Friday 12th February 2016

Brackets.......

The Bio-diversity of the Pembrey Burrows nature reserve is huge, perhaps one of the less well studied groups are the Fungi, which are neither plants nor animals.

Dr Phillip Jones is the local expert, in the true sense, and is often out on the reserve, happy to share his knowledge and enthuse others.

This particular bracket type fungus grows on Sea buckthorn, Fomitiporia hippophaeicola

occurs on living Sea Buckthorn as a parasite and is seldom recorded with only 89 records, mainly from Lincolnshire it was first found at Pembrey in 2012, by Phillip.

                                                   Fomitiporia hippophaeicola

                                                    Fomitiporia hippophaeicola

There are many more species of fungi on the reserve and I will look at them in blogs later in the year.

Thursday 11th February 2016

Bloody weather.....

This is a combined blog from yesterday when I managed to catch one bird, a Wren, and today when I turned around went home and back to bed until a more reasonable hour and better weather.

Storm Imogen has really battered the fore dunes at Pembrey reserve, with up to 20m of dunes washed away in places, the good news is that the sand will redeposit and the dunes will build again.

Marram Grass roots exposed by the collapse of the dunes, some of the roots were 3m long

The high tide today at 9.4m, brought in the following:

Teal 200+, Shelduck 10, Wigeon 4, Redshank 40+, Greenshank 1, Curlew 5, Black-Headed Gull 100+ and Common Gull 20+

Not massive numbers but still reasonable given that most of the marsh is out of sight due to the topography.

Lets hope the weather settles down.......................

Tuesday 9th February 2016

Storm "Imogen", the aftermath

Yesterday saw the south of the country enveloped in storm "Imogen", a gust of 83mph was recorded at the Pembrey Airfield about two miles west of the reserve.

Looking down channel (West) after Storm Imogen, the rollers were still coming in though

An early morning visit found the reserve has escaped the storm with only the fore-dunes suffering with more erosion and inundation by the sea into the dunes in a few places.

The cattle have been leaning on one of the stiles and broken the top bar, a very heavy fly could have broken it as it was very rotten!!!!. The 19 bullocks are doing a great job grazing off the rough grasses and, in a few places, breaking the surface of the fixed dunes; this is key to maintaining the dunes in great condition for the wide range of flowering plants and invertebrates.

The high tides and storms do bring home just how much plastic and old fishing nets are out in the sea

plastic and old fishing nets

car tyres, wheelie bins and plastic

Such a shame, a tin can takes 400 years to degrade, old fishing net NEVER degrades, plastic bottles take 300-400 years to degrade, and the ironic "wheelie bin" could take 400 years to disappear

Mid winter on the dunes, and there were Skylarks singing in a few different places magic....

Saturday 6th February 2016

Change of plan................

Many of you will know that my plan for 2016, was to spend an extended time on the island of Lesbos.

Due to a number of issues, not least the fact that, my "tennis elbow" has flared up, my partner is awaiting hospital treatment for Cervical Spondylosis, and the delay in obtaining permits to ring birds on the island; I have decide to put my plans on hold until we have settled into retirement properly.

So it looks like it will be another Autumn trip in mid September is on the cards for 2016, hopefully we can get two weeks at least.

As disappointed as I am I must be realistic and consider the implications should either of us need medical assistance.

Corn Bunting, one of the classic Lesvos birds

Thursday 4th February 2016

There be Dragons around...already

A dry but overcast morning found me contemplating a beachcombing session, as I approached the beach I saw some Fox foot prints and decided to take a photograph.

Fox foot print

As I did so, out of the corner of my eye I could see something wriggling from the sand, I was astonished to see a Common Lizard appear before my eyes, it looks like it is one of last years youngsters, it was milder but still 4th February?? I put the Lizard out of harms way on a habitiat pile of logs.

Common Lizard

There has been criminal damage to the fence in one of the cattle grazing fields about £400 to put right so pointless, plus the cattle escaped.

Part of the damaged fence...........

Saturday 3oth January 2016

One month almost gone......

Beachcombing project........

With the weather has unpredictable as ever I've been diverted to do some beachcombing on Cefn Sidan, not only is it good exercise (its a three mile round trip), its also very interesting.

I've started making a collection to use with visitors to the Pembrey reserve, its quite basic but already I've turned up a few exciting finds.

When I get around to it I'll label the items separately in the meantime I'll explain each photograph.

A selection of "Tellins"top and middle left: Horse Mussel, Necklace Shell middle and bottom centre:, Dog Whelk bottom right: Striped Venus top right and the  gold shell is a Banded Wedge Shell middle centre

Sea Potato Urchin bottom left, Pod Razor Shell middle:, Common Cockle and Prickly/rough Cockle top row: and Pharus legumen (no common name) bottom right

Egg Cases of Dog Whelk Left, and a Sea Heart, a vine seed from tropical America, Right:

Cuttlefish bone centre:, egg cases from Small Spotted Catshark (dogfish) top centre and top left under Cuttlefish bone, with Ray cases in the lower middle.

The high water mark on any beach is worth exploring and identifying most items is pretty easy.

There was another positive out of the exercise, I didn't find any dead or dying Sea birds, given the rough and stormy weather this winter I think that's a good and surprising thing.

Wednesday 27th January 2016

Poachers, scramblers and beachcombing.........

The weekend on the reserve has been busy and interesting in many ways.

On Saturday I did a bit of beachcombing, collecting samples for use as an educational tool, I'll go into beachcombing in more detail soon (+photos).

A phone call from a member of the public telling me that there was a suspicious vehicle and someone with a gun on the reserve!! As it turned out the suspicious vehicle belonged to a poacher, he didn't have a weapon only a Spaniel and a ferret.

As there is a total ban on any form of hunting and shooting on the reserve the Police were called, duly arrived and dealt with the offender.

On Sunday I had a brilliant morning with the reserve devoid of people and dogs, the afternoon was much busier when I recognised two vehicles in the car park and a third suspicious van?

A little investigation revealed two men poaching, they were escorted from the reserve and duly reported to the Police. Well that was one vehicle dealt with.

Another piece of detective work revealed four scrambling bikers!! after reading them the riot act, details taken and reported to the police normality returned to the reserve....(two more vehicles tied into the offence)

The local Police Wildlife Officer has taken on all three incidents and matters are proceeding.

Over the Christmas period we also suffered criminal damage when the fence to one of the grazing fields was cut by scramblers, allowing the cattle to escape....

To close this blog the offences committed lie in the Wildlife & Countryside act/CROW act for damage to an SSSI (poachers digging in the Rabbit burrows and scramblers damaging the vegetation and soil) and the Road Traffic Act driving a motor vehicle on land that is not a road, without lawful authority........

Sorry no pictures this time.