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

After visiting SWP, I drove to Kidwelly Quay the tide was out and the birding was great. The highlights were Four Common Sandpipers, 300+ Redshank, 28 Dunlin, one Knot, one Sanderling, eight Shelduck, 100's of Curlew and at least 3 Whimbrel. In the river there was a shoal of Mullet splashing about.  Common Sandpiper, see how the white underside goes up to the shoulder, a good ID feature     After moving the furniture in the next task on my mind was the garden, and especially a pond, well here is the almost finished pond , planted with native pond plants, such as Yellow fringed Water Lily, and Branched Bur Reed there have already been damselflies visiting!!!  Due to the make-up of the ground I could only dig down 15cm, so the pond is a raised pond, 180cm X 90cm the twig bottom right hand, is a perch for dragonflies.

With ringing at Oxwich NNR cancelled due to the wind, I still got up and went out at 4:30am, I thought I would try and catch a duck or two or a Moorhen at the Water Park now that I have permission from the council to ring in the area. Failure, dismal failure I think I was too early, the birds were skittish and the presence of four Fox cubs didn't help. A couple of bats feeding over the water were probably Daubenton's bats Anyway after breakfast I walked around the lake and found 64 Mute Swan, £ Gresat crested Grebe, the female Tufted duck with still one duckling and three Common Gull, this particular gull is not that common!! In Coed Cefn padrig there was a family of Chiffchaffs, a Jay, Long tailed Tits and a couple of Whitethroats. On the sands at Cefn Padrig 13 Little Egret. Male Tufted Duck   Male and Female Pochard (at the back) and Tufted Ducks   Common Gull   Common Gulls with Black-headed Gulls, at this time of year the Black-headed Gulls are los

Well the forecast rain arrived in the early hours, although not as heavy as I thought it would be, and by lunchtime it had petered out. Continuing to explore this part of Carmarthenshire led me to Llyn LLech Owain country park, a SSSI north of Crosshands The habitat is a lake surrounded by peat bog, heathland and conifer forest, despite the grey skies it was a pleasant surprise to find yet another habitat so close to our new home. I'm a bit out of touch with this type of habitat but took a few pictures to refer to my flower guide. A newt crossing the path looks very much like a Palmate newt.  Llyn Llech Owain Hypericum sp (one of the St John Worts)  Heather or Ling, Calluna vulgaris Cross leaved Heath Erica tetralix Palmate newt Lissotriton helveticus speaks for itself really, a noticeboard!

An early start to join the ringing group at WWT Llanelli for the CES session, it was good to actually ring some birds again after what seems such a long time. I had to leave before the session ended as I had a meeting with the conservation ranger to discuss ringing in the area, I'm happy to say the meeting went really well and I will start ringing in the next couple of weeks. The Tufted duck female still has one duckling, and the two immature Great Crested Grebes are doing well. Great-crested Grebe you can tell its a young bird by the stripy head markings and the other one!!!, notice they both have bits of weed around their necks

After lunch we drove around the coast to the other side of the Loughor estuary, calling at Penclawdd, famous for its cockles. Whilst sat eating chips (really good chips) this Med' Gull appeared on the side of the creek. Mediterranean Gull centre foreground black in the wing tips suggest a 2 year old bird bi-coloured bill and reddy/yellow?? legs

Guess what! its raining again, well ok its a light drizzle the forecast says its going to pass over and looking out of the study window it seems to be right. I walk around the lake at SWP, (sandy water park) in what was a flat calm morning with light drizzle was quiet, the only thing of note was the fact that the female tufted Duck is down to just one duckling, from seven a week ago!! I popped over to WWT Llanelli for an hour or so, in the rain, 24 Greenshank, 44 Redshank and 27 Lapwing made up the numbers. The most interesting bird I could muster was a very wet Common Whitethroat, carrying a spider to no doubt feed some waiting chicks. ( try clicking on the photo to make it larger, you can clearly see what looks like a Garden Spider ) Common Whitethroat, Sylvia commu

With the morning tide, a visit to WWT Llanelli was on the cards, its only 6 minutes away by car! so why not. 24 Greenshank, were the highlight. one of the 24 Greenshank at WWT Llanelli this morning

An overcast morning with an easterly breeze, 07:00hrs, Sandy Water Park. The female Tufted duck is down to only two ducklings, originally she had seven there was a significant flock of around 30 Swifts, at the Pwll end of the lake, these high fliers will soon be leaving us, I expect they will all be gone by around mid August. 58 Mute Swans, two Reed Buntings, a Chiffchaff and a Reed Warbler was the best I could muster. The Chiffchaff and Reed Warbler are more summer visitors to the UK, and by the end of October I suspect they may be well on the way to their wintering grounds, the Chiffchaff perhaps no further than the Mediterranean regions (although some do stay through the winter in the UK), whilst the Reed Warbler will venture as into Sub-Saharan Africa to winter in tropical Africa. (The pictures are not great, the light was awful, but if you click on the picture you maty get a better size image)  Reed Warbler, Acrocephalus scripaceus  Reed Bunting, Emberiza s

The forecast weather didn't materialise and instead we have had a really sunny day although a westerly breeze kept the temperature down. High tide tonight was due at 9:28pm, so I spent from 6pm - 7:30pm watching out over the estuary. The tide started to creep almost imperceptibly over the sand banks as it did so eleven Whimbrel were flushed and flew up river. Magical!!!!! The high tide, which is a 7.4m tide, will cover all the visible sand and mud tonight. Looking up river on the Loughor estuary/Burry inlet  the "same" view 30  minutes later