Thursday 23rd June 2016

Guided Walk......

Today was another scheduled walk, with todays theme being Wildflowers, of course as usual the walk become a general look at the wonderful flora and fauna that is Pembrey Burrows & Saltings LNR.

In warm sunshine with a light WSW breeze we set off to discover the best that was on offer, clearly we thought the host of Pyramidal Orchids would steal the show but when the Butterflies appeared with Marbled White, Dark Green Fritillary, Meadow Brown, and Small Heath providing the mainstay we felt we were on to a great walk.

Dark Green Fritillary, the best shot I could get!!

The dragonflies did not disappoint with Emperor, Black-tailed Skimmer, Broad Bodied Chaser, and Common Bluet in good numbers. As usual getting decent photos proved a challenge.

After checking our second refugia of the morning we found one Slow Worm, always a treat.

A walk out towards the beach brought a confusing Orchid, either Early or Southern Marsh? I'll confirm later.

Early? or Southern Marsh Orchid

On the look our for oddities brought us into the territory of what must be the luckiest Skylark alive, this leucistic bird has been on site since Novemebr 2015 avoiding the winter resident Merlins.

Dodgy cropped shot of the leucistic Skylark, (carrying food)

A nice find was the caterpillar of the Emperor Moth, the moth  itself is pretty exciting but the caterpillar is a stunning lime green colour and quite big.

Emperor Moth caterpillar

On our final leg back to the car park we came across the best sight of the walk, two then three European Hares a normally secretive mammal, on the reserve, following years of persecution by poachers, but it looked like at least one of the individuals was a Leveret, one of this seasons young... brilliant but don't tell anyone....

European hare

On the home front I was having a cup of tea in the garden when I turned to admire the flower border, out of the corner of my eye I saw this fella trundling across the lawn, sadly, given the fact it was four in the afternoon and it didn't seem to bothered by me, I think it is probably a little unwell, although it did tuck into a few juicy Lob worms I dug up for it. Lets hope it ok as it seem to have trundled on out of the garden but I don't know how??

European Hedgehog

Saturday 18th June 2016

WWT Llanelli

Today I joined the team from the Gower Ringing Group for another session at the Constant Effort Site (CES) at WWT Llanelli.

The CES had been running for many years and provides useful data on the survival rates and suitability of the site for many species of birds, this data when added to the hundreds of other CES datasets is invaluable for the conservation of birds and habitats.

We captured and processed 28 birds this morning, not a huge number but representative of the numbers present in the monitoring site.

There were a few recently fledged birds including Robins, Chiffchaff, Wren and Song Thrush, as can be seen from the photograph below of the Song Thrush wing there is much to learn about the aging and sexing of each species when "in the hand", the need to accuracy reflected in the scientific output at the end of the season.

wing of the Song Thrush, see the orange coloured "thorn" shaped marks and

the crisp look to the plumage, all indicating a bird recently out of the nest

We also caught a Treecreeper,a delicate bird with exquisite plumage and a Sedge Warbler.

Treecreeper

Sedge Warbler

Wednesday 15th June 2016

That was a short summer.....

The warm dry weather of last week seems a long time ago as I listen to the sound of thunder outside,

Today was the Wednesday volunteers day (well it is Wednesday after all) and we went off to Morfa Berwig, the county's newest Local Nature Reserve.

In honour of the designation we set about taking parts of the on site signage down to be branded with  bi-lingual Gwarchodfa Natur Leol/ Local Nature Reserve.

Its fair to say the old signs put up a bit of a fight but we got there in the end and I'm sure they will look great when the work has been done.

"..go on just one more push Veronica"

Whilst there,  a bit of fence repair near the dipping ponds so that no one falls in!!! mmm we'll have to see on that one. By the way Veronica doesn't do all the work....

..don't bend that 6" nail please..

Saturday 11th June 2016

Late Spring, early Summer..

This afternoon I finished off the painting of the information shelter at Pembrey Burrows LNR, it was nice to hear passing visitors saying how much better it looks now, I'll post a photo when the sun is out next to show it at it's best.

I then went and had a look at the pond in field 2, specifically for Odonata, given the overcast and breezy conditions it was  no surprise just to see a few Blue Tail, albeit the type with the red thorax

Then I looked at the pond in field 3, just as the sun came out and within a few seconds there were 6 species of Odonata on the wing, Chasers, Hawkers, and Darters; the list looks like this;

Emperor, Black-tailed Skimmer, Broad Bodied Chaser, Blue Tail damsel, Common Bluet, and Common Darter.

Blue Tail (from my personal library)

Emperor ♂

Common Darter

Common Bluet, a bit fuzzy sorry

On the Orchid front the time of the Green-winged Orchids has passed and now its the Southern Marsh Orchids which are at their best, with Pyramidal Orchids really getting going plus some site scarcer species including Common Spotted Orchid and the Heleborines, these really are only just starting but in a week or so I should be able to get them to species.

Common Spotted Orchid

Thursday 9th June 2016

Morfa Berwig......

This morning at the reasonable hour I, with the help of Adam Dare, led a birding walk at Morfa Berwig, the weather was perfect with 22 species seen or heard including the star of the reserve Cettis Warbler.

We also encountered a good mix of Dragon/Damsel flies in the form of Azure Bluet, Four Spotted Chaser, Broad Bodied Chaser, Black-tailed Skimmer and Hairy Dragonfly, although the last one has a ? over it, I'm confident of one sighting but all the later ones were in fact female B T Skimmer.

Azure Bluet ( one way to identify this common species is the U shaped mark on the thorax)

Thanks to Adam once again for his help.

Later on in the day in an undisclosed location deep in the woods .......

The team putting up a nest box for Owls...

This makes it look easy.....

At "fricking last" is what I think he is muttering.... but it will be worth it, with thanks to

Carmarthenshire Bird Club and Burns Pet Foods

Wednesday 8th June 2016

Strandline safari and some work...

Today was another one of our guided walks, quite a turnout although 66% were staff!, thanks anyway.

We ventured onto the beach just after the high tide, there were a few bits to look at but with calm seas the sand has settled over most of the debris.

We did however find the usual suspects in the shape of Banded Wedge Shell, Tellin Spp, Pendant Swimming Crab, Masked Crab, Shore Crab, with lots of "Sea Potato" tests on  the surface, again quite a few Barrel Jellyfish have succumbed and were lying at intervals along the beach.

We also found a Weevil spp which may be Rhinocyllus conicus or not? I'll let you know.

No common name until identified for certain

On the walk back through the dunes it was great to sea Pyramidal Orchids starting to break bud, with a few showing the classic shape of the inflorescence which gives it it's name.

Pyramidal Orchid

The stalwart band of Wednesday volunteers helped continue the refurbishment of the shelter.

Thanks!!

getting there.....

Monday 6th \June 2016

Task day...

Monday is the day that the local guys from Mencap volunteer with us at Pembrey

Today after a litter pick which yielded far more litter than should be left lying around, we started the refurbishment of the information shelter.

The information shelter resplendent in graffiti

Earlier in the morning I came across these tardy residents being hassled by the local Magpies, a Vixen and one cub, great to see.

Fox Vixen, and cub

The work is under way on the shelter and a couple more sessions should see it protected from the worst of the weather for a while.