Canada geese,31 mute swan,15 coot,20 moorhen ,est 200+ herring gull,at least 300 black headed gulls,3 goosander 1 male 2 fem,14 tufteds, 4 pochard,usuall mallards and hybreds,and a few chaffinches.
A good hour’s birding in my Upper Killay garden this morning (28/1) for the RSPB Birdwatch.
20 species included: Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Pied Wagtail, Redwing, Nuthatch, G S Woodpecker & 3 Goldfinches. Plus 2 hours later a Sparrowhawk.
Pwll du: marsh tit, sparrowhawk, kestrel. 10+ bullfinch. Green woodpecker.
Langland this week: blackcap (2), and the tawny owls on Southward Lane and Brynfield Road very vocal.
Thank you very much for a very interesting talk on Peregrine Falcons tonight. It was quite appropriate that I watched two Peregrines trying, and failing, to get a Greenshank in Llanelli WWT this morning. The photo is of one of the Peregrines. Has anyone seen a blue ring like the one on this Peregrine? Also, do the markings on the Peregrine look OK to you?
Superb photo Ruth.Brilliant.
The Greenshank was amazingly still alive when I left!
A quiet high tide at Ashleigh Road this morning – 31 Curlew, 29 0ystercatcher, 14 Common Gull, 30 Starling & 4 Mistle Thrush
22 Canada geese flying South East over Briton ferry at dusk
25/01/23
I scanned the marsh from a high view point this afternoon to check on the number of GW Egrets. There were three on Llanrhidian Marsh, one at Wernffrd and one at Penclawdd, so a total of five on view. Also a brown Merlin on the marsh at Little Wern-halog.
Slightly soggy walk around Oystermouth Cemetery this afternoon: Two GS woodpeckers drumming (1 seen), nuthatch, song thrush, wren and a number of long tailed tits. Female blackcap has been a regular visitor to the feeders in my Caswell garden since New Year.
24/01/23 Blchymyndd foreshore at HT Wigeon 28, Gadwall 14. All feeding in amongst the debris being washed downstream. Presumably finding washed out seeds etc. Loughor Bridge on the falling tide. Wigeon 24, Goldeneye 2, females adult and 1st winter, GC Grebe 2, Redshank 48, GW Egret 1, Oystercatcher 228, Canada Goose 37. Broughton Bay at LT this afternoon. Wigeon 618, Pintail 85, Brent Goose 274, including one pale bellied, very few youngsters, GC Grebe 3, Shoveler 2, Eider 1 drake. A first for me, I’ve never seen so many dabbling ducks here, something to do with the very low tide?… Read more »
Gower Ringing Group Jackdaw programme..
Keep seeing the same 2 birds on the grass across from Pennard Golf Club
Swansea bay beach by the Marina at high tide this morning: 249 Sanderling, 91 Dunlin, 23 Turnstones, 1 Ringed Plover and 1 Oystercatcher.
Tawe Rivermouth at low tide this afternoon: 2 Kingfishers, 1 female Black Redstart, 1 Oystercatcher, 3 Ringed Plovers, 3 Turnstones, 7 Redshank and c50 Dunlin.
Merlin hunting along Llanrhidian Marsh mid afternoon 24/01/23…
21/01/23 Bwlchymyndd foreshore Wigeon 13, Lapwing 57, Oystercatcher 19, Grey Plover 4, Dunlin 48, Ringed Plover 1, Bl t Godwit 4, Redshank 19, Greenshank 1 Penclawdd Greenshank 1, Teal 29, Snipe 1, Curlew 1, Gadwall 3. Loughor Bridge Canada Goose 116, Greylag 153, Oystercatcher 32, Wigeon 10, Goldeneye 1 fem, Redshank 11, Merlin 1 brown bird. Llanrhidian Marsh GW Egret 3. 23/01/23 Castell du late afternoon. Shelduck 14, Greenshank 2, Little Egret 2, Redshank 2, Little Grebe 7 (my highest ever count here), Gadwall 21, Lapwing 68, Green Sandpiper 1, Pied Wagtail 22, Meadow Pipit 20, Snipe 2, Canada Goose… Read more »
Info now received about the colour-ringed Curlew William & I saw at Crofty (Salthouse Point) on 16 January from Dan Gornall, as part of a WWT project:
Ringed as an adult male on breeding grounds at Upham Meadow, Gloucs on 14 April 2021. A further 7 sightings Gloucs/Somerset area Oct 2021 – April 2022. He was pleased to now have this winter record from the Burry Inlet.
Good variety of species along the canal from Clydach to Trebanws.Including,Song Thrush,Redwing,Great Tit,Blue Tit,Nuthatch,Blackbird,Goldcrest and this Kingfisher with a nesting box as a backdrop.Shows how important the canal is for bio-diversity.
Ham Wall field trip: Sixteen members went to Ham Wall in Somerset on Sunday, meeting up with a further five who travelled separately. We walked along the old peat extraction areas which have been used to create a superb bird reserve. Cattle Egret was the first species to be seen, even before we parked up and we saw a further two species of egret later. In all we recorded 59 species, guided very professionally by Rob Taylor and Ed Hunter. Highlights: Marsh Harriers everywhere; some being hounded by a Peregrine in behaviour we had not seen before. There were Chiffchaffs, including the eastern cline /… Read more »
Here’s a Cattle Egret and Chiffchaff.
Swansea Beach by the Marina at high tide this morning. c240 Sanderling, 53 Black-headed gulls, 31 Common gulls and 10 Herring gulls. All feeding on what had been washed up with the tide.
At Penclawdd Pill today 4 Greenshank – most I have seen here, 1 Common Sand, 9 Gadwall plus the usual Redshanks , Teal , Curlews and 2 little egrets At Weobley track a walk out to the hut found 20 Skylark,30 Linnet, just 2 Med pipit, but 4 Rock Pipit, 2 Water Pipit. lots of Redshank on the salt marsh 40 plus, 2 G W Egret, 43 Shelduck 3 Golden Plover, 40 Lapwing – an amazing difference to a few weeks ago. 1 Marsh Harrier perched up and hunting the reeds below the castle was very nice. Also a Great… Read more »
Pair of Chough towards Hunt’s Bay also a Raven, Goldcrest, On the bay 8 Oystercatcher and a lone Curlew
Thank you Ed for yesterday’s post. Here’s a couple snaps of the Great White Egret at Penclawdd this morning: