Rhino proof fencing, and two surprises Tuesday 18th April 2017

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I was joined, again, today by Simon Jones on work placement, with another pair of willing hands we tackled the rather unsightly entrance fence at Pembrey LNR, what started as a simple job took 2.5 hours of huffing and puffing trying to remove a few posts.

We actually gave in trying to remove two of them leaving one and cutting one off below ground level, the wire used on the fence was designed for Rhino control.

Interestingly whilst attempting to dig out one post we discovered four Slow Worms some 20cm below ground I managed to move three to a safe location whilst the fourth disappeared even deeper, hence why we cut the post off.

We then tackled some of the Sea Buckthorn that the machinery couldn't reach back in the winter its easy to make an impact with a pair of loppers and a saw...

Enough hard labour, we set off to do some monitoring of Shelduck drawing a blank we then tripped over some MOONWORT or rather 20 spikes of this unique looking fern with a liking for calcareous grassland and sand dunes, I only had my phone with me so apologies for the poor photos


Moonwort, Botrychium lunaria

Another pure luck encounter was with a female EMPEROR MOTH, a real stunner.

Female Emperor Moth Saturnia pavonia

The Emperor Moth is the only resident species of the Saturniidae family of moths of which there are about 1300 worldwide. The adult moths do not feed and are not usually seen in large numbers, this is a daytime flying moth and is unmistakable.


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