Friday 24th July 2015

Well the forecast rain arrived in the early hours, although not as heavy as I thought it would be, and by lunchtime it had petered out.

Continuing to explore this part of Carmarthenshire led me to Llyn LLech Owain country park, a SSSI north of Crosshands

The habitat is a lake surrounded by peat bog, heathland and conifer forest, despite the grey skies it was a pleasant surprise to find yet another habitat so close to our new home.

I'm a bit out of touch with this type of habitat but took a few pictures to refer to my flower guide. A newt crossing the path looks very much like a Palmate newt.



Llyn Llech Owain

Hypericum sp (one of the St John Worts)



Heather or Ling, Calluna vulgaris

Cross leaved Heath Erica tetralix

Palmate newt Lissotriton helveticus

speaks for itself really, a noticeboard!

Thursday 23rd July 2015

An early start to join the ringing group at WWT Llanelli for the CES session, it was good to actually ring some birds again after what seems such a long time.

I had to leave before the session ended as I had a meeting with the conservation ranger to discuss ringing in the area, I'm happy to say the meeting went really well and I will start ringing in the next couple of weeks.

The Tufted duck female still has one duckling, and the two immature Great Crested Grebes are doing well.

Great-crested Grebe you can tell its a young bird by the stripy head markings

and the other one!!!, notice they both have bits of weed around their necks

Wednesday 22nd July (2)

After lunch we drove around the coast to the other side of the Loughor estuary, calling at Penclawdd, famous for its cockles.

Whilst sat eating chips (really good chips) this Med' Gull appeared on the side of the creek.

Mediterranean Gull centre foreground black in the wing tips suggest a 2 year old bird

bi-coloured bill and reddy/yellow?? legs

Wednesday 22nd July 2015

Guess what! its raining again, well ok its a light drizzle the forecast says its going to pass over and looking out of the study window it seems to be right.

I walk around the lake at SWP, (sandy water park) in what was a flat calm morning with light drizzle was quiet, the only thing of note was the fact that the female tufted Duck is down to just one duckling, from seven a week ago!!

I popped over to WWT Llanelli for an hour or so, in the rain, 24 Greenshank, 44 Redshank and 27 Lapwing made up the numbers.

The most interesting bird I could muster was a very wet Common Whitethroat, carrying a spider to no doubt feed some waiting chicks. ( try clicking on the photo to make it larger, you can clearly see what looks like a Garden Spider )

Common Whitethroat, Sylvia commu

Monday 20th July (2)

With the morning tide, a visit to WWT Llanelli was on the cards, its only 6 minutes away by car! so why not.

24 Greenshank, were the highlight.

one of the 24 Greenshank at WWT Llanelli this morning

Monday 20th July

An overcast morning with an easterly breeze,

07:00hrs, Sandy Water Park.

The female Tufted duck is down to only two ducklings, originally she had seven
there was a significant flock of around 30 Swifts, at the Pwll end of the lake, these high fliers will soon be leaving us, I expect they will all be gone by around mid August.

58 Mute Swans, two Reed Buntings, a Chiffchaff and a Reed Warbler was the best I could muster.

The Chiffchaff and Reed Warbler are more summer visitors to the UK, and by the end of October I suspect they may be well on the way to their wintering grounds, the Chiffchaff perhaps no further than the Mediterranean regions (although some do stay through the winter in the UK), whilst the Reed Warbler will venture as into Sub-Saharan Africa to winter in tropical Africa.

(The pictures are not great, the light was awful, but if you click on the picture you maty get a better size image)



Reed Warbler, Acrocephalus scripaceus



Reed Bunting, Emberiza schoeniclus

female Tufted Duck now with only two ducklings

Sunday 19th July 2015

The forecast weather didn't materialise and instead we have had a really sunny day although a westerly breeze kept the temperature down.

High tide tonight was due at 9:28pm, so I spent from 6pm - 7:30pm watching out over the estuary.

The tide started to creep almost imperceptibly over the sand banks as it did so eleven Whimbrel were flushed and flew up river.

Magical!!!!!

The high tide, which is a 7.4m tide, will cover all the visible sand and mud tonight.

Looking up river on the Loughor estuary/Burry inlet



the "same" view 30  minutes later