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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.
Langland to Caswell. At Whiteshell Point one Fulmar. Some tens of Swallows all flying east as if on early migration. Large flock of BH Gulls hawking for flying ants. At St Peter’s Church perhaps over 100 Swifts: certainly the most I have seen all year. At Caswell a Med Gull with a green ring, too far away to read the letters.
An emergence of flying ants this evening attracted a box of 20 Swifts, the most I’ve seen over the house all year
Oxwich Marsh: c. 200 starlings and 150 swallows in to roost last night. Ringed plover called overhead after dark.
Adult Sandwich Tern fishing and feeding a young bird at 0800 this morning between Mumbles pier and the inshore lifeboat station.
Pennard Golf Course this afternoon
Pair of kestrels actively hunting for several hours..
Juvenile sparrowhawk still around the valley & Castle..
At Gnoll park lake this afternoon there was 3 probably 4 Mandarin ducks (- 2 which looked like juveniles under the branches mainly), on the edge of the main lake. Also near the playground a family of young spotted flycatchers were feeding on the woodland edge. Also Treecreeper and some juvenile Goldcrests. I also been told about another family party of Spotted flycatchers last week near Glynneath
Fairwood Common
2 common whitethroat
1 male stonechat
A quick look at Lougher Bridge at high tide today saw 39 little egrets, 14 Cormarant, 2 Black Tailed Godwit, 1 Swift and 14 Shelduck. Also loads of Black headed Gulls to look through but no Med gulls mixed in. Still 11 Swifts over Glynneath yesterday
Yesterday evening (August 16th), 6 swifts seen along the River Tawe by Swansea Vale, flying amongst the sand martins. Also heard more swifts in Skewen. Saw 4 Jays. I think some of them were juveniles.
Mumbles to Rotherslade around the coast: whimbrel in flight (calling), 2 grey seal off Limeslade and a porpoise foraging just west of the bay. Sparrowhawk hunting on the cliffs.
A female Sparrow Hawk has just flown past, a few feet from my window and put up dozens of roosting Jackdaws and as I watched it I noticed a Buzzard being chased by half a dozen Magpies here in West Cross.
Clyne Common: a flyover ringed plover was unexpected. Otherwise a relatively recent brood of fledged stonechats (3rd brood this year?) and a green woodpecker, as well as good little flocks of finches (linnet, goldfinch, greenfinch). News on a Norwegian-ringed black-headed gull recorded at Blackpill in late July are in. The bird was ringed in Norway in July 2013, and was subsequently recorded there in every year up until 2020 (last Norwegian sighting in June 2020). It has been noted at Blackpill in September 2020 (by Renaud Flamant) and again this July by me. Its apparent absence from the colony in… Read more »