A shattered peace Sunday 22nd January 2017

It's such a shame that not all of the visitors to the Pembrey reserve and the eight mile long Cefn Sidan beach, appreciate the site for it's sheer simple beauty.

This morning I pulled into one of the car parks, and immediately noticed a van plus an empty trailer parked up, oh and then tyre marks across the sandy path to the beach.

I followed the trail and saw that it then veered off across the dunes QUAD BIKES!

tell tale signs

Sure enough two quad bikes appeared with dad + one and mum + one, totally oblivious to the issue, so what is the issue?

The dunes are a LNR, SSSI, and parts are a SAC, the beach is a SSSI, both areas are owned and managed by the local authority, supported by Natural Resources Wales.

Forgetting any damage that may be caused, there's the good old Health & Safety concerns, even at 9am there were quite a few walkers, dogs and horse riders on the beach!

They went on their way with a clear message ........, ironically it emerged they had a "farm" but the fields were getting muddy!!!

A real change in the weather today, with overcast skies all day and heavy rain for a while just before sunset, plenty of big skies ......

after the rain............

A decent bird at last, Saturday 21st January 2017

I was beginning to think that all the good birds had deserted me, but with a bit of persistence, or a case of right place right time, I had cracking views of a MARSH HARRIER.

Marsh Harrier

Marsh Harriers can be highly variable and my first thought was that the bird was a ♂, now I'm undecided, if it's not a ♂ then it must be an adult ♀, I welcome any thoughts.

Marsh Harrier

The Marsh Harrier was the highlight of a long day spent on the reserve, in glorious but quite nippy conditions. It's worth noting the bird went to roost in the reed-bed at around dusk.

A bit of ropey video.....

EVENTS

OUR NEXT EVENTS AT PEMBREY BURROWS

LOCAL NATURE RESERVE

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Guided Events

Sunday 12th February 07:15am

Bird  sea-watch * a chance to observe birds using the Burry Inlet

Sunday 19th March 10:00am

Beach walk and early signs of Spring

meet at the entrance to the nature reserve near CE53

call 07984788218 for more details.

* we will observe the sea  from the top of the dunes.

Remember those Lichens? 14th January 2017

I thought I had better at least try and identify the three Lichens I photographed in the last Blog, well I've established something... its not easy trying to remember detail.

First a little about lichens.

Lichens are unique in being composed of two organisms, algae and fungi which forms a close symbiotic association, symbiosis is a prolonged permanent contact between dissimilar organisms. In the case of lichen both the algae and fungi coexist in a state of controlled parasitism, one does not deprive the other of nutrients....nature is a clever master.

Without reposting the photographs, the first shows a Yellow lichen and a Grey lichen, the Yellow one is a Xanthoria sp, probably X Parietina.

And that's all you're getting for now, I'll pass to an expert!

The closer you look, Friday 13th January 2017

I'm always impressed at the vast array of wildlife we have on our doorstep, although most people only see the "big stuff".

One of the comments I hear, especially if talking to someone who is not behaving responsibly on the nature reserve, is "its just barren land, there's nothing here", after an intake of breath I try and explain why the site(s) is so important, hopefully something big will appear to show them there is life out there!.

At this time of year it would appear that its "just barren land..." but when you look closer....

All I need to do now is identify them...............

Fishing styles, 7th January 2017

A very quick visit to WWT Llanelli with fellow Lesbos traveller Nick, saw us in the British Steel hide, in murky conditions.

A nice range of waders with Greenshank, Redshank, Lapwing, Black-tailed Godwit and a lonely Dunlin, with a smattering of Teal, Mallard and a nice grazing flock of Wigeon provided some interest.

A decent sized flock of Greylags flew onto the scrape in classic skein fashion.

Greylag overhead

Greylag, wiffling onto the scrape

Decent views of Water Rail and feeding Little Egret and Cormorant.

Friendly Corvid Wednesday 4th January 2017

Yesterday, being a Wednesday was volunteer day at Pembrey Burrows, after a good ? litter pick around the car parks and tracks we managed to clean the area up after a busy Christmas and New year period, but why do people not take their dog mess home with them!!

A spot of emergency fence repairs in two fields, following the great escape before Christmas, left us just enough time to do a spot of "monitoring" along Cefn Sidan.

The amount of sea bourne litter was very depressing, but its a reflection of our society across most of the world, I didn't take any photographs as I'd left my camera in the van, and anyway one pile of litter is much the same as another.

Thankfully Veronica was snap happy and managed to capture this cheeky chappy, a Northern Raven, very much king of what he/she surveys quite unphased by our approach, although two others a mile or so away were less settled.

Northern Raven

A report of a Dolphin corpse on the beach from a local turned out to be either a Common or Striped Dolphin, apparently over the Christmas period there have been several reports along the coast of South Wales.

A sad end for a graceful sea mammal