Fishing styles, 7th January 2017

A very quick visit to WWT Llanelli with fellow Lesbos traveller Nick, saw us in the British Steel hide, in murky conditions.

A nice range of waders with Greenshank, Redshank, Lapwing, Black-tailed Godwit and a lonely Dunlin, with a smattering of Teal, Mallard and a nice grazing flock of Wigeon provided some interest.

A decent sized flock of Greylags flew onto the scrape in classic skein fashion.

Greylag overhead

Greylag, wiffling onto the scrape

Decent views of Water Rail and feeding Little Egret and Cormorant.

Friendly Corvid Wednesday 4th January 2017

Yesterday, being a Wednesday was volunteer day at Pembrey Burrows, after a good ? litter pick around the car parks and tracks we managed to clean the area up after a busy Christmas and New year period, but why do people not take their dog mess home with them!!

A spot of emergency fence repairs in two fields, following the great escape before Christmas, left us just enough time to do a spot of "monitoring" along Cefn Sidan.

The amount of sea bourne litter was very depressing, but its a reflection of our society across most of the world, I didn't take any photographs as I'd left my camera in the van, and anyway one pile of litter is much the same as another.

Thankfully Veronica was snap happy and managed to capture this cheeky chappy, a Northern Raven, very much king of what he/she surveys quite unphased by our approach, although two others a mile or so away were less settled.

Northern Raven

A report of a Dolphin corpse on the beach from a local turned out to be either a Common or Striped Dolphin, apparently over the Christmas period there have been several reports along the coast of South Wales.

A sad end for a graceful sea mammal

Rainbows in ice 3rd January 2017

Winter has it's grip on the Pembrey Burrows reserve, with very few signs of life.

A cold crisp day with a walk along the length of Cefn Sidan bordering the reserve, with low water at 15:30, there were few signs of life the exception being a Stonechat which made its way along the beach keeping a few metres in front of me for most of the walk.

Common Stonechat

To be frank there was very little else to be seen, even when I made my way back into the dunes the best I could muster were a few Song Thrushes, and the odd Little Egret.

Looking west along the beach my eye was caught by an unusual sight of an "ice rainbow", I expect there's a more correct term, I believe this happens when the sunlight refracts through the ice crystals in the Cirrus clouds which were forming above me.

Ice rainbow?

What ever its called it was brief but interesting, just shows you need to look up sometimes.

There are some patches of Ivy, especially along the main track to the information shelter, the berries are enjoyed by the birds and there is a nice display at the moment.

Ivy berries