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

A damp mizzly sort of morning, but with the right clothing nothing to stop a decent walk around the Pembrey Reserve. Nothing of note just good numbers of the common birds, with BULLFINCH, ROBIN, SONG THRUSH, FIELDFARE, BALCKBIRD SKYLARK AND STONECHAT all present. A GREAT CRESTED GREBE off shore and 21 CORMORANTS, 29 RINGED PLOVER, 8 SANDERLING and c2000 OYSTERCATCHERS around CE51. Clearly the excitement was yesterday when Jean Dovey was on site, armed with her camera she managed to capture some lovely shots of two SHORT-EARED OWLS, in what were clearly poor light conditions. Its great to see that the owls have stayed around the area, although catching up with them is a bit of trial and error . SEASONS GREETING TO ALL BLOG READERS.....

It's Wednesday, regular readers know that means it's volunteer day. Today we journeyed to the NE corner of the county to the Ynys Dawela Nature Park. In typical December weather of light rain and mist we tackled a few jobs, including removing some fencing - seems we always remove fences- the usual litter pick and a   Knotweed survey ready for dealing with in 2018, there was very little Knotweed found. Just how deep is this pond? It is a wonderful location and the recent management work on the dipping pond, the "meadows" and areas of woodland will enhance the respective habitats for the Marsh Fritillary and allow light to the woodland floor to enrich the flora. Mown meadow There were good sized mixed flocks of birds moving through the woods with TREECREEPER, NUTHATCH, BLUE, GREAT AND LONG-TAILED TITS, a few JAYS moving through and the ubiquitous GREY SQUIRREL. The photo doesn't do the actual scene justice, ..all was calm and still.....

I was expecting help in the form of a volunteer group this morning, unfortunately they cancelled at the last minute, these things happen..... Being the OCD organised person I am I had already prepped a lot of work which needed to be finished, (I'd made such a mess I couldn't leave it) The Berwig roundabout entrance is getting there, it was a bit muddy after the alterations, but now there is space for at least eight carefully parked cars enough for any events we hold there. Interesting birds today, using the winter feeding station I've been given permission to set up, and already I can confirm the presence of WILLOW TIT, and a gang of COAL TITS. Willow Tits are RED listed which means they are of the highest conservation concern in the UK, Carmarthenshire has a reasonable population of these very fussy birds.     Willow Tit