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

This morning started with a Snipe count on the lower section of the marsh, still a bit low with only eight birds seen, a bit of cold weather is needed to move the birds around a bit. I then walked the stretch of beach from the end of the grazing fields to the "Nose", sadly a lot of plastic litter has been dropped on the last few tides, as well as a few more Portuguese Man O' War. A few Portuguese Man O' War still washing up Storm Brian, left its mark with a lot of erosion of the dune face, the photograph shows an area we used as access to drive down on to the beach, its a long drop now! The remains of a small shark, possibly Small Spotted Catshark, looked like discarded bycatch Some prep' work for a ringing session on Monday morning, will hopefully make setting up easier!, a male Sparrowhawk checked out the ringing ride approvingly, just come back on Monday!! Through the van window male Sparrowhawk The grazier w

A ringing session at Pembrey Burrows was definitely on the cards this morning, all looked great even when I could see the stars as the overnight cloud had disappeared. With just 100ft of net set in some willow scrub and the reeds all was ready by 07:00hrs with the magical "Latvian Redwing" tape playing, I had heard one or two redwing calling in the dark as they flew over, so to find a sprinkling of them in the both nets was justification for the effort. I caught 11, but as dawn broke it was clear there were 100's on the move one flock alone held c300 birds. Redwing The caught and ringed birds were a mix of juveniles and adults, with weights averaging at 61g. There were a few Song Thrush in the bushes but only one in the net, I guess they arrived with the Redwing. None of the thrushes were carrying much in the way of fat, probably having used it up on their journey from the north. There was also an arrival of Goldcrests, although I only caught four, t

This week the LNR volunteers visited (we did some work) the Ynys Dawela Nature Park (reserve), a 15.8ha former farm,  then in the 1830's and 1840's mining area to exploit the rich mineral reserves of the area. A failed bid to develop an opencast mine on the land resulted in the site being secured by the local authority and subsequently passing to Carmarthenshire County Council. It is now a real patchwork of meadows, deciduous woodland with the Amman river forming one boundary. The site is home to a typical mix of woodland birds, yesterday Jays were very noticeable feeding on the abundant Acorn crop, its specialities though are probably the Whorled Caraway, the county flower, and the Marsh Fritillary, although present in low numbers habitat management is geared to conserving this now rare butterfly. Marsh Fritillary habitat The autumn colours are just coming out and with the great range of tree species,including Oak, Ash, Birch, Hazel and Holly, plus Fi