Paul's Blog - All comments and views are my own,

  Croseo pawb,  Another busy week which has kept me on my toes, as usual, I've dealt with fish poaching, illegal vehicle intrusion, and odd things going on with a "Badger Sett". The relevant authorities are dealing with the poaching and vehicle issues whilst I have investigated the "goings on". Nothing of concern as there is no Badger sett just an outlier burrow probably an old boar Badger or one of last years youngsters pushed out from the main sett, quite common at this time of year when the sow badgers will be giving birth. Our amazing volunteers have been out and about, today they were at Morfa Berwig LNR, where I joined them this afternoon for their first reptile survey of the year, a very productive survey with 16 refugia to check and a total of 22  Slow worms, five Grass snakes, although two were out basking away from the refugia and just one Common Lizard. One refugia had seven Slow worms in a loose ball under it an incredible sight, another had Slow w

  Prynhawn da pawb,  I hope you have all weathered storm Kathleen. It's been a heck of a week personally,  I'm hoping this coming week will be better. Well storm Kathleen is the last weather event we need but sadly any meagre control we may have had over our climate has long run out. On a brighter note though a phone call from the county bird recorder set me off to Sandy Water Park, (SWP) where 13 Arctic Terns, 2  Little Gulls and a mixed flock of 2-300+ mostly Sand Martins and a few Swallows were playing in the wind. Little Gull If you're up to speed with the last few months then you will know that we have installed bird nesting rafts on SWP and at Ffynnon Helyg near Pwll, with a view of hopefully attracting  Common Terns to nest !!. OK its a coincidence but a nice one Earlier in the week a Little Ringed Plover was seen flying over the SWP raft, what's that saying, build and they will come! Lots of migrant birds have now arrived and we have some great places to seek th

Prynhawn da pawb, I thought I would try and summarise what has been going on in the last few months. The biggest development has to be the work we are conducting at our Ynysdawela Local Nature Reserve in Upper Brynamman. middle path above the river  This 16ha woodland site sits on the north side of the valley   and consists of former coal workings and farmland. Much   of the site is now secondary woodland with a small area of   Ancient Semi Natural Woodland, some marshy grassland   meadows, ponds and of course the River Amman on its   southern boundary. Meadow recovery in progress Work has concentrated on removing old infrastructure, improving the path network and managing the meadows more appropriately. Notable species are Hazel Dormouse and Marsh Fritillary butterfly, although work by Liam Olds and Christian Owen has identified a wealth of invertebrate life, but I'll leave that for another time. Access to the site is not straightforward but a few cars can park on Llandeilo Rd and

  Hi, after a long hiatus I'm going to give the Blog another life. I've moved on since the last blog and now work as the conservation Coordinator for Carmarthenshire County Council's Outdoor Recreation Service with six local Nature Reserves (LNR) to manage along with providing advice to our estates and operations teams. Despite last nights light snowfall we are well on our way into spring with recent days bringing in a lot of Chiffchaffs and Willow Warblers, Blackcaps have been recorded in smaller numbers. My first Northern Wheatear was a week or so ago a nice fresh male. I need to remember h ow this blog thing works so bear with me; if the technology works here is a short drone video of our two new nesting rafts, one at Sandy Water Park and the other at Ffynnon Helyg, thanks to ranger Oliver for the video .

  Well its ages since I've found time to write a blog post apologies for that but here we go with some interesting facts and personal thoughts about Carmarthenshire wildlife, and a bit further afield. Did you know: That we have a County plant, Whorled Caraway, Carum verticullatum ; found in typical Rhos pasture a feature of the Carmarthenshire landscape though often under threat from changes in agricultural practices Did you Know: That there are 311 species of birds recorded as being seen in the county, a respectable figure by an measure, amongst the rarities are Blue-winged Teal, a species from North America, Black Stork an European species which itself has a limited range. Having a decent stretch of well watched coastline the county is well placed for observers to document the seasonal arrival and departures of migrating birds such as Northern Wheatear, Swift, Willow Warbler, the Carmarthenshire Bird Club is a very welcoming bunch of like minded individuals and its well worth joi

I have recently been asked  to look at  a number of litter issues along the coast, it's always disappointing to see litter washed up anywhere but especially on "our" coastline. As regular readers will know I have blogged about this world wide problem often, but only when you look closely do you see the impacts made by marine bourn litter, especially of course, plastic in it's many guises. Over, probably thousands of years man has dumped unwanted materials, of course it wasn't always plastic, but no matter what was dumped much is now incorporated into the geomorphology of the landscape, especially beaches, dunes and saltmarshes. Driftwood is a natural stabiliser of the beaches and dunes, trapping, holding and allowing sand to form embryonic dunes quickly colonised by a range of "pioneer" plants, you only need to look at the recently exposed dune faces to see how man made items have also been doing the job of natural materials, making removing them very da