A Tern of events Sunday 7th April

 Prynhawn da pawb,  I hope you have all weathered storm Kathleen.

It's been a heck of a week personally,  I'm hoping this coming week will be better.

Well storm Kathleen is the last weather event we need but sadly any meagre control we may have had over our climate has long run out. On a brighter note though a phone call from the county bird recorder set me off to Sandy Water Park, (SWP) where 13 Arctic Terns, 2  Little Gulls and a mixed flock of 2-300+ mostly Sand Martins and a few Swallows were playing in the wind.

Little Gull

If you're up to speed with the last few months then you will know that we have installed bird nesting rafts on SWP and at Ffynnon Helyg near Pwll, with a view of hopefully attracting  Common Terns to nest !!. OK its a coincidence but a nice one

Earlier in the week a Little Ringed Plover was seen flying over the SWP raft, what's that saying, build and they will come!

Lots of migrant birds have now arrived and we have some great places to seek them out, try Ynysdawela Local Nature Reserve in Upper Brynamamn, or Morfa Berwig Local Nature Reserve near Bynea, don't forget to report your bird sightings to  About us - Carmarthenshire Bird Club and other sightings to

 Welcome to West Wales Biodiversity Information Centre - West Wales Biodiversity Information Centre (wwbic.org.uk)

What's new

Prynhawn da pawb,

I thought I would try and summarise what has been going on in the last few months.

The biggest development has to be the work we are conducting at our Ynysdawela Local Nature Reserve in Upper Brynamman.

middle path above the river

 This 16ha woodland site sits on the north side of the valley   and consists of former coal workings and farmland. Much   of the site is now secondary woodland with a small area of   Ancient Semi Natural Woodland, some marshy grassland   meadows, ponds and of course the River Amman on its   southern boundary.

Meadow recovery in progress

Work has concentrated on removing old infrastructure, improving the path network and managing the meadows more appropriately.

Notable species are Hazel Dormouse and Marsh Fritillary butterfly, although work by Liam Olds and Christian Owen has identified a wealth of invertebrate life, but I'll leave that for another time.

Access to the site is not straightforward but a few cars can park on Llandeilo Rd and walk down the track, (w3w location is  scanning.hack.claw ) or at the cinema in Upper Brynamman, follow the road signs

 

Its back, ranger nature notes

 Hi, after a long hiatus I'm going to give the Blog another life.

I've moved on since the last blog and now work as the conservation Coordinator for Carmarthenshire County Council's Outdoor Recreation Service with six local Nature Reserves (LNR) to manage along with providing advice to our estates and operations teams.

Despite last nights light snowfall we are well on our way into spring with recent days bringing in a lot of Chiffchaffs and Willow Warblers, Blackcaps have been recorded in smaller numbers.

My first Northern Wheatear was a week or so ago a nice fresh male.

I need to remember h
ow this blog thing works so bear with me; if the technology works here is a short drone video of our two new nesting rafts, one at Sandy Water Park and the other at Ffynnon Helyg, thanks to ranger Oliver for the video

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Carmarthenshire - Did you Know?

 Well its ages since I've found time to write a blog post apologies for that but here we go with some interesting facts and personal thoughts about Carmarthenshire wildlife, and a bit further afield.

Did you know:

That we have a County plant, Whorled Caraway, Carum verticullatum; found in typical Rhos pasture a feature of the Carmarthenshire landscape though often under threat from changes in agricultural practices

Did you Know:

That there are 311 species of birds recorded as being seen in the county, a respectable figure by an measure, amongst the rarities are Blue-winged Teal, a species from North America, Black Stork an European species which itself has a limited range. Having a decent stretch of well watched coastline the county is well placed for observers to document the seasonal arrival and departures of migrating birds such as Northern Wheatear, Swift, Willow Warbler, the Carmarthenshire Bird Club is a very welcoming bunch of like minded individuals and its well worth joining, Covid-19 has messed up 2020 events but I'm sure as soon as "normality" returns the club will be back in full action, in the meantime report your sightings on the website.

Did you Know:

Carmarthenshire is a stronghold for the stunning Marsh Fritillary butterfly, and is found on Rhos pasture where it finds the right habitat for its caterplllars, the main foodplant is Devil's-bit-Scabious (Succisa pratensis). On calcareous grassland, it occasionally uses Field Scabious (Knautia arvensis) and Small Scabious (Scabiosa columbaria).

Did you know:

The Hazel Dormouse has a decent foothold in the county with the valleys to the northwest of the county having the perfect habitat for these stunning rodents, there are also records from more coastal locations which is very encouraging, they will be entering their period of hibernation now, finding refuge at the base of trees and dense shrubby.

Another small mammal many wouldn't associate with the Carmarthenshire countryside given the vast acreage of diary farms, is the Harvest Mouse, but they are here in secluded nooks along the coastal strip and no doubt other locations, look out for their tell tale tennis ball sized nests in reeds, rushes bramble bushes.

Did you know:

That Pine Martens probably were never extinct in Wales! just a thought

Did you know:

The first modern record of breeding Goshawks in Wales was in our county.

Did you know:

Some of the best locations to observe wildlife in Carmarthenshire are the four Country Parks and six Local Nature Reserves, when restrictions allow, get out there see what you can find.

Strandline or litterline Tuesday 23rd September 2020

I have recently been asked  to look at  a number of litter issues along the coast, it's always disappointing to see litter washed up anywhere but especially on "our" coastline.

As regular readers will know I have blogged about this world wide problem often, but only when you look closely do you see the impacts made by marine bourn litter, especially of course, plastic in it's many guises.

Over, probably thousands of years man has dumped unwanted materials, of course it wasn't always plastic, but no matter what was dumped much is now incorporated into the geomorphology of the landscape, especially beaches, dunes and saltmarshes.

Driftwood is a natural stabiliser of the beaches and dunes, trapping, holding and allowing sand to form embryonic dunes quickly colonised by a range of "pioneer" plants, you only need to look at the recently exposed dune faces to see how man made items have also been doing the job of natural materials, making removing them very damaging.

I am often disheartened by the amount of plastic wrapped up in seaweeds often impossible to remove which means to remove the plastic then the seaweed must also go, depriving the beach of natural building materials and removing countless food sources for sand-hoppers and the like which in turn removes food for wading birds.

So lets look at the strandline, Collins dictionary gives this meaning, 

"a mark left by the high tide or a line of seaweed and other debris washed onto the beach by the tide"

So after the recent Autumn Equinox high tides the strandline is very visible with debris washed high up on the beaches and salt marshes along the coast, it will take sometime for the evidence of the tides to disappear, however as there was relatively calm weather at the time of the high tides much of the buoyant, unnatural, material was lifted from the beach and carried off shore, this will, sadly, undoubtedly reappear on a coast nearby in the future.

I have commented before that, mechanically cleaning beaches is incredibly destructive and any such action should be targeted and limited, there are no resort beaches in the county and thankfully we do not see mechanical cleaning any longer, better to appreciate the natural beauty and do what we can to remove and recycle as much man-made material as we can.

The natural detritus will decompose naturally and with help from sand hoppers and other detritivores munching on the decomposing vegetation, providing a huge feeding opportunity for the 1000's of wading birds, such as the Ringed Plover below (photo Colin Dalton) and gulls which visit our beaches for the winter.

KEEP SAFE 

Nutha(s) Thursday 10th September 2020

 A perfect morning with the right conditions, overcast not a breath of wind and importantly no rain, for a brief ringing session at Pembrey Country Park, in fact apart from two Swallows this is the first session for me since 17th December 2019, a combination of weather, Covid-19 and enthusiasm.

I've managed to find another very suitable location for woodland ringing, and despite the likelihood of a "Tit fest"  (ringers know what I mean) there is potential for it to be quite productive.

The best of the morning were three Coal Tits, all hatched this year, a Great Spotted Woodpecker again a bird of the year, a Blackcap and two Nuthatches ( BTO code-Nutha), I've not seen a Nuthatch at the Country Park in the five years I've been involved with the team so to capture two a male and a female has been a success.

I have a purpose designed nest box which I received as a gift some years ago which has been out of action since moving back to Wales so it will be put to good use for next Spring and hopefully it will become a home to the two birds caught and ringed today.

It looks like a good year for Oak with many of the trees in the area laden with large acorns

Storm Ellen 20-22 August 2020 autumnal feel

 

A taste of Autumn indeed, with gusts over 50mph recorded at the Met office weather station - Pembrey Sands, it was no surprise to discover that there has been more erosion of the dunes along Cefn Sidan, no doubt the missing sand will reappear somewhere else along the coast.

A couple of decomposing Common striped Dolphins were not, I feel, connected with the storm, the Ravens were not shy in tucking into them.

On the bird front a quick visit to Old Pembrey Harbour yesterday afternoon was good with four Knot, in excess of 50 Ringed Plover, a few Sandwich Terns and Mediterranean Gulls with 800 Oystercatchers.

Today a check of the beach at high tide revealed plenty of common Scoter riding out the rough seas off shore and a STORM PETREL, very close to the beach. Not regularly recorded in Carmarthenshire Storm Petrels are summer visitors and breed on the Pembrokeshire Islands so this could have been one blown of course in the storm, a very characteristic bird with an almost dainty flight appearing not too dissimilar to a House Martin.

With less stormy weather forecast it would be a good idea to head down to the coast for the morning tides in the next few days, high water will be around 10am at Burry Port tomorrow, and check out the sea and shore to see what birds are around.