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

An overcast morning was in sharp contrast to the last few weeks, slightly cooler and much more bearable. Wednesday's are usually volunteer day, but with holidays and a lack of jobs there seemed little point in dragging the team out. We have had two lads on work experience in the country park so I was asked to give them a tour of the Pembrey Burrows LNR, the plan was a reptile survey and then a Strandline Beetle survey. The reptile survey was disappointing, even at 09:30 I think it was too warm and most reptiles had warmed up and were already on the move, we did however find a GRASS SNAKE about 40cm long, and a WOOD MOUSE. The survey for the Strandline Beetle was even more unproductive with none seen, this is the second unproductive survey this season. We did however find a genuine "message in a bottle", with a bit of trouble including a finger well and truly stuck we managed to retrieve and read the rather sad message, a little too sad to publish on the blog.

Well what a run of dry sunny weather, reminds me of 1976, yes I am old enough to remember!!! The butterflies on all the reserves seem to be having a good season, maybe the cold winter played a part in this? It's worth getting out early to enjoy the cooler hours but stay long enough for the butterflies to get going. Of course one downside to the hot weather is of course that much of the vegetation is "going over" sooner than perhaps it would during a "normal" summer, however the Common Sea Lavender is in bloom as is our speciality Rock Sea Lavender. The warm weather has brought out the crowds, who in the main, have been well behaved, however no matter how well behaved people are mistakes, and, avoidable accidents do happen, and so it was on Sunday, when despite the small amount of rain, a small fire started in Pembrey Forest just outside the Country Park.   It appears that an illegal campfire had been lit but despite the efforts of the person(s) resp