Thursday 24th November 2016

Almost winter, and a bird to savour.....

With the start of winter a few days away, life at Pembrey Burrows LNR is slowing down, the rush of the autumn seems to be over and there are fewer birds to be seen, a few hardier flowers are still in bloom, such as Ragwort and of course Western Furze.

But going back a day, the best bird seen yesterday was a male Hen Harrier, seen only for barely a minute but a stunner, so this today when I decided to have a stroll for the late afternoon high water I was delighted to see the same bird again.... or was it?

Yesterday I was happy to say that the bird was an adult male, today with better views the bird showed distinct barring to the innermost primaries and outermost secondaries, and a diffuse wing band on the upper wing due to the darker tips of inner greater and median coverts,making it a 2nd calendar year male, not a full adult, I guess its more likely I overaged the bird yesterday rather than there being two HH around. Comments welcome, as this  is the first adult(ish) male I have seen in the UK, although I've seen them in France.

I've not tried to upload a video before, I'm disappointed with the image on here, on my camera and laptop it is a lot nicer, but eh its only a bridge camera, and I dropped it again today!!!

Sunday 20th November 2016

Wildlife crime comes to Pembrey Burrows LNR...

Whilst on duty this afternoon two members of the public approached me and proceeded to show me an illegally set mist net which they had found set in Sea Buckthorn bushes on the reserve.

They had removed the two birds, a Great Tit and a Bullfinch, that were trapped and released them, although it sounded like only one was going to survive.

Needless to say I'm pretty pissed off by this discovery, luckily or unluckily I'm also very observant and clocked a suspicious vehicle and occupant in one of the car parks, I can't go into anymore detail at the moment, I may not get paid but I've been at this ranger game a very long time!!!... over to the local Police to deal with.

Not much else to report.........................

Friday 18th November 2016

140............

This morning started much calmer than yesterdays eventful weather, there was little breeze when I got to the eastern end of the reserve at Old Pembrey Harbour, it didn't last too long, and soon a steady breeze built up, it was noticeably colder, not cooler, colder!

The tide was starting to fall and the waders seemed more relaxed, yesterday they were being buffeted by the strong wind. Species and numbers were similar to yesterday, although the Bar-tailed Godwits had reached a grand total of three, actually a good number for the site at this time of year. An Atlantic Grey Seal was "bottling" in the estuary.

There was one red-breasted Merganser present and he didn't want his photo taken, so a rushed and heavily cropped photo is all you are getting today!

Red-breasted Merganser

After chatting with the sea watch king, Adam, I drove around to the reserve entrance and made my way to the beach at CE51, plenty going on here with a massive 161 Great Cormorants and 63 Ringed Plover.

Most of the 161 Great Cormorants

On the beach I was sheltered to a great extent from the breeze and it was quite pleasant, I walked to the end of the reserve bit of the beach scanning the estuary, I spent a good 45mins looking and looking when a "duck" flew across my line of sight, at last a LONG-TAILED DUCK, with only brief but conclusive views species 140 was in the bag phew!!!

Most of the 600+ Sanderling with Ringed Plover behind

Thursday 17th November 2016

The state of things today....

Yesterday, being a Wednesday was volunteer day for the Local nature Reserves volunteers, so we met at our newest reserve at Morfa Berwig, to find out more about the reserve you will have to go back through the blog.....

We were joined by a couple of people who had  seen the "Keep Wales Tidy", Facebook page and saw that they could come along and help with a litter pick... many thanks.

With the usual array of empty cans, bottles, sweet wrappers, crisp packets and general litter dumped from a house we found this little lot...

Used syringes, and a couple of "bongs" used for smoking drugs

Its sad to say that Llanelli like most provincial towns has a significant drug addiction problem, a whole generation seems to be "lost" with those involved oblivious to little else other than the difficult life they find themselves in, its not for me to judge but I object to their life style having a negative impact on others, in whatever form that may be.

On a cheerier note today, Thursday, one of the last of the Super Moon high tides was due at around 08:25hrs, so I decided to visit the eastern boundary of the Pembrey LNR where a great sea watching point is located , the Old Pembrey Harbour. The weather has certainly become more seasonal with leaden skies and a stiff breeze blowing.

Despite the tough conditions there were birds to be seen including: Oystercatchers (3000+), Sanderling (600+), Ringed Plover (30+), Curlew (46),  Shelduck (8), Red-breasted Merganser (2)Peregrine (1) and Bar-tailed Godwit (1)

With significant winds forecast for the next few hours (10:00 - 16:00), tomorrow may be a good day to get out sea watching again as sea birds may well be blown into the estuary

A bit blowy

Sunday 13th November 2016

Effort pays off, up with the Larks....

Being a sand dune reserve, there are good numbers of Skylark wintering, probably joining the already strong breeding population.

I have toyed with the idea of trying to catch and ring Skylarks for a few months, finally I bit the bullet and having found what looked like the perfect spot, a disused car park which is now very weedy surrounded by sand dunes, I put thought in to action.

So it was yesterday evening that I set out the positions of the nets for an early morning session today.

On site at 05:30hrs, to put up the nets, the poles and guys were where I had left them!, when all was set  some very loud Skylark song was played and I retired to the van.

I checked the nets carefully and was amazed to find a Wren in the bottom pocket and a few metres away a SKYLARK. Relatively few Skylark are ringed each year so it was good to be able to handle this iconic bird.

Skylark

Skylark (VH)

I was joined by my able "scribe" Veronica and after a busy net round with mainly Goldfinches, and a deserved cup of coffee we went back to the nets to find another Skylark, this time nearer the top of the net, I'm guessing that due to the cunning set of the net it hadn't time to lift over and evade the net, so TWO SKYLARKS in one session, I'm well pleased.

In 2015, a total of 582 Skylark were ringed in the UK, of these 345 were pullus, (nestlings), in the same year 99 were ringed in Wales 16  were pullus

I have to thank Matt Prior, or as some ringers know him "trapper" Prior, he  is a first class ringer, and has an incredible talent for working out the best way to catch most species, and gave useful advice prior to the session and yes, there was a "dogleg" in my net set........

The morning panned out with the following birds caught and ringed, Goldfinch (14), Linnet (11),  Chaffinch (4), three each of Wren, Meadow Pipit and Greenfinch with a Blue Tit and a Dunnock completing a nice session of 42 birds.

What next?

Tuesday 8th November 2016

Pembrokeshire Dangler nearly spoils the morning...

Yesterday evening I gave a talk to the Llanelli Naturalists Society, on 102 years of ringing the audience was average for the society, about 10 souls who had nothing better to do, but I think the talk was well received.

This morning was forecast to be still and overcast with no sign of rain until lunchtime, so when I had finished opening the one net that I had planned at a new location on the reserve, I was a bit surprised to hear rain tapping on the van roof, luckily it didn't come to much and a small but interesting session was had.

At dawn the first two birds were singles of Redwing and Fieldfare, always great to trap but I had the feeling that they were the only Redwing and Fieldfare in the area!!

Fieldfare

Things picked up as the finch flocks started to appear, so I switched to playing Linnet and Greenfinch on the tape lures. In the end eight Greenfinch and two Linnet were caught whilst observations revealed around 45 Greenfinch (including a flock of 32) and maybe 30+ Linnet, and the same of Goldfinch.

Linnet

Greenfinches are always great to trap, not only are they a really smart bird but they have been through some rough times across the UK and these are the first I have seen for several months.

Greenfinch ♂,  (VH)

the "mess" around the upper mandible

is the sticky remains of Sea Buckthorn berries

Greenfinch ♂, note the yellow of the primaries reaches the shaft of the feather,

females do not show this obvious feature

After packing up I had a quick look around the reserve, flushing a Jack Snipe from the edge of one of the ponds.

The change in the weather has arrived as forecast with some welcome rain to freshen the ponds and dampen the marsh which is very dry.

Saturday 5th Novemebr 2016

Frost.......

A crisp morning with actual ice on the windscreen of the van, and frost on the ground on the reserve must mean its winter?

Arriving at just before 07:30hrs, to the sun just peeking over the horizon the first bird I saw as I drove across the reserve was the ♂ Merlin, typically the light was all wrong and despite the bird being very obliging it didn't wait for me to position the van properly.
This was the best of an in car photo I could muster.

Merlin ♂

The bird then flew and landed on the far side of the field sat on what is becoming a favourite post.

A quite uneventful walk out to the beach was followed by an equally uneventful walk east along the beach, although finding a James Bond style speed boat, albeit old battered and without an engine, was a surprise.

I guess it can't be allowed to stay there, or to float away on the next high tides, (its safe for now) so it becomes another job!!


For those of you with absolutely nothing better to do on Monday night (7th Nov), I'm giving a talk on Bird Ringing, at the Llanelli Naturalists Society meeting in Llanerch Community Hall, at 7:30pm, see Llanelli naturalists society website for directions.