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 start time 8pm -10:30pm *                                             

June 3rd Bird Ringing demonstration MORFA BERWIG LNR  07:30am -10am *               

June 9th Bioblitz Bat walk Pembrey Country Park discover the bats using the Dunes/Woodland landscape 8pm -10:30pm Bring a torch CONTACT PEMBREY COUNTRY PARK TO BOOK YOUR PLACE  on 01554 742368 charges apply

June 10th Bioblitz Pembrey Country Park CONTACT PEMBREY COUNTRY PARK TO BOOK YOUR PLACE  on 01554 742368 charges apply

June 23rd The amazing plant diversity of MORFA BERWIG , a former brown-field and lowland marsh site 10am -1pm*                         

*To book a place call 07984788218, if the event is cancelled we will contact you.

DIRECTIONS: Pembrey Burrows Local Nature Reserve: head towards Pembrey Country Park, but turn LEFT just after the speed bump on Factory road , follow the road to the free car parking.

Morfa Berwig Local Nature Reserve is near Bynea, parking available either at the Berwig roundabout on the A484 or  at the end of Berwig Road.

Ynys Dawela Nature Park,  near Brynaman, Directions will be provided at the time of booking.

Anyone wanting a copy of the programme, please get in touch via the comments box and I will email a copy to you, (copies will also be available at Pembrey reserve, Pembrey Country Park visitor centre and at the Discovery Centre at North Dock from the beginning of March)

A version in Welsh will also be available

Monday 19th February 2018

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, coupled with the weekend of volunteering by members of staff and the general public a few weeks ago a real improvement, sadly for how long?

A job well done, but plenty more to do....... THANKS EVERYONE

Friday-Saturday Sunday 18th February 2018

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

Wet Wednesday sunny Thursday 15th February 2018

WOW that was wet, almost continuous rain on Wednesday did not deter our hardy band from getting stuck in to various tasks at Morfa Berwig LNR, we were joined by students from Coleg Sir Gar doing community work as part of their Bronze DoE award.

The primary task was to install a new Oak sign at the A484 roundabout entrance, fortunately after a very short while I was delegated to take some of the students and support worker to remove some fencing, which whilst equally wet was a lot easier than digging three holes for the sign.

Despite the best efforts of the "sign team" progress was slow due to the difficulties in digging through the substrate to a depth sufficient to hold the sign, so after lunch it was back to it.

Fair to say we were all wet and muddy by the end of a tough day, some more than others!

Almost there......

..in context

Finished.....

In completely different weather, today, I attended a site meeting with Simeon, local residents, Outdoor Recreation mangers and Bumblebee Conservation to look at a great habitat creation idea in Sandy Water Park...watch this space.

After the meeting Sinead casually mentioned that following a guided walk at Pembrey Burrows LNR last summer she had collected a token specimen of the very scarce Moss Carder Bee, Bombus muscorum a difficult species to identify confidently in the field and requires examination under a microscope. This is a significant find in light of its restricted distribution in Wales and the UK generally being mainly a coastal species.

Another reason to visit Pembrey Burrows LNR, all year round

Back in the swing Monday 12th February 2018

Despite having had a really good holiday, it is always nice to come home....

I visited Pembrey Burrows and had a good look around, despite the cold wind the Skylarks were in full song, the sea and beach were oddly quite but all the cattle were present and correct.

We have had a much wetter winter so far, compared to 2016/2017, evidenced by the fact that the ephemeral ponds in GF3 are full.

Morfa Berwig LNR has certainly dried out quite a lot with the water levels dropping in all parts of the reserve. The refurbishment works on the bridges has been completed with them both looking good, the work should keep them safe and sound for a while to come.

Looking good

MADEIRA FEBRUARY 2018

Well just back from a week on the Portuguese island of Madeira, and what a great week it was.

Just 3.5hours flying time from Bristol but a world away in habitats and scenery.

A result of volcanic activity the archipelago consists of Madeira, The Desertas island (a national park with restricted access) and the Savage island (a bird reserve totally off limits).

The highest point is Pico Ruivo at 1826m. A moderate climate where summer temperatures average 25'c and the winter is mild at around 17-19'c at lower elevations with snow on the mountains for a few days each year; the weather  we experienced was mixed with every season experienced from SNOW on the mountains to gales and hot sunshine.

There are a number of endemic land bird species on the island, and although I visited over 20 years ago I never really got to grips with them, so this trip they were firmly in my sights.

I booked a half day trip with Madeira Wind Birds, run by Hugo and Catarina two local naturalists. They made light work of finding the target species kicking off with:

Trocaz Pigeon, Columba trocaz, the resident and endemic pigeon native to the laurel forests, with less than 8000 pairs I was expecting a struggle but as we pulled in to the viewing area on the side of the road there were two courting birds sat on the wall, Catarina said she had never seen the birds so close, of course by the time I got the camera ready they had flown across the valley to some tall trees, bigger than a Wood Pigeon, they are quite distinctive with a broad light band across the tail.

                                            Wikipedia free to use and share

my attempt

Next was Spectacled Warbler, Sylvia conspicillata, like our Whitethroat but with slightly different proportions, and with a prominent eye ring  the adult male we saw was stunning one of the early breeders on the island this one was far from shy as it belted out its song.

Our next target was a little gem, one that we get excited about here especially locally, a Firecrest, in this case the Maderian Firecrest, Regulus madeirensis, very similar to our own bird but with more black in the wing and less prominent supercilium, just like all "crests" very busy very fast but in numbers, at one point four in the same bush alas too fast for my camera.

(Wikipedia free to use and share)

The last endemic land bird to find was Berthelots Pipit, Anthus berthelotti, the only breeding pipit on Madeira, small but appearing long legged and the legs placed far back, the bill was quite distinctive as was the pale grey/white plumage tones, the bird lives on the windswept sparsely vegetated areas of the island and is not shy.

Being an island many of the bird species are subspecies because they are different in some way,  one particular ssp was the Chaffinch, maderensis which is quite a stunner, interestingly we also had the first record of "European" Chaffinch in with the flock of locals;

here's a list of the species and subspecies I saw.

Little Egret

Sparrowhawk ssp granti

Kestrel ssp canariensis    

Buzzard, ssp harterti

Moorhen

Coot

Turnstone

Black headed Gull
Yellow Legged Gull ssp atlantis

Rock Dove ( genuine ones) 

Trocaz Pigeon

Plain Swift

Berthelots Pipit

Grey Wagtail ssp schmitzi

Robin

Blackbird ssp cabrerae

Spectacled Warbler ssp bella

Blackcap ssp heineken

Madeiran Firecrest

Chaffinch

Chaffinch ssp maderensis

Canary

Goldfinch ssp parva

Although we went Whale and Dolphin watching one day we didn't see any neither were there any good seabirds present, its too early with May being a good time to see Zinos Petrel.

Other wildlife included the endemic Madeiran Wall Lizard, and a range of butterflies, with Clouded Yellow, Small White, Long tailed Blue, Langs short tailed Blue and  Monarch ( which is a resident breeder now)

Madeira 2018, Wednesday 7th February 2018

What a change in the weather, a trip around the eastern side of the island including a stop at the third highest point Pico Do Arieiro, at 1800+M about 6000ft.

Well that didn't  happen due to the road being closed at 1414m due to SNOW.

Not surprisingly the temperature at 1414m was 2'c with hail and Gale force winds.
Madeira is a stunningly beautiful island with 67% a Natural Park with areas  of it having some extra  level of protection, including SPA and SAC status as well as a UNESCO biosphere reserve.

On the Bird front the highlight was a brief but good view of MADEIRIAN FIRECREST, also seen were; TURNSTONE, MOORHEN, COOT, CANARY,GREY WAGTAIL,  and            Y L GULL.