Two Swallows don't make a summer or do they, Saturday 1st April 2017

A really spring like feel to this morning, and as if to make the point a good sprinkling of summer migrants passing through the reserve.

A flock of c90 Sand Martins,(Sanma) settled on the beach before moving on west, with a Swallow, (Swall) and a few Pied Wagtails in the mix.

Sand Martin

A flock of 64 Sanderling and 10 Ringed Plover chasing the tide may have been passing through.

Another three Swallows in off the estuary and across the marsh with c20 Common Shelduck making the most of the high water, with lots of courtship going on amongst the pairs, I just wish they would stay and breed on the reserve, maybe this year!

Swallow  (not todays photo)

Common Shelduck + a Mallard

A few birds along the track to the information shelter included a fresh in Willow Warbler (Wilwa).

Willow Warbler

With season dog restrictions in place across the reserve, there may be hope for ground nesting birds to be successful this season.

A place to stop and rest Wednesday 29th March 2017

With an uncertain forecast, would it rain and if so when and how heavy, the Wednesday team met to carry out a few jobs at Pembrey Burrows LNR.

Todays tasks were to install two rustic benches, some habitat management for Marsh Helleborine  and finish off those Dormouse boxes.

Digging in sand is so satisfying, easy going and light to handle so in quick order the first bench was taking shape.

 A simple bench made from locally grown and harvested Corsican Pine

The three wise monkeys, quality control testing

After the first bench we set off across the marsh to an area of fore-dunes with a great views over the Burry Inlet, or if you sit the other way around, the Saltmarsh with a morning high tide there was a lot more water lying on the marsh than I anticipated so with some wet feet the second bench went in easily.

Seat with a view

Marsh Helleborine, Epipactis Palustris flowered in only two areas last season these looked a little overgrown with grasses and Willow, so we cleared the areas in anticipation of the appearance of more flower spikes this season.

Marsh Helleborine, Epipactis palustris

in full flower in 2016

The Dormouse boxes are now ready to be installed in suitable habitat AT LAST!!!!

Cast ashore part 2 Sunday 26th March 2017

After yesterdays adventure on Cefn Sidan I returned again this morning for another look at the strandline, the weather was not as pleasant as yesterday with a stiff easterly blowing into my face but still a great walk.

There were far fewer By-the-wind Sailors on the beach, but today I managed to collect a couple of samples, always useful to show visitors on our guided events.

I may need to revise my identification of the Cuttlefish bone from yesterday as today I found several more which are clearly the Pink Cuttlefish Sepia ordignyana  the "spine" is much larger, and the whole "bone" has a pink flush.

The Common Razor Shell Ensis ensis had a species of Hydroid growing from it.

After much deliberation I'm also now happy with a positive identification of Prickly Cockle Acanthocardia echinata, (not as labelled in the photo)

On the bird front a ♂ Merlin was still terrorising the local pipit population, and a new bird for the site for 2017 was found in the form of a pair of Gadwall on one of the ponds.

Gadwall, ♀ on left ♂ on right

Cast ashore Saturday 25th March 207

Wow what a day, after clear skies overnight, (no good for migrants), the morning soon warmed up and a walk along the last high water was fascinating.

With hundreds of Razor pod shells washed along with countless Tellins, and Venus spp shells it was great to also see, for my first time, thousands of By-the-wind Sailor, Velella velella, despite the appearance of the living animal this is not a Jellyfish, but rather a colony of individual polyps a pluestonic animal. All that was visible today were the papery skeletal remains but nevertheless an attractive looking creature.

By-the-wind Sailor

Another first for me for the beach was a tiny Common Starfish, Asterias rubens.  

Common Starfish

An unusual shaped Cuttlefish bone, oval shaped with a prominent spine and a tinge of pink, possibly the Elegant Cuttlefish, Sepia elegans.

ElegantCuttlefish (bone) ?

I also found a "sea bean", at first I thought it was a Sea Mouse, Aphrodita aculeate, but realised it was a seed pod, after opening it I extracted the bean, it awaits identification.

If anyone has an idea email me at:   paul.pembreylnr@outlook.com

Sea Bean ?

Catch up post.. Thursday 23rd March 2017

A busy few days, with winter having another go before hopefully letting go and giving spring a chance to break through.

A round up of activities, a leaflet dispenser at the entrance to the reserve has been a huge success and has been filled up three times in just four days, ok so it only hold six of the reserve leaflets due to their size but it shows that people are interested, or they just needed some paper...

The Bumblebee Conservation Trust in the shape of Sinead Lynch has partnered with the Sandy Water Park Residents Association and the council to introduce pollinator areas in Sandy Water Park (SWP), initially just a couple of plots each approx' 3sqm sown with a perennial meadow mix and a nursery mix of annuals. So a morning of sunshine and showers saw the volunteer conservation rangers along with Sinead and Simeon Jones the  county's conservation officer labouring away. opps no photo of any work being done..!

Today I returned to a property in Tycroes where the owner wants a Barn Owl box put up on the edge of his wood overlooking some rough grazing, he tell me that he's had Barn Owls nesting previously, the box he has had made to the specifications of the Barn Owl Trust, was so heavy it took two of us to carry it to the base of the tree, after fixing a bracket we tried valiantly to hoist the box into place...... after 90 minutes of huffing and puffing we reluctantly gave up to return another day with reinforcements... [it was so bloody heavy, at one point it swung like a pendulum and nearly had me off the ladder].

It was never going to be an easy job, top bracket in place

when the box is placed it will have a supporting bracket underneath,

there may be a follow up photo...

The lack of wildlife on the recent guided even is quite ironic, as on the next day I counted 47 Common Snipe, 3 Jack Snipe, Redshank, Wigeon, Teal, Little Egret and a Northern Wheatear, it just goes to show what difference a day and the weather can make.

Northern Wheatear,( a bird I caught and ringed in Autumn 2015 )

Sod's Law Sunday 19th March 2017

This morning dawned as forecast, which is always a surprise living on the coast, to rain and strong winds.....

Today was the last "winter" guided event......

As so happens it stopped raining around 9am, with the walk set for 10am, the wind didn't ease though, but that didn't stop six hardy souls and one dog joining me for a "beach and signs of spring" walk.

We walked east through the reserve turned south onto Cefn Sidan beach and aimed back to wards the east before turning north then west, a walk of 2.8miles or 4.5km.

Determined to make the best of the conditions

Disappointedly we saw NOTHING in the way of migrants and not a wader to be seen, 26 Cormorants, a few hundred Common Gull plus Herring and Lesser-black Backed Gulls, one Stonechat but plenty of singing Skylarks and Meadow Pipits.

There were no vocal complaints but I don't like to let visitors down so two Teal proved a highlight!

Our Spring programme of events starts on April 11th..........

No matter what the weather get outside Saturday 18th March 2017

With overnight wind and rain, the morning was still a bit damp and blowing with a westerly wind, the rain had petered out by the time I arrived at the Pembrey reserve.

I did a couple of quick jobs, including counting the new contingent of cattle now in residence in grazing field 1, 16 present and correct.

With high tide around 0920 I wandered over to the end of grazing field 2 and did a bit of sea watching.

In amongst the 2000+ Oystercatchers I found the leucistic bird that Bernie Beck had seen on 9th March, an odd but attractive looking bird in shades of brown and white, hopefully it will hang  around for tomorrows guided event.

Also on the beach were 100+ Bar-tailed Godwit, 35 Sanderling, whilst offshore,  four

Great-crested Grebes, a handful of Cormorants and Common Gulls.

As I looked eastwards into the estuary I saw a long,pointed winged greyish bird in the gloom flying towards me, as it got closer the dark cap and pointed bill could only be one, likely, bird a SANDWICH TERN. it coped with the stiff headwind as it trundled off westwards. It's the first Sandwich Tern of the year for Carmarthenshire.

Sandwich Tern, not from today as indicated by the blue sky!!

It's been a decent week across the reserve for migrant birds, either lingering winter visitors, or arriving summer ones, with Merlin still present, Northern Wheatear a few days ago,  Two White-fronted Geese yesterday (new bird for the reserve), and todays Sandwich Tern.

White-fronted Geese, (not my photograph, just for reference:

the birds yesterday both had dark patches

but not as much as the left hand bird here)

It just shows if you make the effort you never know what will turn up, the bird list for 2017 now stands at 82 species recorded.