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

This morning was the first time since November that I have had the opportunity to ring at one of my own sites. I visited Morfa Berwig with Edward one of the Gower Ringing Group trainees and set just two 40' nets around the feeder site. Given the number of Blue and Great Tits in the area it was no surprise that they dominated the catch, however quality soon arrived in the shape of a WILLOW TIT, already ringed and re encountered once before this is the juvenile bird hatched at WWT, its fair to say we were happy with trapping the bird which was in great condition. Willow Tit A couple of rounds later we were pleased to see a "thrush" in the net, as I went to extract it there rather surprisingly was a REDWING, although not carrying any fat it felt in reasonable condition. Redwing The next round brought smiles as a Greater Spotted Woodpecker was in one net, then to top it Edward shouted that there was a "big bird" in the other net, in fact there wer

I know I know, some of you don't like change!! Apologies but I've changed the "theme" of the Blog, this design allows you to subscribe to email alerts whenever I post a new page, I don't always post on Facebook and Twitter ( and some of you don't do Facebook or Twitter)so I thought having your own personal link would be nice. It should be straight forward, I have tested it out myself, just click on "subscribe" and enter your email address, when you receive a confirmation email, Check your junk or spam box, follow the instruction, all in all it takes about 2mins. Although it says "subscribe" it costs nothing. I am getting around 1100 hits a month so thanks.

So yesterday we visited Ynys Dawela Nature Park near Brynaman. It's a really interesting site so look out for the guided events there in the coming months, see yesterdays blog!. I thought we were going to knocking things down, always fun, but no we were tidying up what had already been knocked down, eh oh still needed doing. We did start by putting the metal noticeboard in place on the new Oak sign looking good... It was good to see a decent mass of frog spawn in the pond as well as a few clumps in the nearby ditch, it's likely that the onset of the cold weather may kill off much of the spawn which is a shame but that's nature for you. Today despite it being my BIRTHDAY, I went and filled the feeders at Morfa Berwig, I will get around to ringing there soon I hope. It was good to see the ringed Willow Tit already at the feeders when I arrived accompanied by what seemed every Blue and Great Tit in the district. Worryingly I found some mammal prints that may b

Below is the guided events programme for April, May and June. There is also a programme for July August and September. We are doing things differently this year, we wish to raise the profile of the largely unknown gems across the county so our programme will cover more of the six Local Nature Reserves, also, booking for each event is required. GUIDED EVENTS 2018 Join our team to discover the wildlife of our Local Nature Reserves, throughout the county. Please note the location, and time , of each event carefully. BOOKING IS ESSENTIAL FOR EACH EVENT APRIL - MAY - JUNE April 7th Explore Cefn Sidan Beach   for birds, shells and more 10am -1pm. Meet at the PEMBREY BURROWS reserve entrance *                      April 12th Bird ringing demonstration at MORFA BERWIG reserve 8am -10am Weather dependant *       May 12th Dawn Chorus walk at Ynys Dawela Nature Park , meet at 04:45am * May 24th Discover the bats using the woodlands at YNYS DAWELA NATURE PARK s

Today saw the local litter picking group out on a schedule pick on part of Cefn Sidan to the west of Pembrey Country Park, they were joined by 8 staff from AMEY, on a corporate volunteer day, (arranged through Keep Wales Tidy) they kindly brought along some ATV's and trailers, as well as CCC staff. Litter picking group getting sorted AMEY team getting stuck in We couldn't get on to the part of the beach inside the military Air Weapons Range as they were expecting fighter jets in for target practise. Hard to see in the photo but the difference between uncleared (back LH side) and cleared beach The team covered about 2miles? of beach clearing a few tonnes of marine bourn litter from the beach, this is a stretch unsuitable for the Strandline Beetle, which will be in hibernation at this time of year, but anyway there was little in the way of large pieces of plastic to clear. The end result has clearly improved the aesthetic of the beach, coup

A bit behind with the blog, Friday was a great day to be on the reserve at Pembrey Burrows, a nice winters day.  A Snipe count on the marsh revealed at least  111 Common Snipe and three Jack Snipe. I wandered through GF3, seeing that the five cattle are looking good, one No 406 was particularly boisterous and was keen to have his photo taken, although I did need to get over the stile pretty quick when he run up behind me! With friend Nick down for the weekend we went to Morfa Berwig, not a lot going on but sharp eyed Nick spotted some fresh Otter spraint on a rock where the animals appear o be crossing the track. This Morning, Sunday, we popped down to Pembrey and were lucky to have a Great White Egret circle the marsh, four Shelduck were the first for a few weeks, again Skylarks were belting out their fantastic song. Tomorrow MONDAY there is a beach clean meeting in PCP at the beach entrance at 10am