South Gower Cliffs - Gower - page 99

cover,whichinturnsupportsrichpopulationsofinsectsandsmallmammals,theGowercliffsareanideal
habitat. The Herpetological Conservation Trust is, however, coordinating a national adder census and if
the project is a success it will become an annual count.
BIRDS
TheGowercoastisanimportantareaforscrub-nestingbirdsandtheseincludelinnet Acanthis cannabina ,
whitethroat Sylvia communis , stonechat Saxicola rubetra and yellowhammer Emberiza citrinella . The
area is particularly noted for the extremely high density of breeding yellowhammers. The stonechat,
which has its largest and most consistent populations in the maritime scrub land of the southwest of Bri-
tain, was listed in the Swansea Guide of 1802 and over 200 years later it is still a common sight on the
cliffs, especially where there are gorse bushes. Feeding mainly on insects, worms and spiders, they are
easy birds to see as they perch at the tops of bushes, where they give their distinctive call (Fig. 52). They
breed densely on the coast and in some years there can be two or three pairs per kilometre. The cliffs
nearWormsHeadandCommonCliffusedtobeoflocalimportanceforasmallkittiwake Rissa tridactyla
colony;thisisnolongerthemaincolony,however,asforsomereasonmostofthebirdsdisappearedfrom
this location and took up residence on Mumbles Pier. Guillemots Uria aalge and razorbills Alca torda are
also present. Other notable birds nesting on the cliffs are ravens Corvus corax , peregrine falcons Falco
peregrinus and choughs Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax .
FIG 52 . Stonechat, near Middleton, a common sight on the cliffs. (Harold Grenfell)
ThechoughwasonceacommonbreedingbirdinBritain,buthasdeclinedsteadilysincethebeginning
of the eighteenth century and until recently was confined to Ireland, the west of Scotland, the Isle of Man
and Wales. A few birds have, however, lately returned to their ancestral haunts in Cornwall. Up until the
1840s it bred regularly in Gower and Dillwyn considered it a fairly common bird. By the end of the nine-