Thursday 11th August 2016

Guided Walk No 13 ...

Today was our thirteenth guided walk of the season, a Strandline Safari.

We started by taking a look at a plant I happened to notice as I approached the entrance to the reserve, Twiggy Mullein, a plant which has been noted in the county since the 1970's but not on a regular basis.

Twiggy Mullein

Nature has a way of doing what she wants and today most of the strandline was covered by sand with nothing out of the ordinary washed up, nevertheless we had an enjoyable stroll along the beach looking for the elusive "Beachcomber or Strandline" beetle, no we didn't find any but its pretty rare so.....

What we encountered were more signs of the onset of Autumn in the natural world, with good numbers of migratory birds on the beach, with 405 (and counting) Sanderling 44+ Common Ringed Plover and a handful of Dunlin.

Distant, Sanderling with the odd Dunlin

We made our way off the beach and over the dunes taking a detour to look at the salt marsh plants (the third time in a week),  we disturbed Silver Y moths again on a couple of occasions.

Silver Y moth

Then back towards the vehicles via one of the grazing fields, at the pond we were lucky to flush a Green Sandpiper, another migrating wader, from the very muddy margins, this is the first record for 2016.

Wednesday 10th August 2016

Work rest and play.....

Wednesday is volunteer day at Pembrey or Morfa Berwig LNR's, today we were at Pembrey.

Myself Veronica and Neil enjoyed a mixed bag of a day, with a bit of bird ringing, some vegetation clearing, some plant finding and hole digging.

The bird ringing came about as we were positioning the ringing poles in the main track ready for a ringing session, but since the nets were out we left them set for about an hour itwas late in the morning and the only birds caught were a Robin and a Chiffchaff.

After a spot of lunch in the warm sun we cleared a couple of ringing rides in the Sea Buckthorn before venturing out onto the marsh to look at some of the flowering plants, with Neil's help we sorted Sea Wormwood, Sea Aster, Sea Plantain and Cordgrass.

Again today, there were lots of Bumble bees on the marsh plants especially Red-tailed Bumblebee.

We kept putting off the main task of the day with diversions to look at Greater Spearwort a member of the buttercup family and quite a rarity in Carmarthenshire, we also came across the very attractive Carline Thistle.

Greater Spearwort

the leaves look nothing like "buttercup" leaves and give the plant its name

Carline Thistle

Itwas then on to the main event, the extraction of an old sign now being used by some as an air rifle target, I was warned that it had probably been put in well, it certainly had and took a lot of digging  scrabbling and heaving,to get it out but we did in the end and it has been moved to a new location to be put to good use....

"..the end of the posts are in there somewhere.."

A really productive and fun day....

9th August 2016

Pembrey Burrows ringing....

I had another session at the Swallows last evening, just doing a pre roost rather than a proper roost session, there's a lot of work for one person doing a full roost especially if you get overrun with birds at sunset.

In the end I caught just 12 Barn Swallows, but to add interest I caught the first Stonechat for the site, there are at least six breeding pairs on the reserve and they have had a particularly good year judging by the number of young around.

This was an adult male undergoing its "post breeding moult" this involves a complete change of all the feathers making this individual look rather unkempt.

Adult ♂ Stonechat

It is clear to see in the wing the difference between the faded un-moulted primaries and the fresher new primaries.

Stonechat wing, new and un-moulted primaries clearly shown

This morning I returned for another session, with the nets set and ready by 05:15hrs, a steady few hours with a total of 23 birds processed, not a huge number but there was quality in the form of a Garden Warbler, as well as several Sedge and Reed Warblers plus a Blackbird, a couple of Goldfinches and a very juvenile Robin.

I was joined by Veronica at 07:00, nice to have company and nice to have a hand to put everything away.

Garden Warbler

Sunday 7th August 2016

There be Dragons in those sand dunes.....

A blustery morning saw me at the eastern end of the reserve at high tide to do a sea watch.

The usual flock of Oystercatchers, todays count was 980, have returned to their roost site at the end of the reserve, (for most of the summer they have been about 1.5km further west and out of sight).

Mixed in there were 11 Ringed Plover, two Turnstone and very mobile flock of Sanderling that wouldn't be counted.

On the Gull front three Great black backed , 6 Mediterranean and around 80 Black headed Gulls made up the numbers, the highlight was 16 Sandwich Terns.

Oystercatchers at high tide roost

with Burry Holm on the Gower in the distance

This afternoon a visit to the information shelter on the reserve revealed two countryside rangers from Pembrey country park, (I think they took the wrong turning nice to see them though #oneteam), and 13 Common Lizards 12 on one log!!

Adult Common Lizard, notice the second growth tail

Immature Common Lizards

Saturday 6th August 2016

Guided Walk, salt marsh and dunes...

Three hardy souls joined me this morning for a look at the plants and animals of the salt marsh and the dunes.

The morning was briefly overcast and gloomy, but soon the skies cleared and a gentle breeze developed, by the end of the walk it was quite warm.

The salt marsh at Pembrey burrows is a key element of its designations as an SSSI, along with the other joint designations the reserve has of Special Area of Conservation, (SAC), and Special Protected Area, (SPA). For interest here is a taste of why the whole of the Carmarthen Bay is so important.

The Carmarthen Bay and Estuaries SAC is a multiple interest site which has been selected for the presence of ten interest features that qualify under Annex I and Annex II of the Habitats Directive.

For the qualifying habitats and species the SAC is considered to be one of the best areas in the UK for: 

• Estuaries   • Mudflats and sandflats not covered by seawater at low tide   • Atlantic saltmeadows (Glauco-Puccinellietalia maritimae)   • Salicornia and other annuals colonising mud and sand   • Large shallow inlets and bays   • Sandbanks which are slightly covered by sea water all the time :

CARMARTHEN BAY SPA  Carmarthen Bay has been designated as a Special Protection Area under the Birds Directive (79/409/EEC) because of the site’s European ornithological interest. The site qualifies under Article 4.2 of the Directive as it is used regularly by 1 % or more of the biogeographic population of a regularly occurring migratory species: common scoter Melanitta nigra. Non-qualifying species of interest are red throated diver Gavia stellata, velvet scoter Melanitta fusca, eider Somateria mollissima, Manx shearwater Puffinus puffinus.  

The reserve sits in a truly outstanding part of the world....

This morning we saw a good range of the salt marsh plants including Golden Samphire, Sea Aster, Common Sea Lavender and Sea Purslane.

Golden Samphire

There were good numbers of bees on the marsh flowers including Honey Bee, Common Carder, Red tailed, Buff/White tail, and possible Moss Carder.

Must have been something interesting there!,
look at the Common Sea Lavender in the background.

The butterflies didn't disappoint, with Meadow Brown, Large White, Gatekeeper, Grayling, Common Blue, and Small Blue.

Grayling

There were a few birds around with a decent flock of c40 Linnet, along with Meadow Pipit, Skylark and a family party of Stonechats.

It was nice to see a few late summer fungi beginning to show including this earthball?, I'll confirm the id later. (see update)

Common Puffball, confirmed by Dr Philip Jones our local expert

The earthballs (Scleroderma) have a very tough 'skin' and do not have this sort of 'spine' on the surface but smooth or have coarse scales (like rough skin = scleroderma!).  I think this is one of the puffball species.  Look closely at the spines and groups of points seem meet ----- so I think this would be Lycoperdon perlatum = common puffball.  These spines drop off leaving a 'pearly' pattern on the surface.  At this young stage, if cut open, the inside would be white ---- later a powdery light brown (spore colour).  Earthballs have a tough skin which breaks down for spore release and, when cut, are blackish inside. 
One you may see on dune grassland is Bovista plumbea (Grey Puffball) which has a white smooth surface when young -- this outer coat breaks away with a tough inner grey (lead-grey) coat beneath.  This species does not remain fixed to the soil but soon breaks loose to be blown about by the wind and so release spores over a wide area.  Cunning beasts.  Philip:

many thanks to Philip for his help....

Sunday 31st July 2016

Autumn must be on the way.....

Cool misty morning at Pembrey Burrows & Saltings Local Nature Reserve

Yesterday (Saturday) evening I decided it was time to go and try and catch some of the 1000+ Swallows and sand Martins which are roosting in the reed bed at the Pembrey Burrows reserve. It was a lovely evening and I did manage to ring 65 Barn Swallows and Two Sand martins along with a few Reed and Sedge Warblers.

Barn Swallow, this is a bird hatched this year, look at the pale forehead!

measuring the wing of Barn Swallow,

wing length is one of several "biometrics" taken during the ringing process

This morning I was on the reserve at 04:45hrs with a three net set in the reed and scrub areas, again a successful morning.

The ringing totals for the two sessions is as follows.

Barn Swallow 65,

Sand Martin 2,

Sedge Warbler 9

Reed Warbler 7

Willow Warbler 1

Blackcap 1

Common Whitethroat 3

Robin 2

Goldfinch 1

Blue Tit 1

Total 93 birds ringed.

I also saw a Sparrowhawk kill a Blackbird, but the non-ringing highlight was the first Northern Wheatear of the Autumn a nice female/immature bird.

Now I'm going for a lie down....

Saturday 30th July 2016

Vandalism......, and a nice guided walk

I arrived at the reserve this morning, to be faced with a dilemma, no padlock on the barrier, a little investigation revealed it had been cut off with, probably, an angle grinder WHY?????

No obvious evidence of anything untoward but there must have been a reason?

Anyway, I guided the Carmarthenshire Wildlife Walks Llanelli group on a two hour ramble around a small part of the reserve, despite initial overcast conditions there was enough sun to encourage a variety of Dragonflies and Butterflies onto the wing.

They looked interested!

We had great views of Emperor Dragonflies, and one or two common Darters, at the pond in F3. As we walked through the field we were soon putting up Gatekeepers, Meadow Brown, Small Blue, Common Blue and Small Skipper, a hop over a stile onto the edge of the salt marsh and we found a nice group of about 8 Grayling feeding on the nectar of Sea Lavender.

Two Silver Y moths were seen, this immigrant moth from warmer climes can usually be seen in any month from May - September, although some moths will be home bred during that time, its unlikely that they over winter successfully.

Silver Y moth, (Photo Veronica Haines)

We stopped off at the information shelter for a few minutes then made our way back along the hard track towards the car park and a cup of tea, not before stopping to check one of the refugia where we were lucky to find an immature Slow Worm.

Slow worm (photo Veronica Haines)

Again it was an enjoyable morning with like minded people.