In response to ludicrous suggestions that myself and others are deliberately suppressing or putting out late news of rare birds, you may be interested in the following:
If you sign up to Twitter and follow @welshbirders, you will get to hear news at same time as everybody else. This feed has been openly available for some time now, but it’s possible some of you may not have been aware of it. We have Mark to thank for setting this up and it is a great way of sending and receiving information quickly. If you’re not into Twitter then you can read the messages direct, without having to sign up, on the GRC blog.
Glamorgan Bird Club 
Well said Barry. Also a big thank you to Mark for setting this excellent facility up on the GRC Forum. Breaking news – White Stork over Lisvane.
Yes thank you Barry and thank you Mark for bringing me into the 21st Century. It’s easy to use even for an IT duffer like me.
Brilliant ! – Understanding that facilities exist for having Twitter/GRC Blog tell you what is going on is very good news – however if you are unaware of how to access the news via mobile phone messaging – then you are completely in the dark – and also unable to contribute it a like manner.
Richard, if you can’t access Twitter direct, why you ask a friend to forward on any messages they receive to you?
Sorry, bit too quick with my own reply there – I’ll try again … why don’t you ask a birding friend who can access Twitter to simply forward on any messages they receive, or even just those you think will be of interest to you – where there’s a will there’s a way!
We’ll done mark for setting this up its a great service for keeping up to date with bird news Barry like most of us gets news out quickly no question of suppression or mates only , anyway Barry looks nothing like jimmy nail
Also, unlike Jimmy, you wouldn’t find me anywhere near St James’ Park!
For Mark really. Would it be possible to add this twitter feed as a Widget in the Glamorgan BIrds sighting side bar. I can add a Twitter feed but I would need the Twitter short code for @welshbirders which has the form [twitter-timeline id=1234 username=yourhandle] from when you created the Twitter widget. Obviously I do;t have access to this. Or maybe you think this is going too far?
Well I have found out how to do it and have added a feed. If you’d all rather it wasn’t there then I’ll gladly remove it but I thought it would bring others into the news, who don’t necessarily watch GRC. John W [signed in as Glamorgan Birds admin].
I have been trying to get my head around setting up a twitter link from here to my mobilephone to give me a text message when each new item of news comes in. It seems complicated and I’ll have to get a twitter account to set it up. Is this the hard way or the easy way?
Hi John, well done.
Hi Rich, the most straightforward way will be to set up your own twitter account. Then link your phone to it through settings (possible also via an app but it’s not necessary). You can then choose to receive mobile notifications sent to your phone as and when a new tweet is published. If you have unlimited texts on your mobile phone contract then there will be no charge to receive a text from twitter. Pay as you go will incur a charge per text received. Based on news sent on over the last few years it might be worth expecting between 750-1000 tweets per year, of course this is dependant on what’s about in any given year. It’s also worth considering spring & autumn are generally busier than other times of the year. Furthermore, you have the option to turn on/off when it suits you. Messages delivered through a twitter app will be more dependant on 3G or 4G coverage and so potentially less reliable. I’ll be more than happy to have a chat with you about it or guide you through the process should you require any help.
Thanks for the kind offer Mark – if I get into difficulties I shall give you a call.