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

I've been working from home for a few days and have managed to get out and about in Sandy Water Park. Very few waterfowl about with only five Mute Swans this morning, a few Gadwall and Mallard. Pochard are down to a single male.  Two Cormorants were on the "island" both just getting into breeding plumage, note the white neck and thigh patches. Yesterday a distant flock of eight Sand Martins, my first summer migrant, this morning well over 50 were feeding low over the lake despite the chilly breeze, a single Chiffchaff was calling from the woods. Sand Martins are colonial hole nesters and have nested in the pulverised ash cliffs around Burry Port for many years, a good place to see them, if you find thye are nesting then let me know Gulls were present with c100 Black-headed, a pair of Lesser black backed and around 10 Herring Gulls, a confiding Grey Heron near the pub and a Little Grebe. Please note, during this time of uncertainty, wh

Despite the still very changeable weather butterflies are already making an appearance, a little bit of warmth in the sunny spells is encouraging them to emerge either from hibernation as in the case of Small Tortoiseshell and Brimstone while others will have overwintered as pupae either on the ground or attached to plants tucked away from the prying eyes of hungry birds and rodents. Small Tortoiseshell Brimstone On Friday whilst working with a group of volunteers at the entrance to Pembrey Country Park I happened to glance down and saw the unmistakable outline of a "blue" butterfly. closer examination revealed that it was a freshly emerged Holly Blue. At the time I just took a photo and warned everyone to watch out for the butterfly, which once shown where it was sitting everyone did. Freshly emerged female Holly Blue Thinking it may be too early for the Holly Blue to put in an appearance I did some checking, the records show that it usually emerges in the f

This blog continues explaining who and what the County Councils Outdoor Recreation Service is The Millennium Coastal Park, (MCP) stretches from the county boundary near Lougher Bridge along the coastal strip down to the eastern edge of the Burry Port Harbour area, a distance of around 14km. The main attractions along this stretch of coast are the Wildfowl & Wetlands LLanelli Centre, WWT Llanelli (WWT image ) North Dock Dunes and beach and Sandy Water Park. However if you visited this area in the 1970's you would seen a mostly heavily industrialised area, nothing like the green oasis that we find today. Early Industry Llanelli and the surrounding area grew up and became a place of extreme wealth from the heavy industry and mining over a 200 year period and whilst this brought undeniable benefits to the area, as heavy industry declined it did leave massive scars and industrial dereliction, as has been mentioned elsewhere, the decline was and still is, controve