Tuesday 25th August 2015

07:15hrs a walk around the lake with few dog walkers about, and very little else apart from 54 Mute Swan, 30+ Sand Martins a Great Spotted Woodpecker and a Great Crested Grebe trying to eat, of all things, a large ELASTIC BAND!!!, thankfully it looked as though the bird gave up on it



some of the 54 Mute Swans on the lake this morning,
apologies for the picture quality?? a bit bright

I did a bit of botanising, to identify the willows growing around the lake as there is a desire? by the local residents association to have them cut back, I found Crack-willow Salix fragilis, Purple Willow Salix purpurea and Grey Willow Salix cinerea.
The Grey Willow is easily managed by "laying" stems so that they can regrow.

Willow leaves, L-R Crack-willow, Purple Willow and Grey Willow

Next weeks blogs will, hopefully, subject to technology be coming from mainland Greece!! if not normal service will resume on 8th September.

Sunday 23rd August 2015

After three inches of rain in the last four days the weather was set to get better this evening, and it did!

A swallow roost ringing session had been planned at Oxwich Marsh NNR and so at 18:30 I met up with Owain and Keith to be joined later by, Darren, Phil, Wayne and Heather.

An additional set of three nets caught, Reed, Sedge warblers and Whitethroat so was set to add variety to the main event of  85 Swallows with a good smattering of adult birds, and four Sand Martins as well as a Common Pipistrelle bat which was released unharmed.

the first few Swallows being ringed

Wing measurement one of the "biometrics" we take



Juvenile Swallow Z544022 soon to make that epic journey to South Africa

Saturday 22nd August 2015 (2)

When the sun decided to come this afternoon I thought I'd take a look at the Bumble Bees in the garden.

I was pleased to identify six species of Bumblebee plus a Hairy Footed Flower bee.

The photos are a of the very few that stayed still long enough to snap.

Garden Bumblebee (happy to be corrected)

White-tailed bumblebee

Common carder bee

There was also a couple of "garden" Orb spiders in the garden

"garden" Orb spider

Saturday 22nd August 2015

Despite the rain I ventured out this morning, first to the Water Park, where the highlights were a Garganey, a Kingfisher, 10 Gadwall and about 150 Sand Martins.

Sand Martins and a Swallow having a brush up in the rain

Then I drove to Kidwelly Quay where I had, 307 Redshank and 24 Greenshank, and got very wet!!!

Redshank

a distant Whimbrel

Next and last stop was Pembrey Harbour with high tide due for 11:25, here there were     658 Oystercatchers, 3 Gannet, 1 Peregrine, 85 Ringed Plover, 10 Greenfinch feeding on the high tide line, and about 11 Linnets; made for an interesting couple of hours.

Adult Linnet (front) with juvenile behind

Thursday 20th August 2015

With high tide of 6.9m due around 10am, I visited WWT Llanelli.

Totals included 35 Greenshank: 8 Dunlin: 31 Little Egret: 15 Lapwing: 1 Whimbrel: 1 Ruff (a juvenile).

Juvenile Ruff in front of two Redshank

Wednesday 19th August 2015

YESTERDAY evening I joined a bat survey at Carmarthen on the River Towy, it was mild and quite windless.

Using "bat detectors" or more correctly I used a Heterodyne, and the Bat Conservation Trust guy used a very fancy Frequency division detector and Time expansion recorder.

We detected three species of bat, Noctule, Soprano Pipistrelle, and Common Pipistrelle; effectively one of the largest highest flying bats and the joint two smallest bats.

Obviously no photographs....

A really enjoyable couple of hours

Tuesday 18th August 2015

Another ringing session at Oxwich Marsh this morning, although due to other commitments I had to leave at 08:30am, however in the short time there was a nice selection of birds caught including Stonechat, Whinchat, Tree Pipit, Siskin and Kingfisher.

Only a few dodgy photos today.

Whinchat

Tree Pipit

Siskin in moult