Catching up Saturday 3rd November 2018

An overcast, milder day with the threat of strong winds and heavy rain so why not get out for an hour or two.

I started by checking the sheep, yes sheep, which are grazing in one of the four foredune fields on the seaward side of the country park  at Pembrey.

We have a mixed flock of 47 ewes and rams of the Glamorgan or Nelson breed, perhaps better known as the South Wales Mountain Sheep. They are conservation grazers in the same way as the cattle on the nature reserve are, we are hopeful that they will graze the wide mix of plants in these foredunes, whilst their trampling will open up the ground creating bare areas of sand so loved by invertebrates.

A last look at home before a holiday by the sea!

More detail about the breed can be found here

https://southwalesmountainsheep.co.uk/

The field is fenced with sheep netting and barbed wire and the gate is padlocked, there is no public access to the fields, with plenty of signage explaining why the sheep are there.

With an eye cast skywards I managed to see a large white bird fly over from the direction of the burrows, a Great White Egret, lovely to see there are more and more sightings of this relative newcomer to Carmarthenshire.

Other birds this morning were, Sparrowhawk a male and female, plenty of Jays and a few mixed flocks of tits in the woods.

I'm about to set up a winter bird feeding project in the Country Park which will, hopefully, turn up a few goodies.... I'll keep you informed.

Cough it up, Sunday 28th October 2018

I've often commented that you don't have to see a creature to know that it's been around, all animals will leave a clue to their presence, this is no better illustrated than in birds which produce a "pellet" of the indigestible parts of their food.

People are often surprised and often misunderstand what is going on when a bird regurgitates one of these pellets, many think that the bird is vomiting, I guess in a way they are, except of course it's essential to their wellbeing that they remove the indigestible parts of the food via their mouths rather than letting the materials pass right through their gut, think of an owl trying to pass a mouse skull, ouch!

Barn Owl

All sorts of birds produce pellets, here are just a few; Owls, Crows, Gulls, Herons, Kingfishers, Hawks, Falcons and even Penguins (not that we get many of these in Carmarthenshire).

Carrion Crow pellets

This week I watched a bird produce the bright purple pellets in the photograph, they were about the size of a garden pea, I'd be interested if anyone can identify the bird from the pellet.

What bird produced these

Dissecting owl pellets is a great way to engage children, its easy to do, (once you have the pellet) and there are plenty of great reference materials out there to help identify the bones and skulls found, it's not smelly or dirty but washing hands afterwards is a must.

Short-eared Owl pellets, 

with a bird ring from a Meadow Pipit (see a previous blog for the details)

The Field Studies Council, FSC, produce loads of great easy to use guides, including this one on Owl pellets.

Do you feed the wildlife in your garden, Monday 22nd October 2018

Are you one of the millions of people who take the time and effort to feed the wildlife, mainly birds for most, in your garden? 

Well if you are, and to be honest if you read this blog then you probably do.
With the seasons changing albeit erratically at the moment but with a hint of more typical autumn weather due in the next week now may be time to think about making sure that you are prepared for the duties ahead.

Lets not take the fun out of feeding the birds, but seriously regular feeding can be the lifeline for our garden birds. Once you start feeding for the winter keep it going, it can be expensive so a little and often will benefit the birds and enhance your pleasure of watching the antics of the regular visitors. Don't forget fresh water will be appreciated for drinking and bathing.

 

Choice of feed is important, avoid bread, buy the best you can afford, if using fat balls only buy the ones in nets if you are prepared to REMOVE THE NET.

There are a number of diseases and viruses around which can affect birds, the work of these at the moment is Trichomoniasis, (Trich') Greenfinches are reported most frequently, but potentially any bird can be infected, including pigeons and doves and some birds of prey. The trichomonad parasite lives in the upper digestive tract of the bird, and its actions progressively block the bird’s throat making it unable to swallow food, thus killing it by starvation.  

Greenfinch succumbing to Trich'

 The infection is spread as birds feed one another with regurgitated food during the breeding season, and through food and drinking water contaminated with regurgitated saliva. Saliva can also contaminate a birdbath. Trichomoniasis cannot live long outside a host.

Trichomoniasis causes lesions in the throat of the infected bird, which makes it progressively harder for the bird to swallow its food, and eventually breathe. Birds will also show signs of lethargy and fluffed up plumage, drooling saliva and regurgitated food. Affected birds frequently have matted wet plumage around the face and beak and uneaten food in and around the beak.

The Papilloma virus is often seen in Chaffinches, the disease causes warty outgrowths on the foot or tarsometatarsus (the bare part of the leg). Usually only one limb is affected. The growths vary from small nodules to large irregular shaped and deeply-fissured masses which almost engulf the entire lower leg and foot and which can distort the toes. Affected birds usually seem in otherwise good health but some may show signs of lameness and hop mainly on the unaffected foot and digits may be lost. The warts grow slowly and may progress over many months.

Chaffinches showing advanced Papilloma

One way of tackling both these issues is regular cleaning and disinfecting of your feeders, and move them around the garden regularly to let the ground under the feeders rest, if you spot sick birds STOP FEEDING and REMOVE WATER for at least three weeks; and although the disease is not transmittable to humans wash your hands after contact with the feeders. 
Don't let these issues put you off there are far more positives than negatives from feeding the birds through the autumn and winter.

Flocking to Pembrey -Cefn Sidan Sunday 14th October 2018

There has been a bird survey carried out across the whole of the UK, called the Wetlands and Estuaries Bird Survey or WeBS commencing in its earliest form some 70 years ago,
the area of beach at Cefn Sidan to Tywyn Point has been counted for the past 30 years.

The counts are synchronised across the UK with this years start date being October the 14th for the monthly counts, designed to coincide with a morning high tide. Given the vastness of Cefn Sidan the count is done from a vehicle and the beach split into two sections, so it was that I started todays count.

This time of year sees large numbers of birds, waders,(or shorebirds) wildfowl and gulls arriving on Cefn Sidan and the nearby marshes of Kidwelly and Pembrey to spend the winter, Cefn Sidan plays host to nationally important numbers of some species such as Sanderling, a bird which breeds in the high Arctic and winters in milder climes.

Sanderling

The mud and sands that make up the beach are rich in marine worms, and  molluscs, while the strandline provides shelter for invertebrates which the birds can find by working their way through the seaweed.
One of the creatures present is Hydrobia, a favourite of Shelduck is a small snail about 4mm tall also known as the Laver Spire Shell.

                                  "The laver spire shell is often found in huge numbers, 
                                           sometimes up to 300,000 per square metre"
.
Each species of wading bird has a bill designed to feed at a particular depth, this way they don't compete with each other for the food available.

The stormy weather on Friday and Saturday will have influenced the birds counted today amongst which there were Common Scoter (on the sea), and of course Oystercatchers

Knot, present in thousands during winter

Ringed Plover

Knot

There was a female Grey Seal on the edge of the Gwendraeth enjoying the sun.

The best counts were.
Common Scoter 7510+, Oystercatcher 6942+, Sanderling 381, Curlew 161, Dunlin 30, Ringed Plover 38, Turnstone 2, Red-throated Diver 1, Great-crested Grebe 1


Look out for the next bird watching event, look on the Pembrey Country Park website and on this  blog; in the meantime a good place to watch waders from is Old Pembrey harbour near the Shoreline caravan park, especially on rising tide.

What a HOOT! Friday 5th October 2018

With the evenings drawing in it makes the opportunity to see our shyer wildlife a little easier, so it was I joined a group of 19 wildlife seekers with Outdoor Recreation Service rangers Ollie and Scott, for a late evening/night-time wander around Pembrey Country Park.

We were on the look out for those creatures of the night such as Foxes, Badgers and of course Bats; whilst identifying the larger animals such as Badgers is easy those flighty bats need some clever equipment called "bat detectors", which turn the high pitched calls of these high fliers into sounds which we humans can hear.

Bat Detector

With chillier evenings any bats will be trying to feed hard before making the move to hibernate for the winter, which for them is rapidly approaching. We managed to "see" with the detectors Common Pipistrelle and Soprano Pipistrelle.

Pipistrelle Bat

We were also listening out for the distinctive calls of Tawny Owls, there are a few pairs in the Park and surrounding forest, so as there is a nationwide survey, (organised by the British Trust for Ornithology to establish the population across the UK) taking place this winter we wanted to be able to contribute, see below for more details and to join in yourselves. We only heard one Tawny Owl, it may be a little to early in the season so they haven't really started proclaiming territories

 

Tawny Owl

Foxes are great opportunists and feed around the campsite, but despite some carefully laid "bait" the local foxes didn't show, but of course they have the rest of the night.

Although we didn't any Badgers, Ollie and Scott showed the group the signs to look for, such as a Badger latrine where the Badgers leave their poo in holes dug in the ground, this is not because they are fussy but because they use the latrines to make the edges of their "home range", We also saw where the Badgers had been grubbing around for "leatherjackets", the larvae of the "daddy-long-legs".

Some of the preparation by Ollie and Scott included laying a "sand trap" along likely animal routes, you could do this at home just clear an area of ground about 50cmx50cm and put down a layer of sand or sifted soil so that any animal walking over the area leaves their footprints you can then use a guide from the internet to identify which animals visit your garden: (copy and paste the link below)

https://www.rspb.org.uk/globalassets/downloads/animaltracks_tcm9-133380.pdf

Badger

At the end of the two hour walk everyone was very happy with their little adventure in the dark. Keep looking out for more events, on Facebook or Twitter,  either at Pembrey Country Park or the Pembrey Burrows Nature Reserve

What should you listen for? Tawny Owls are reliant on vocalisations, using them to show ownership of a breeding territory, as well as to attract a mate and reinforce a pair bond. They produce a variety of calls but the most common are a "hoot" and a "kee-wick" call. Don't worry if you're not confident in identifying their calls, there's lots of help available on our new Tawny Owl information page.

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