Tuesday 23rd February 2016

Frost and Rainbows.....

The overnight forecast indicated a frost and a bright sunny day, so when I stepped outside what did I find, well it was raining!. not a lot but any frost had long disappeared. The drive over North Gower towards Oxwich on the South side did not make the weather improve.

When I arrived Keith and Emma had already set the one net that we would use, (NRW have ponies grazing on the marsh).

The overcast skies looked as though they would clear but not before a light shower wetted the table, the books and equipment, the double rainbow did make us smile though.

The morning produced about forty birds, a mixture of new and retrapped individuals.

Male Siskin

Siskins stole the early rounds with a smattering of Chaffinches and Goldfinches, with surprisingly few tits!

Male Chaffinch, this brute of a specimen may be a continental bird

This is the wing of the above bird and had a length of 93mm

making me think it is a continental visitor

A Great Spotted Woodpecker also put in an appearance in the net, although the circling Common Buzzard stayed away.

Distant Common Buzzard

Thursday 18th February

Frost and sunshine....

At last some decent weather and the chance to put some nets up to have go at ringing..

With all the puddles frozen and the saltmarsh feeling crispy underfoot it felt like ideal conditions to have a go.

Frosted Gorse

With hopes set high it was disappointing that there were no stupid Skylarks tempted to enter the net set on the marsh, yet there were plenty singing.

Another quiet session, but all new birds with just five ringed, Wren 2, Dunnock 2, Robin 1, Blackbird 1.

Still a great morning to be out, Adam Dare a local birder popped by and showed me a photo of a BRAMBLING he had seen on the reserve boundary!!!!!, this brings the year total species so far to 75. Great record thanks Adam.

Sea Buckthorn in frosty coat

Gorse Flower shrouded in frost

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...........