Litter, Litter Monday 24th September 2018

This morning I joined in with a beach litter pick, organised by the local Wildlife Litter Pickers group aided by employees of both Carmarthenshire County Council and Natural Resources Wales, on a little visited stretch of Cefn Sidan.

I say little visited because we were on the Pembrey Sands Air Weapons Range which is off limits to the public Monday - Friday when it is being used for bombing and gunnery practise.

A reminder of where we were!

The recent storms seem to have left most of the rubbish covered by sand but there was enough for the 25 strong band of litter pickers to do. 

Most of the "litter" was in fact discarded fishing net and rope although hard plastics and plastic bottles filled quite a few of the recycling bags amongst the  bags of landfill.

With most of the rubbish moved off the beach, 

even this end of session photo shows a lot of fishing net debris

There has been a concerted effort around the coast of Wales in the past week to clean up our beautiful beaches, we along the Carmarthen Bay coast have played our part with an effort last Friday at Pembrey Country Park, in less than ideal conditions, and another event planned there for Sunday 30th September.

It is worth remembering that the beaches along Carmarthen Bay, and more relevantly Cefn Sidan are "natural" beaches, not manicured beaches as found in some coastal resorts; as such natural and to some extent manmade marine litter plays an important role in the ecology of the beach and, where they occur, the sand dune systems.

Removing the large amounts of unsightly plastic bottles, plastic bags, fishing netting, oil drums and general litter can leave an aesthetically pleasing beach, leaving driftwood, and strategically placed items like old car tyres and fishing crates provides a home for many creatures, including some very rare or uncommon insects, as well as giving some stability to the drifting sand which allows the dunes to start to form (something that the Pembrey dunes are recognised for)

Please help to keep the beaches tidy by taking part in a two minute litter pick next time you visit, just remember leave your filled bags next to a recognised bin so that we can remove them safely.

Lesvos 15th -22nd September 2018 [The 500th blog]

A late and unexpected opportunity to make an autumn visit to the Greek island of Lesvos was not to be missed.

So it was that we arrived, at the HOTEL PELA; late on Saturday 15th to night time temperatures in the mid 20's. The hire car was provided by local company TSALIS with their usual efficiency.

Sunday morning, and every subsequent morning dawned clear with rapidly warming temperatures reaching around 30'c on average but with a few hours of 32'c before cooling down to the low 20's. The wind, was at times brisk from the NW which did little to cool the temperature but was still refreshing.

Having visited Lesvos at this time of year I was prepared for the challenge of finding birds, which is much harder than in the spring however a respectable 77 species, including some specials, was achieved.

The highlights of the trip were DALMATIAN PELICAN, with a max of 14 seen;  GARGANEY, PINTAIL, SLENDER-BILLED GULL, BROAD-BILLED SANDPIPER, CURLEW, LESSER SPOTTED EAGLE, CHUKAR, ELEONORAS FALCON, and more YELLOW WAGTAILS, of several sub species, in one field than probably the total UK summer population!!!!
I like to try and get two species counts done with LITTLE GREBE (93) at the Potamia reservoir, COOT (53) at the Persama reservoir, (I've counted these two species on most visits).

Dalmatian Pelican 

Yellow Wagtail sp

Birds in numbers included, WILLOW WARBLER, (every bush had handfuls of this warbler), SPOTTED FLYCATCHER, RED-BACKED SHRIKE and NORTHERN WHEATEAR,

Red-backed Shrike

Spotted Flycatcher

Other wildlife braving the heat were HUMMINGBIRD HAWK MOTH, with thousands on the wing across the island, in the hotel room, tavernas etc, basically anywhere there were nectar rich flowers.
A stunning EUROPEAN PRAYING MANTIS,  butterflies were well represented by SWALLOWTAIL, GREAT BANDED GRAYLING, CLOUDED YELLOW,LANGS SHORT TAILED BLUE, CARDINAL and AEGEON and the rarer TURKISH MEADOW BROWN

Hummingbird Hawk Moth

Praying Mantis

Other interesting wildlife included the EASTERN TREE FROG, these stunning frogs sheltered inside the closed sun umbrellas around the hotel pool.

Eastern Tree Frog

A trouble free trip, enjoyable break to this wonderful Greek island