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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.
Castell Du this morning over the HT.
Greenshank 5 sheltering under the river bank out of the wind, Oystercatcher 2. Hundreds of gulls of a wide variety hiding out of the wind behind any bit of cover. Unfortunately the windy conditions made it impossible to count them.
Peregrine on the BT tower in Swansea.. tucked in really well out of 4he wind and rain.. viewed from Parc Tawe side
Salthouse Point over the HT this morning
Dunlin 30, Grey Plover 9, G C Grebe 3, Brent Goose 213, Wigeon 49, Bar t Godwit 1, Oystercatcher 618, G W Egret 3, with another 2 on Llanrhidian Marsh.
Dalton’s Point. Black t Godwit 277, Bar t Godwit 1, different from the Salthouse bird, this one showing some breeding plumage.
Farmland north of Morriston today: a large flock of c100 Redwings flying around. One even gave a bit of song. Also 2 Red Kites
Peregrine perched up in East Stand enjoying (?) Swans vs Middleboro
Yesterday.
Broughton Bay.
Brent Goose 5, including one pale-bellied
GC Grebe 3
Common Scoter 276
Penclawdd.
Snipe 3
Greenshank 1
This afternoon.
Weobley marsh.
3 GW Egrets
Landimore.
Green Sandpiper
8th March mid afternoon.
South of Loughor Bridge.
4 Goldeneye, female types.
Swansea Bay beach by the Marina this morning at high tide: 12 Turnstones, 48 Dunlin, 52 Sanderling and 9 Oystercatchers. Also 26 Common Gulls with smaller numbers of Herring, Lesser Black-backed and Black Headed Gulls.
Morning trip to Cwm Clydach and Swansea Canal up to Trebanos. Best of Cwm Clydach were Bullfinch pair and many Nuthatches. No Dipper although 1 seen on last visit 2 weeks ago.
On canal best was a Kingfisher. Small flock of Mistle Thrushes and Goldcrests. Siskins feeding in trees. Noticed a lot of Moorhens. M & F Goosander on river.
Question: are there Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers in CC these days. If so, where best to see them?
The 100 dollar question Nigel.The recent reports of LS Woodpeckers in CC have all turned out to be the bigger relative.The last definite sighting was in the Northern section of the reserve(beyond Tylwydyn bridge) over 12 months ago.There was also a definite record from the Lliw Valley reservoirs area around the same time.They are one of those elusive species unfortunately.
Thanks Dewi
Latest news from Gower Ringing Group. An article concerning ageing snipe …..
https://www.gowerbirds.org.uk/oxwich-marsh-4-march-2023-an-instructive-snipe/
Clyne Common earlier today: 3 Skylarks singing, 11 Meadow pipits, 4 Goldfinches, 1 Snipe and 1 Buzzard.
Also, 2 Osytercatchers were by the footgolf on Ashleigh Road. I have not seen them there before
Thanks for reply Owain. Yes looks like Rock Pipit. I’ll contact the survey owner.
Firecrest in scrub adjacent to Langland golf course this morning. SS 60061 87575.
Rooks (3) nest building on Murton Green, 60 black-headed and one Med Gull on Bishopston School Playing Fields and my first east Gower fulmar of the year at Brandy Cove
Rhossili this morning. Single Eider in eclipse plumage or juvenile in the channel between headland and the Worm. Phone photo attached.Also Fall Bay Meadow Pipit with blue ring on each leg. Locally ringed?
Possibly Great Black Backed Gull ? (See photos… not ringed) deceased off the Weobley causeway track 27/02/22 4pm…First thought possibly avian flu..closer inspection large fishing tackle…
25th February, junction of top of Cwm Clydach and Mynydd y Gwair: male hen harrier pursued by carrion crows for several minutes. Also a red kite.
Attached , is this the yellow-legged gull reported by Ed Hunter at Penclawdd on 18th, photographed 22/02, still eyeing up the chippy on the other side of the carpark
Paul, Is this not a Common Gull?
I agree with Paul L. It looks like a common gull to me.
thank you Owain, Paul (and Lyndon). I counted this as a common gull for WEBS, then recalled the earlier sighting and the legs began to look quite yellow ! I thought I’d better take a picture just in case.
Ilston Valley this afternoon: 1 Dipper, 2 Grey Wagtails, 1-2 Marsh tits.
Near to Lunnon there were 4 Buzzards all in fairly close proximity.
There was a grey wagtail on the lawn yesterday, which is good but not unusual. This morning there was a buzzard over the back garden spooking our birds; this was much more unusual. Finally, at lunchtime today, there was a kite circling over our back garden – seeing what I was feeding to our herring gulls: a first for this species in 48 years in Brynfield Road.
Deceased great tit, ringed Pwll Du Lane 26 Feb 23
Hi Kathryn. This bird was ringed by Richard Dann on West Cliff, Pennard in October 2022. It was aged as an adult male. If you could report it formally to the BTO via this link it would be hugely appreciated: https://app.bto.org/euring/lang/pages/recovery_form.jsp
Hi Kathryn. This bird was ringed by Richard Dann on West Cliff, Southgate in October 2022. It was aged as an adult male. If you could report it formally to the BTO via this link it would be hugely appreciated: https://app.bto.org/euring/lang/pages/recovery_form.jsp
Pennard Golf Course
Single chough around the 8th green.. very very vocal.. foraging and calling constantly..
Green woodpecker over.. again very vocal
Black Redstart spotted this morning on Singleton Campus, Swansea University.
Apologies for the phone photos.
Oxwich Marsh AM: 2 kingfishers chasing each other and vocal.
50+ goldfinch in flock with siskin. A few lesser redpoll over.
At Penclawdd pil a nice crisp 1 Cy Yellow Legged Gull ( as distinct as you get) was sheltering from the drizzle by the car park. Not much else other than the usual Redshanks, Teal and L Egrets….. but it was rather misty and wet. At Crofty an est 200- 220 Dark bellied Brent Geese were feeding close to the marsh road with a single Light bellied Brent Goose mixed in. At LLanrhidian 2 ringtail Hen Harriers left the roost once the drizzle stopped one heading to Whitford the other Cefn Bryn. 5 Great White Egrets were seen whilst waiting… Read more »