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

Early start pays off..... Well it wasn't that early really, on site for 06:00 and just two nets set in the Sea Buckthorn/Gorse scrub near the information shelter., with a distinct nip in the air and a real autumnal feeling. A steady run of birds including, Willow Warbler, Dunnock, Blackcap and Whitethroat, with the star bird of the session being a Pied Flycatcher, not only the first ringed at Pembrey Burrows, but the first I have ever ringed. Common Whitethroat Pied Flycatcher, aged on a combination of features but middle tertial clinched the age as a 3, hatched t his year (hard to see in the photo's) This bird was different to the bird I saw on Wednesday, which after discussing the photo with a friend was most likely and adult bird, while today's was definitely a bird of the year BTO code 3. Pied Flycatcher With Wednesday's bird being the first for the site and then today a second I wonder how many of this under recorded, (aw

You just never know what will turn up..... I was just pottering along in the van this morning thinking about the day ahead when it occurred to me that there were quite a few birds in the scrub along the track to the information shelter..... Then a bird flitted into view and landed in front of the van  and flew straight back up into the bushes, it took a few seconds for it to register that the bird was in fact a Pied Flycatcher, a ♀ type and a cracking record for the reserve. Pied Flycatcher, record shot The rest of the day was spent with the "Wednesday Crew" doing a range of tasks that seemed to involve a fair bit of dog poo!!!!, as well as rummaging through refuse skips for useful objects like an old bath.... (water trough for cattle). On the wildlife front a Barn Owl box with a Honey Bees colony in residence was a startling sight, just as well we didn't have a ladder to check the box. The sight of two quad bikes emerging over the top of the

A taste of autumn .... The past few days have seen a real good mix of weather, culminating in a day and night of gales with wind speeds at Pembrey of 63mph, and yes its still August. The Carmarthenshire Bird Club event on Thursday saw 21 members enjoy a mixed bag of waders and gulls but only low numbers of terns, Sandwich Terns being the only species seen Amongst the waders the surprise was 6 or 8 Bar-tailed Godwits, also present were over 4000 Oystercatchers, 84 Ringed Plover, a handful of Dunlin and Knot. A Common Sandpiper was new for the reserve 2016 bird list. Gulls were present in good numbers with Black-headed the most abundant, Herring, Lesser and Greater Black-backed, Common and Mediterranean all in reasonable numbers, A couple of Gannets offshore, and a Fulmar which came in very close off the estuary completed the seabirds. Black-headed Gull Land birds included  2 Northern Wheatear, Linnets, Stonechat, Rock Pipits and Pied Wagtails, and an adult and