Thursday 25th February 2016

Felt like Spring had arrived....

A great morning out in almost unbroken sunshine, until midday when it became overcast and cooler.

I had to check the entire length of the fence in one of the grazing fields this morning, but not before a quick sea watch which produced few birds but real quality in the form of 50+ common Scoter and three Great Northern Divers....

I never said they were close, although this one was feeding in the surf

The fence was fine and I continued along the beach in total isolation except for the continuous sound of Skylarks singing, along with Dunnocks, Robins and Reed Buntings all feeling the urge.

Skylark, this one just kept on singing

The reserve is important for many different groups of animals and plants so there is always something to see I cannot always name the individuals at the time as I cannot carry a book for each and every subject, sometimes its a case of looking information up at home.

Badger latrine, the badgers are very active at the moment,

they will have very young cubs in the sett

an assemblage of Lichens, but no idea which ones yet!!

The weather this week is a "false start", its turning colder and more unsettled, but it won't stop the ducks from getting on with breeding.

Mallard, I think she's not quacking to him!

We are hoping to give the ground nesting birds a bit of a better chance this year, but I can't go into too  much until our approach is confirmed, but fingers crossed....

Wednesday 24th February 2016

Fences and corpses....

A glorious morning turned into a glorious day, there was little frost with temperatures at the reserve around 0', the sand was solid but the frost soon lifted.

A quick sea-watch from CE53 on a high tide revealed Red-throated Divers and a Great Northern Diver in the estuary but a long way off,  with lots of gulls feeding on the falling tide.

A walk around the cattle ponds turned up a male Brambling with the flock of Chaffinches, I suspect there are more Brambling in the flock.

The Skylarks were in full song, at one point there were five or six just flying around as we sat and had lunch, (we because on a Wednesday the stalwart volunteers turn up to work on projects in the coastal park, mainly on the reserves) We were fixing the vandalised fencing ready for more cattle to be brought onto the reserve

A visitor had told me that there was a fish or something with teeth was washed up on the beach, further investigation revealed a decomposing sea mammal possibly either a Common Dolphin or Harbour Porpoise

Decomposing nicely a 2m long marine mammal

The flipper was down to the bone and you can make out the teeth

The crows and a Greater Black-backed Gull were tucking into the free meal, but flew off as I approached, there were also two Red Kites circling nearby I'm not sure if they would feed on this carcass?

Also washed up on the high water mark was this Brittlestar, a relative of the Starfish.

Brittlestar, two of the arms have broken off

I also learned of a female Otter being killed, on the main road near a Wildlife Trust reserve about a mile from Pembrey, yesterday, bad enough but she was lactating which means she has at least one probably two cubs nearby, volunteers were going out today to listen for them calling and hopefully rescue them.

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....