19th - 21st August 2016

A taste of autumn....

The past few days have seen a real good mix of weather, culminating in a day and night of gales with wind speeds at Pembrey of 63mph, and yes its still August.

The Carmarthenshire Bird Club event on Thursday saw 21 members enjoy a mixed bag of waders and gulls but only low numbers of terns, Sandwich Terns being the only species seen

Amongst the waders the surprise was 6 or 8 Bar-tailed Godwits, also present were over 4000 Oystercatchers, 84 Ringed Plover, a handful of Dunlin and Knot. A Common Sandpiper was new for the reserve 2016 bird list.

Gulls were present in good numbers with Black-headed the most abundant, Herring, Lesser and Greater Black-backed, Common and Mediterranean all in reasonable numbers, A couple of Gannets offshore, and a Fulmar which came in very close off the estuary completed the seabirds.

Black-headed Gull

Land birds included  2 Northern Wheatear, Linnets, Stonechat, Rock Pipits and Pied Wagtails, and an adult and juvenile Peregrine.

Stonechat ♂

On Friday I was joined by eight people for another look at the high tide, a similar range of birds were seen, but Black-tailed Godwit was new however the highlight was undoubtedly a Kittiwake first found by Veronica.

Saturday saw a good friend, Nick, come and stayed for the weekend and despite the less than seasonal weather we ventured out and were treated to a Spoonbill fly in to the main creek in the marsh. This brought the reserve 2016 bird list to a credible 110 species.

After a break for food we went back out around 18:00hrs and found little different on the tide, however a large dark Skua species was found mid channel but in the conditions a firm identity was difficult.

Sunday saw better conditions and a visit to Pembrey Old Harbour turned up a couple more Northern Wheatear, and best of all the Spoonbill was seen flying into the pond/marsh of Field 2

Eurasian Spoonbill (this is one of my personal library photos)

Tuesday 16th August

On the beach.....

I had been asked to help with a one off walk with Carmarthenshire Wildlife Walks, who laid on an event for the Llanelli "pups" a summer school organisation, the plan was to take the kids (am I allowed to say kids?) onto the beach for a bit of a strandline safari.

As these thing can turnout there were more adults (11 I think) than kids (5 I think) I wasn't leading so I didn't need to account for them!

The morning was warm bright and a bit breezy with an easterly edge to the wind, luckily the strandline was on the damper part of the beach so not too much flying sand.

Art in sand.... a photo from the Spring

Whilst there was much to entertain everyone I was a little disappointed by the lack of "things" to find, the recent weather has resulted in much of the debris on the beach being covered by sand.

In a little over an hour. everyone's collecting trays ( ex takeaway containers) were overflowing with specimens.

A nice collection (photo Veronica Haines)

Whelks, Netted Dog Whelk, Tellins, Banded Wedge shell, Razor Shell. Necklace Shell, Masked Crab, Spiny Spider Crab, bits of Cuttlefish bone and a few Cat Shark egg cases along with the odd feather and bit of Bladder Wrack made up the bulk of the finds, The Barrell Jellyfish were just too big to go in the tray!!!.

Barrel Jellyfish, (upside down)

For me the important outcome was that everyone learned something, the kids enjoyed themselves and everyone had a bit of exercise.

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....