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Showing posts from August 20, 2017

Salt marsh plants, Saturday 26th August 2017

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Today was a guided event day, with the topic being flowers of the salt marsh led by Simeon the conservation officer. An overcast dawn turned into a warm sunny morning as we were joined by a small group, of mainly new people, to look at the specialists that inhabit the salt marsh at Pembrey Burrows LNR. No matter what the title of an event it's impossible to ignore anything of interest and we were soon looking at a mix of dune and  marsh plants; too many to list them all but the special ones included: Rock Sea Lavender, Sea Centuary, Sea Rush, Sea Aster, Sea Wormwood, Seablite, Common Lavender and Sea Purslane. Sea Aster Sea Centuary Just from the names a clear theme develops, the plants have a close association with the coast. Having just missed high water, we arrived at "the nose" while there were still good numbers of birds present including, Sandwich Tern (200+), Black headed Gull, Common Gull, Whimbrel, Mallard and Ringed Plo

Upgrade Tuesday 22nd August 2017

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Having held my C class ringing permit for several years, I've been thinking that I should get my backside in to gear and progress to the next level of an A class permit, my peers have been coaxing me for a while so I've finally given in. This morning, in seemingly good conditions I went through the assessment process, it was tough being under the spotlight but seemingly I am capable enough to have been supported in my application to upgrade, the only downside was the overall lack of numbers of birds, although with 12 species of birds the assessor was able to see me handle, age and assess a good range of birds, then rain stopped play! With Blackcap (11), plus numbers of Great Tits, Blue Tits, Coal Tits, Robins, Dunnocks, with Goldcrest, Treecreeper, Wren, Blackbird, Chiffchaff, and Willow Tit (1). Willow Tit The Willow Tit was the most interesting bird, as it was a "control",  having been ringed originally across the way at WWT Llanelli a few weeks ag