GRC Blog


Welcome to the GRC Recorders pages. This blog provides details on all the relevant news of Glamorgan’s scarcer birds, plus all BBRC & WRP decisions that affect us locally. It will also be used to document the status and occurrence of these scarcer species and we welcome contributions from anyone with photographs, artwork or documentation of rarities past, present and future. The GRC also welcomes all seawatching news from around Glamorgan and news of passage migrants in spring & autumn, uncommon birds in our area and unusual behaviour.


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The Glamorgan Rarities Committee, in conjunction with the Glamorgan Bird Club & Gower Wildlife , have agreed to co-operate with the Welsh Ornithological Society in the sharing of bird records & photographs in the interest of keeping accurate records and to promote birdwatching in North, Mid & South Wales.

Friday 18 October 2013

Velvet Scoter remain in Baglan Bay.

Small flock of Great Crested Grebes
The 2 Velvet Scoters were showing distantly from Baglan Dunes. Offshore from Aberavon Beach at the Neath River shipping channel end.

Also Common Scoter ((10)(8)(2)) on the sea, Great Crested Grebe (42), Guillemot & Auk sp (30+) and Swallow (4 heading east)

The Great Crested Grebe numbers are starting to build in the bay. Swansea Bay qualifies as being Nationally Important to Great Crested Grebes and the numbers that occur between Port Talbot Docks and Swansea Docks make a significant contribution to the overall total. The timing of their arrival is thought to co-incide with seasonal influx of herring, sprats and other fish species that shoal and travel up the Bristol Channel from November through to January. Outside of this period in the winter months the Grebe numbers can be fairly low, sometimes surprisingly so. When the fish are present Great Crested Grebe numbers sail past the 1% threshold (190) and have occurred at more than twice that amount. This year I'm hoping to organise a count, using recorders positioned across the bay, which should help us understand the numbers involved more accurately. I have a feeling the there may be many more than has been previously estimated and documented, however, numbers do fluctuate seasonally. We wait and see..

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