Thursday 15th October 2015

With the settled weather continuing, (high pressure and an easterly airflow) another session at Pembrey LNR.

I heard Redwing flying over on Wednesday evening so it seemed the obvious thing to do, play the tape and see what happened.

Redwing, the first of the Autumn

I caught two Redwing, an adult and a juvenile, a great result I hope there's more to come...


I also caught a "control" Reed Bunting, this is a bird ringed by another ringer at a different site, as it happens the bird was ringed on 23rd September 2015 at Oxwich NNR.

Reed Bunting ♂

All in all a steady three hour session with a total of 20 birds caught.

12th October 2015

With clear skies overnight and the temperature down to 5'c, and no breeze I set up for a session at Pembrey Burrows LNR.

With only three nets in play (two of which were a dogleg for pipits in a trial location) it was relatively quiet with only 11 birds ringed however more lessons learned.

Song Thrush (1), Dunnock (2), Robin (1) Wren (2) Goldcrest (1) Goldfinch (1) Meadow Pipit (3).

Song Thrush

Goldfinch

Also noted were seven Ravens heading towards the beach, the ♀ Sparrowhawk, five Pintail, Seven Stonechat and a Buzzard.


Still a few flowers in bloom including Gorse or Furze, this spiky plant can flower in every month of the year, and of course lots of plants setting seed.

Gorse

Dog Rose "hips"

 

11th October 2015

I'm up to 28 bird species seen in or flying over* the garden at Llanelli since we moved in on 6th July 2015, its a long way off the 54 species at our old garden in the Cotswolds seen over 4 years.

After a slow start though I am beginning to build up number of individual species and now can have up to 15 Blue Tits, three or four Great Tits, two or three Coal Tits, a couple of Robins and the odd Dunnock; however a good count of 43 Goldfinches accounts for how fast the sunflower hearts are disappearing.

Goldfinches and Chaffinch

I should start to pick up a few waders as the autumn progresses, considering how close the estuary is.....

* birds flying in the "airspace" above the house.

Friday 9th October 2015

With the group ringing at Oxwich this morning and early start, so on site for 06:15hrs to have the nets open just at dawn.

Penrice Castle above Oxwich Marsh at dawn

A calm morning brought a steady stream of birds totalling at 80 birds processed.

Forty one of these were Goldcrest mostly males and mostly hatched this year, the billy bonus birds were two FIRECRESTS, both males hatched this year I called them "jewels of the forest" last week, well this week they were "jewels of the marsh".

Firecrest

A juvenile Lesser Redpoll was left unsexed, they can be tricky at this time of year.

Lesser Redpoll

Just before packing up Cedwyn, may co-ringer for the morning< switched two tapes over to Green Woodpecker call and within seconds an immature males was in the middle pocket.

Green Woodpecker

Thursday 8th October 2015

With a change of plan this morning I was able to run a ringing session at Pembrey Burrows LNR.

I arrived early, around 06:15hrs, an hour before sunrise and set just two nets, a 18m and a 12m, as it was my first visit.

A steady stream of birds including Blackbird (2), Blue Tit (8), Great Tit (2), Robin (3), Dunnock (2) Meadow Pipit (4); I was quite happy with 23 birds especially when the forecast "high pressure" rained all over me for twenty minutes.

Dawn over the dunes

Meadow Pipit

Wednesday 7th October 2015

Better weather forecast today and feeling cooler than yesterday by a few degrees.

Wednesday is becoming my volunteering day with the volunteers at Pembrey burrows LNR, and so we met at around 10:15am for a bit of fencing and gate installation.

How many people does it take to drill a hole in a post

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a bird fly onto a fence post, that's a CUCKOO I thought, its 7th of October I then thought! but sure enough a bedraggled juvenile cuckoo was being mobbed by Skylarks and Meadow Pipits.

Juvenile Cuckoo

No mistaking it...........................

In 2014 the last reported Cuckoo  in Carmarthenshire was on June 18th....

 

 

There were one or two butterflies around including Meadow Brown, Red Admiral and a rather tatty Painted Lady                                                                                          

 



Painted Lady

Tuesday 6th October 2015

With my new ringing site at Pembrey Burrows Local Nature Reserve, approved by Natural Resources Wales, (NRW) and Carmarthenshire County Council (thanks to Dr Simeon Jones conservation officer); I made a good recce of the site this morning.

Essentially a sand dune/reed-bed/saltmarsh system with decent areas of scrub, the site holds a lot of promise but will be very weather/wind dependant.

Entrance sign

Willow and reed bed area

View looking towards the North across the dunes and reed bed

There was a good variety of birds around this morning, the sky being dominated by Skylarks, with at least six singing birds, Meadow Pipits were very evident highlights though would be Whinchat ♂, Sparrowhawk ♀, Raven and Goldcrest.

Very distant Whinchat

There were a few plants still in flower including Wild Pansy, Viola tricolour, Burnet Rose, Rosa pimpinellifolia Red Campion, Silene dioica and White Campion, Silene latifolia with a few Sea Thrift flowers, Armeria maritime; just hanging on in the slacks.

Red Campion

Wild Pansy

White campion

The ringing potential can be seen in the photographs below with good areas of scrub, including Sea Buckthorn and Gorse

This linear feature actually has a decent depth of scrub on the left the puddles in the track attract birds to drink and bathe

This perfectly placed hide/watch-point will make a great base during ringing/monitoring sessions

I am really looking forward to exploring this site further.