Thursday 11th August 2016

Guided Walk No 13 ...

Today was our thirteenth guided walk of the season, a Strandline Safari.

We started by taking a look at a plant I happened to notice as I approached the entrance to the reserve, Twiggy Mullein, a plant which has been noted in the county since the 1970's but not on a regular basis.

Twiggy Mullein

Nature has a way of doing what she wants and today most of the strandline was covered by sand with nothing out of the ordinary washed up, nevertheless we had an enjoyable stroll along the beach looking for the elusive "Beachcomber or Strandline" beetle, no we didn't find any but its pretty rare so.....

What we encountered were more signs of the onset of Autumn in the natural world, with good numbers of migratory birds on the beach, with 405 (and counting) Sanderling 44+ Common Ringed Plover and a handful of Dunlin.

Distant, Sanderling with the odd Dunlin

We made our way off the beach and over the dunes taking a detour to look at the salt marsh plants (the third time in a week),  we disturbed Silver Y moths again on a couple of occasions.

Silver Y moth

Then back towards the vehicles via one of the grazing fields, at the pond we were lucky to flush a Green Sandpiper, another migrating wader, from the very muddy margins, this is the first record for 2016.

Wednesday 10th August 2016

Work rest and play.....

Wednesday is volunteer day at Pembrey or Morfa Berwig LNR's, today we were at Pembrey.

Myself Veronica and Neil enjoyed a mixed bag of a day, with a bit of bird ringing, some vegetation clearing, some plant finding and hole digging.

The bird ringing came about as we were positioning the ringing poles in the main track ready for a ringing session, but since the nets were out we left them set for about an hour itwas late in the morning and the only birds caught were a Robin and a Chiffchaff.

After a spot of lunch in the warm sun we cleared a couple of ringing rides in the Sea Buckthorn before venturing out onto the marsh to look at some of the flowering plants, with Neil's help we sorted Sea Wormwood, Sea Aster, Sea Plantain and Cordgrass.

Again today, there were lots of Bumble bees on the marsh plants especially Red-tailed Bumblebee.

We kept putting off the main task of the day with diversions to look at Greater Spearwort a member of the buttercup family and quite a rarity in Carmarthenshire, we also came across the very attractive Carline Thistle.

Greater Spearwort

the leaves look nothing like "buttercup" leaves and give the plant its name

Carline Thistle

Itwas then on to the main event, the extraction of an old sign now being used by some as an air rifle target, I was warned that it had probably been put in well, it certainly had and took a lot of digging  scrabbling and heaving,to get it out but we did in the end and it has been moved to a new location to be put to good use....

"..the end of the posts are in there somewhere.."

A really productive and fun day....

9th August 2016

Pembrey Burrows ringing....

I had another session at the Swallows last evening, just doing a pre roost rather than a proper roost session, there's a lot of work for one person doing a full roost especially if you get overrun with birds at sunset.

In the end I caught just 12 Barn Swallows, but to add interest I caught the first Stonechat for the site, there are at least six breeding pairs on the reserve and they have had a particularly good year judging by the number of young around.

This was an adult male undergoing its "post breeding moult" this involves a complete change of all the feathers making this individual look rather unkempt.

Adult ♂ Stonechat

It is clear to see in the wing the difference between the faded un-moulted primaries and the fresher new primaries.

Stonechat wing, new and un-moulted primaries clearly shown

This morning I returned for another session, with the nets set and ready by 05:15hrs, a steady few hours with a total of 23 birds processed, not a huge number but there was quality in the form of a Garden Warbler, as well as several Sedge and Reed Warblers plus a Blackbird, a couple of Goldfinches and a very juvenile Robin.

I was joined by Veronica at 07:00, nice to have company and nice to have a hand to put everything away.

Garden Warbler

Sunday 7th August 2016

There be Dragons in those sand dunes.....

A blustery morning saw me at the eastern end of the reserve at high tide to do a sea watch.

The usual flock of Oystercatchers, todays count was 980, have returned to their roost site at the end of the reserve, (for most of the summer they have been about 1.5km further west and out of sight).

Mixed in there were 11 Ringed Plover, two Turnstone and very mobile flock of Sanderling that wouldn't be counted.

On the Gull front three Great black backed , 6 Mediterranean and around 80 Black headed Gulls made up the numbers, the highlight was 16 Sandwich Terns.

Oystercatchers at high tide roost

with Burry Holm on the Gower in the distance

This afternoon a visit to the information shelter on the reserve revealed two countryside rangers from Pembrey country park, (I think they took the wrong turning nice to see them though #oneteam), and 13 Common Lizards 12 on one log!!

Adult Common Lizard, notice the second growth tail

Immature Common Lizards