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

WWT Llanelli Today I joined the team from the Gower Ringing Group for another session at the Constant Effort Site (CES) at WWT Llanelli. The CES had been running for many years and provides useful data on the survival rates and suitability of the site for many species of birds, this data when added to the hundreds of other CES datasets is invaluable for the conservation of birds and habitats. We captured and processed 28 birds this morning, not a huge number but representative of the numbers present in the monitoring site. There were a few recently fledged birds including Robins, Chiffchaff, Wren and Song Thrush, as can be seen from the photograph below of the Song Thrush wing there is much to learn about the aging and sexing of each species when "in the hand", the need to accuracy reflected in the scientific output at the end of the season. wing of the Song Thrush, see the orange coloured "thorn" shaped marks and the crisp look to the plumage

That was a short summer..... The warm dry weather of last week seems a long time ago as I listen to the sound of thunder outside, Today was the Wednesday volunteers day (well it is Wednesday after all) and we went off to Morfa Berwig, the county's newest Local Nature Reserve. In honour of the designation we set about taking parts of the on site signage down to be branded with  bi-lingual Gwarchodfa Natur Leol/ Local Nature Reserve. Its fair to say the old signs put up a bit of a fight but we got there in the end and I'm sure they will look great when the work has been done. "..go on just one more push Veronica" Whilst there,  a bit of fence repair near the dipping ponds so that no one falls in!!! mmm we'll have to see on that one . By the way Veronica doesn't do all the work.... ..don't bend that 6" nail please..