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

I was duly awakened by the slashing rain sometime in the early hours, then the sound of neighbours hammering something or other in the dark got me out of bed for my planned visit to the reserve at Pembrey for high water. I'm glad I made the effort, with the wind pushing the tide the marsh was completely flooded well before high water at 07:50hrs. The drive along the edge of the reserve yielded my first REDWINGS of the year as well as SONG THRUSH and BLACKBIRD, all trying to keep low.. A good variety of birds on the marsh battled the wind with, TEAL (50), MALLARD (c25), WIGEON (2), REDSHANK (c25), CURLEW (2), SNIPE, as well as the usual assemblage of Lesser Black Backed, Black headed and Herring Gulls. With gusts of over 60mph recorded at Pembrey Sands, it was no wonder the instruments on the shelter were rattling.

With storm "Brian" on the way for Saturday I got out and about this morning and walked the beach, it was good to see very little storm damage from last weeks visitor, Ophelia. Noticeable in the brief window of good weather was the movement of Skylarks heading SE across the reserve and out over the estuary, the Cormorant flock is building up at CE51 with c25 birds roosting this morning. Heading back inland a late Northern Wheatear was nice to see, it may be the same one that Adam saw at the Pembrey Harbour end earlier today. Northern Wheatear A well earned rest in the shelter allowed me to notice the number of Goldcrests, and Robins flitting about. On the walk back along the gravel tack to the van there was lots of birds activity in the scrub and a few minutes of "pishing" soon had a couple of Blackcaps, a  male and a female type, investigating the noise; (pishing is a birding term for making a pish sound which some birds will come to investigate).

This morning was my first chance to return to Pembrey and check what, if any, damage had been caused by ex-hurricane Ophelia. It appears that the only problem was the instruments on the weather station were facing the wrong way!, (well with gusts of 75mph recorded it wasn't surprising), that was soon rectified and now everything is facing in the right direction. I did a Snipe count on the upper marsh and found 17 Common Snipe and one Jack Snipe, perhaps numbers are on the low side but there was two thirds of the marsh not counted! Common Snipe Three fly over Ravens, and a single Red Kite added some interest. Another storm is forecast for Saturday with a tide at 07:50hrs of 8.7m the marsh will hopefully be flooded and may bring in a few windswept goodies.

Ex-hurricane Ophelia started to make itself felt this morning with the most eerie of skies and a blood red sun, a consequence of the volumes of Saharan dust picked up by the high winds, typically I didn't mange a photo but there have been plenty on the news and social media. The MENCAP stalwarts turned out and helped repair the enclosure in F2 which will assist the grazier in gathering the cattle when needed. The cattle are so inquisitive they just stood around watching and at the rattle of the tool box were straight in looking for food, I felt a little mean as when we arrived they were all in the enclosure and to move them into the field I pretended to have food, so they would follow me!! That's not straight.... The full force of this ex-hurricane built up during the afternoon and this evening the sea off Burry Port was very turbulent, there were lots of people watching the waves and braving the wind, I guess there's something captivating about weather wa