Sunday 1st November

A mild start to November with clear skies a little mist over the marsh and birds singing and butterflies flying, what is going on...

A perfect morning and despite a late start ( not on site until 8am) I came across a flock of well over 1000 Starlings preening and bathing along the track to the hut, luckily? I didn't have a net set there!!

The tides are lower now as the moon wanes but there were still a few waders on the marsh, with REDSHANK and a small flock of OYSTERCATCHERS in flying into the creeks.

A STONECHAT and small groups of Tits flew off towards Burry Port.

When the Starlings got agitated I could see the female/juvenile MERLIN in the flock but with no success it flew towards the beach a few seconds later a cloud of over 1000 KNOT took to the air coincidence?? I doubt it.

SKYLARKS seemed to be on the move this morning but hard to be certain that they weren't just local birds moving off to feed.

A COMMA butterfly showed well, as did a singing DUNNOCK

COMMA butterfly

DUNNOCK

Friday 30th October

One of the last good tides of the cycle saw me at Pembrey Burrows and Saltings just after first light this morning, after a wet night it was dry and breezy.

The tide had flooded the saltmarsh and was still pushing in to the edge of the dune grassland.

The light was not good for photographs but it looked pretty impressive.

Birds present were:

Barn Owl, Wigeon 6, Shelduck 2, Shovelor 1, Teal c70, Mallard c50, Redshank 9, Snipe 29, Curlew 26, MERLIN ♀ , Water Rail 2.

Skylarks were overhead I cannot decide if they were all resident birds or there was a bit of movement. Redwings passing over and in the Buckthorn along with a few Goldcrests and Robins, as I've mentioned before Robins are present in good numbers.

Tuesday 28th October 2015

Today looks like being the best day of the week for ringing so I took myself off to Pembrey Burrows LNR and was on site for 05:15hrs, it was magical as I had forgotten that it was a high tide and a big one at 9.2m

I set three nets, but was disappointed to see them blowing in the stronger than expected wind, luckily it calmed down.

The first net round was exciting as what I thought was an empty net in fact had a JACK SNIPE a first for the site.

I was joined by Veronica who is one of the stalwart band of volunteers on the Millennium Coastal Park.

The ringing was pretty slow with 19 birds processed, just 17 new but great quality.

Jack Snipe (1), Redwing (5), Reed Bunting (3) Meadow Pipit (3), Goldcrest (1+1 retrap) Wren  (1 retrap) Chaffinch (2) Dunnock (2)

Jack Snipe

Saltmarsh just after high tide

Meadow Pipit

Monday 26th October 2015

A Blustery morning, with the breeze too strong for ringing, so I decided to have anogther look around the site at Pembrey Burrows LNR.

Thanks to directions from one of the locals I found pond number 2, and managed to flush a lone Snipe from the margins of the pond.

The primary role of the ponds are to provide water for the herd of cattle which graze the dunes as part of their on going management although currently they are absent.

There are still a few flowers on show including Yarrow.

On the bird front Raven (2) and Mistle Thrush (3) were the best on offer, although there has been a noticeable increase in Robins on site.

Pond 2

Yarrow, still in flower on the dunes, this one is pink not white which is more usual

Thursday 22nd October

Today is a relaxing day after a few busy ringing days, it amazes me whenever I go out and find another great wildlife site.

Today we went to "Swiss Valley " reservoir, (yep that's what the area is called), unusually for most reservoirs I have experienced apart from the outer dam wall all the internal shore walls are covered with vegetation, albeit mowed to an inch. 

There wasn't masses of wildlife but Great Crested Grebes 5 inc 1 juv, Cormorant, Heron, Mallard on the water; with Grey Wagtail, Coal Tit, and Goldcrest in the overflow runoff and surrounding woods.

the babbling brook

Field Maple

Swiss Valley reservoir

After a great pot of tea at a nearby garden centre it was back to Sandy Water Park for a stroll around the lake, my first for several weeks, it was high tide so quite a few gulls loafing on the grassland including two Mediterranean gulls, Common Gulls and Black -headed Gulls. There were 15 tufted Duck and only 39 Mute Swan.

Mediterranean Gull

Chicory or Blue Sow thistle I'll have to look closer next time!

Tuesday 20th October 2015

This morning I joined Charlie at Oxwich NNR for a ringing session with thrushes very much in mind.

Another dry cool autumn morning saw us on site at 06:30hrs, we immediately put the mp3 players out with Redwing on two nets, Crest on another and Woodlark (they have been seen in the area this week).

The First round delivered a few surprises firstly 13 Redwings and a COMMON SNIPE in one set of nets, nothing in the "crest" net and in the third a Song Thrush and a JACK SNIPE.

What a first round....

Common Snipe and Jack Snipe for comparison

Jack Snipe

Common Snipe

Jack Snipe after being released, they usually just sit on the ground pretending to be invisible

it flew off after a minute or so

We carried on for a few more rounds and caught seven more Redwing, and  11 Goldcrests along with a mix of other usual fare.

Monday 19th October 2015

The forecast is set for a change in the weather, so I decided to go to Pembrey Burrows LNR and try out another site (site2) in some willow scrub/reeds

The weather was calm and overcast when I set up and stayed that way until the end of the session.

A Magpie was a surprise in the first round then more usual fair of Robin (1), Wren (3), Reed Bunting (2), Chiffchaff (2), Goldcrest (1), Chaffinch (1), Dunnock (1), Blue Tit (2).

Robin age 4



What wing is this and what age would you assign