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

I'll come back to the "mauling" in a while, yesterday evening whilst having a late look at the reserve at Pembrey I was delighted to have a close encounter with a Badger. We know they live on the reserve, we also know they are TB free, rarely seen due to their nocturnal habits seeing one out at dusk was great either a younger male or a female but either way it looked, turned and ambled off into a field. Badger, Wikipedia photo Now the mauling, I am carrying on with my Starling project, today using a 40' net as well as traps, when a low flying Lesser Black-backed Gull decided it wanted in on the free mealworms! She, for on biometrics it was probably an adult female now carries a BTO ring, a wing of 405mm, and a head and bill length of 110.5mm. Lesser Black-backed Gull I've got one or two scars although the secret is to wait until the bird lets go of your flesh before pulling away..............

Today being Wednesday means one thing, volunteer day, when the other three stalwarts, Veronica, Brian and Neil turn out to tackle tasks and "monitoring". Today we turned our attention to the main entrance area of the reserve, having removed part of the old wire fence a few weeks ago, it didn't take long for cars to be parked on the grassy area when the hard standing is full. Neil helped out for a while before going off to do a breeding survey for Stonechat, one of the ubiquitous birds of sand dunes and heaths. Digging in sand is great, however working on the edge of a tarmac road meant we soon found the going a bit tougher than usual but undeterred the replacement fence went in easily and even more satisfying is the fact that apart from any nails, all materials were recycled from "old unwanted waste wood". Brian hard at work Finished? I may tweak it a bit more! After lunch Veronica set off to look for the Strandline Beetle which should be emergi

The dry spell of weather continues, the reserve at Pembrey is very dry and the Green-winged Orchids are not at their best, a spell of gentle rain would freshen the vegetation and breathe some life into the dune flowers. Butterflies are on the wing, despite the strong winds at the weekend, with SMALL HEATH, and DINGY SKIPPER being new for the year. Dingy Skipper, there's always a piece of grass in the way! Despite many species of bird on eggs or feeding young there's quite a bit of song still to be heard through the day especially the scratchy notes of the Common Whitethroat. Seven new cattle are now in F2, they are still quite curious as some of them can barely see over the fence, but I bet they could jump it if pushed... the over winter grazing in F2 and F3 has benefited the wide range of flowering plants and as the season progresses they will be a riot of colour; we have a few flower walks planned so don't forget to put a note in your diary: 24h J