Cast ashore Saturday 25th March 207

Wow what a day, after clear skies overnight, (no good for migrants), the morning soon warmed up and a walk along the last high water was fascinating.

With hundreds of Razor pod shells washed along with countless Tellins, and Venus spp shells it was great to also see, for my first time, thousands of By-the-wind Sailor, Velella velella, despite the appearance of the living animal this is not a Jellyfish, but rather a colony of individual polyps a pluestonic animal. All that was visible today were the papery skeletal remains but nevertheless an attractive looking creature.

By-the-wind Sailor

Another first for me for the beach was a tiny Common Starfish, Asterias rubens.  

Common Starfish

An unusual shaped Cuttlefish bone, oval shaped with a prominent spine and a tinge of pink, possibly the Elegant Cuttlefish, Sepia elegans.

ElegantCuttlefish (bone) ?

I also found a "sea bean", at first I thought it was a Sea Mouse, Aphrodita aculeate, but realised it was a seed pod, after opening it I extracted the bean, it awaits identification.

If anyone has an idea email me at:   paul.pembreylnr@outlook.com

Sea Bean ?

Catch up post.. Thursday 23rd March 2017

A busy few days, with winter having another go before hopefully letting go and giving spring a chance to break through.

A round up of activities, a leaflet dispenser at the entrance to the reserve has been a huge success and has been filled up three times in just four days, ok so it only hold six of the reserve leaflets due to their size but it shows that people are interested, or they just needed some paper...

The Bumblebee Conservation Trust in the shape of Sinead Lynch has partnered with the Sandy Water Park Residents Association and the council to introduce pollinator areas in Sandy Water Park (SWP), initially just a couple of plots each approx' 3sqm sown with a perennial meadow mix and a nursery mix of annuals. So a morning of sunshine and showers saw the volunteer conservation rangers along with Sinead and Simeon Jones the  county's conservation officer labouring away. opps no photo of any work being done..!

Today I returned to a property in Tycroes where the owner wants a Barn Owl box put up on the edge of his wood overlooking some rough grazing, he tell me that he's had Barn Owls nesting previously, the box he has had made to the specifications of the Barn Owl Trust, was so heavy it took two of us to carry it to the base of the tree, after fixing a bracket we tried valiantly to hoist the box into place...... after 90 minutes of huffing and puffing we reluctantly gave up to return another day with reinforcements... [it was so bloody heavy, at one point it swung like a pendulum and nearly had me off the ladder].

It was never going to be an easy job, top bracket in place

when the box is placed it will have a supporting bracket underneath,

there may be a follow up photo...

The lack of wildlife on the recent guided even is quite ironic, as on the next day I counted 47 Common Snipe, 3 Jack Snipe, Redshank, Wigeon, Teal, Little Egret and a Northern Wheatear, it just goes to show what difference a day and the weather can make.

Northern Wheatear,( a bird I caught and ringed in Autumn 2015 )

Sod's Law Sunday 19th March 2017

This morning dawned as forecast, which is always a surprise living on the coast, to rain and strong winds.....

Today was the last "winter" guided event......

As so happens it stopped raining around 9am, with the walk set for 10am, the wind didn't ease though, but that didn't stop six hardy souls and one dog joining me for a "beach and signs of spring" walk.

We walked east through the reserve turned south onto Cefn Sidan beach and aimed back to wards the east before turning north then west, a walk of 2.8miles or 4.5km.

Determined to make the best of the conditions

Disappointedly we saw NOTHING in the way of migrants and not a wader to be seen, 26 Cormorants, a few hundred Common Gull plus Herring and Lesser-black Backed Gulls, one Stonechat but plenty of singing Skylarks and Meadow Pipits.

There were no vocal complaints but I don't like to let visitors down so two Teal proved a highlight!

Our Spring programme of events starts on April 11th..........