Round up of recent sightings Friday 13th October 2017

I'd like to say not much has been going on, but as ever that's not the case although I can't really discuss much on here.

Instead here are some of the recent wildlife sightings at Pembrey Burrows.

A juvenile MOORHEN was, surprisingly, a new bird for the reserve, as was a GREAT WHITE EGRET, a long overdue sighting as they occur frequently at Kidwelly Quay and WWT Llanelli.

Great White Egret (GWE)

The recent high tides seem to have brought a lot of fish "fry" into the marsh as the GWE was accompanied by a good count of eight LITTLE EGRETS and three GREY HERONS, which could be seen actively catching fish.

MEADOW PIPITS and SKYLARKS have increased in n umber in the last ten days, with a small influx of GOLDCRESTS being vocal in the Sea Buckthorn bushes.

Goldcrest

The run of westerly winds seems to be holding up some of the more expected species, such as Redwing and Fieldfare, but the sea has seen most action with RED-THROATED DIVERS seen offshore, an increase in GREAT CRESTED GREBES and the appearance of BRENT GEESE all signs the seasons are changing.

Red-throated Diver, usually a distant view

A walk in the dark and a surprise, Friday 6th October - Saturday 7th October 2017

A late evening visit to Pembrey in the hope of ringing some waders, was the plan with a very high tide, perhaps too high for the task and just a lonely Oystercatcher ringed. But apparently it was a "nice walk", there was something surreal about splashing in the sea in the dark!

The surprise came as we arrived at the beach where a Grey Seal pup raised its head to check us out.... still in it cloak of white(ish) fur it paid little attention to us until Gwyn had to walk passed it when it did get a bit agitated.

I don't do "cute" but there's no denying that

the soulful look in those eyes did give me a warm feeling...

I was concerned that it may have been too young to be on it's own, the nearest colony is at Worm' Head on the Gower, it sneezed a couple of times and when we returned from our "nice walk" it was soundly asleep.

Just a bit of curiosity

I returned this morning to see if it was still there but it had moved away, hopefully rested and fit enough to fend for itself.

Typically I only had my phone hence the poor photos but it was after sunset!

Suspicious activity confirmed. Wednesday 4th October 2017

Wednesday, as we all know is volunteers day, so it was that I was joined by Brian, the others having other commitments.

We completed jobs that have been on the list for a while plus a job forced on us by laziness on the part of a third party!!!

No Parking message reinforced at the barrier, and an extra barrier put in place.

We also linseed oiled the "snaths" for the scythes which was quite satisfying, another job ticked off.

Now to the suspicious activity, a few days ago I found a Wood Mouse corpse in the information shelter, behind a seat, it had been bitten through the head... also a few "splashes" of white on the outside of the building. Then yesterday I found an Owl pellet in the shelter! and more splashes. A carefully positioned trail camera and my suspicious were confirmed, one or more, Barn Owls visiting the shelter at night.

Barn Owl Pellet, I will dissect it and see what's been eaten

Monday 2nd October 2017

A drier morning to meet the stalwart MENCAP volunteers for a litter pick along the beach.

It was breezier than it felt once we arrived on the open beach, but undeterred we set off collecting another five bags of rubbish, mostly old fishing rope and netting.

Some of the things we didn't pick up included the single dead Sheep, the Single juvenile Porpoise and the host of Barrel Jellyfish.

Amongst the usual tide line debris were a couple of interesting finds, including a first sighting for me of  a Portuguese Man o'War, Physalia physalis, and several complete By-the-wind Sailor, Velella velella, previously I've only seen the "skeleton".

* please do not touch the

Portuguese Man o'War,

they sting even when dead*

Portuguese Man o'War 

Porpoise?

I suspect the recent run of horrendous weather out in the Atlantic has contributed to the arrival of such a mix of creatures.

On the land side of things it may interest followers to look for the very amiable Ivy Mining Bee, Colletes hederae, feeding on the late flowers of Ivy, the bee is not aggressive so allows for a close up look/photograph.

Ivy Mining Bee

If you are lucky enough to find this bee please  pass the information onto

http://www.bwars.com/content/colletes-hederae-mapping-project

I suspect they will need a photograph.

Also please let me know if you do find the bee especially if it's on one of our reserves or in the MCP.

Does someone have a grudge? Saturday 30th September

In between the showers there was an obvious passage of Skylarks moving in a NW - SE direction with the birds gaining height as they approached the estuary.

A juvenile Moorhen was a new bird record for the reserve, well at least I've never recorded them before, this brings the 2017 list to 124 species.

I drove into the old car park to be confronted by the sight of one of the stiles completely trashed and cattle wandering around the dunes!!!!!

Closer inspection revealed the stile had been dismantled and the wire pulled open, cattle don't do that!

Cattle don't "peel back" fencing

This is the second incident of vandalism targeting the cattle in this field to have occurred in the last month.

Luckily today the cattle were keen to follow a rattled bin bag, thinking there was food in it, so they were soon back in the field leaving the grazier to secure the fence.

putting posts in the easy way !

Marble Galls Morfa Berwig Friday 29th September 2017

Morfa Berwig was due a visit this morning, so I trundled along with the weather overcast but dry with some sunny spells.

The first thing I noticed as I approached the entrance were two new signs, it looks like the environmental enforcement team are getting as fed up with the fly tipping at the reserve as we are, well done..... We do have some Welsh Government signs to go up to reinforce the penalties of fly tipping.

A leisurely walk around the reserve accompanied by the sound of the birds in the trees and ditches, with Moorhen, Water Rail, a tit flock  and a new bird for the site a Green Woodpecker, one or two flowers are still out including Marsh Ragwort; butterflies were represented by Red Admiral and Speckled Wood.

There are one or two decent sized Oaks on the reserve and I was drawn to one particular tree which seemed to have more galls than acorns.

Oak Marble Galls

The galls,in this case Oak marble galls, are caused by a chemically induced distortion of leafbuds, caused by the gall wasp Andricus kollari . The wasp is not a native to the UK having been introduced from the Eastern Mediterranean in the 1800's for the tannin properties found in the gall.

Andricus kollari, 1.5 - 2 mm

The marble gall has alternating sexual and asexual generations, often taking two years to complete, especially in the north of Britain. The familiar summer gall develops from eggs laid by a sexual female in the developing buds of the two native oaks in May or June; the host trees often being immature or retarded, scrub-oak, specimens; they are rarer on older healthy trees.

The developing spherical galls are green at first, brown later, and mature in August. Each gall contains a central chamber, with a single female wasp larva of the asexual generation, which emerges through a 'woodworm-like' hole as an adult winged gall-wasp in September. These asexual (agamic) females lay unfertilized eggs in the embryonic bud leaves of the Turkey oak, with galls slowly developing during winter, and are visible in March and April as small oval structures between the bud scales, looking like ant's eggs or pupae. The emerging adult gall-wasps in spring are the sexual generation, producing both males and females, which fly to the common oaks to initiate the formation of the summer marble gall.
The abnormal buds develop during summer and the bud is wholly replaced by the gall growth. Marble galls may remain attached to the tree for several years. The level of attack by the insect varies greatly from year to year.  [source- Wikipedia]

exit hole....

Fascinating this nature stuff.

The recent rains have raised the levels of water across the site and its starting to take on its mantle as a wetland site, its worth a visit at anytime just to see how nature given time will heal the land.

Wednesday 27th September 2017

A completely different day, weather wise, to yesterday with a stiff breeze blowing and an outlook of rain to come.

The team took to the beach to collect up bags of litter already collected on previous litter picking days, someone had got there before us for one lot, but at the western end of Cefn Sidan the bags still waited to be collected.

Then a spot of lunch in the van whilst sat watching the seascape and putting the world to rights....

There were some decent numbers of birds on the beach with a nice range of species including, Oystercatchers, Dunlin, Sanderling, three Bar-tailed Godwits, c6 Sandwich Terns and a single Ruff,  as well as the usual array of gulls

Sandwich Tern

Back into Pembrey Country Park where we collected Willow and Birch branches for the local primary schools' "forest school".

A couple of Spindle shrubs were really showy with their fuchsia pink and deep orange seed heads, really brightening up the forest track.

Spindle

We dropped off the branches at the school where they were received with huge enthusiasm from the pupils and teaching staff.