BonJour mon amiee? Friday 21st April 2017

With a perfect forecast for this morning, overcast and little or no wind, I was on site at Pembrey by 05:30hrs for a ringing session.

I set up in the recently created reed bed ride, deeper into the reeds, and with a bit of bush craft and luck soon had a GRASSHOPPER WARBLER, (Grawa) in the net, another trans-Saharan migrant with the unmistakable "reeling" song. The tail of this bird shows "growth bars" which may indicate poor feeding in the wintering grounds.

I also caught seven SEDGE WARBLERS, (Sedwa) including a bird already carrying a ring, it's always interesting to find a ringed bird in the net, although usually they are birds that have been ringed in the area on previous occasions---- not today though this Sedwa was wearing a FRENCH ringing scheme ring, my first control of a bird ringed outside of the UK.

The information has been sent to the BTO who will forward the ring number to the French scheme and in the future not sure when I'll know exactly where it was originally ringed and when. This is the science part of ringing how old is the bird?, where was it ringed? what condition was it in? has it been controlled elsewhere?, how many migrations has it completed... so much to learn.

Rhino proof fencing, and two surprises Tuesday 18th April 2017

I was joined, again, today by Simon Jones on work placement, with another pair of willing hands we tackled the rather unsightly entrance fence at Pembrey LNR, what started as a simple job took 2.5 hours of huffing and puffing trying to remove a few posts.

We actually gave in trying to remove two of them leaving one and cutting one off below ground level, the wire used on the fence was designed for Rhino control.

Interestingly whilst attempting to dig out one post we discovered four Slow Worms some 20cm below ground I managed to move three to a safe location whilst the fourth disappeared even deeper, hence why we cut the post off.

We then tackled some of the Sea Buckthorn that the machinery couldn't reach back in the winter its easy to make an impact with a pair of loppers and a saw...

Enough hard labour, we set off to do some monitoring of Shelduck drawing a blank we then tripped over some MOONWORT or rather 20 spikes of this unique looking fern with a liking for calcareous grassland and sand dunes, I only had my phone with me so apologies for the poor photos

Moonwort, Botrychium lunaria

Another pure luck encounter was with a female EMPEROR MOTH, a real stunner.

Female Emperor Moth Saturnia pavonia

The Emperor Moth is the only resident species of the Saturniidae family of moths of which there are about 1300 worldwide. The adult moths do not feed and are not usually seen in large numbers, this is a daytime flying moth and is unmistakable.

Spring surge, Easter Monday, 17th April 2017

Most naturalists, especially birders seem to start looking for signs of spring in darkest February, and of course nature is thinking about the rising temperatures, and longer hours of daylight, but it's still winter, then the first green shoots appear maybe the first Brimstone, Sand Martin and is that Chiffchaff "new in" or a wintering bird....

Well the past ten days have seen a surge in the appearance of the real spring with decent arrivals of Swallows, my first House Martin, Sedge Warbler, Grasshopper Warbler and a few Sandwich Terns. The Common Shelduck have been displaying all week the males play a "king of the castle" routine with head bobbing and calling.

Whilst I haven't seen a Brimstone "on patch" I have seen Holly Blue, Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock and Speckled Wood.

On the flora front, from one spike of Green-winged Orchid there are now hundreds in flower in F3 alone, as well as Wild Pansy, and Heath Dog Violet.

Green winged Orchid, Anacamptis morio

When I first noticed a different Viola growing in F3 yesterday evening It meant getting down and close to correctly identify one of a variable family of flowers. The bright blue flower, the distinctive yellowish and blunt "spur" and the shape of the leaves made me think Heath Dog Violet, Viola canina, then I checked the distribution map which shows a presence in South Wales along the coast but not a wide distribution putting an element of doubt in my mind, some quick correspondence with the county botanical recorder soon had my identification confirmed,... "not uncommon on dry dunes in Carmarthenshire."  Establishing the accurate identification of any plant or animal is important if the data collected is to be meaningful for the management of the area, no shame in checking.

Heath Dog Violet, Viola canina

Phew, busy few days, Friday 14th April 2017

What a busy few days, we have been joined by Simon Jones a Countryside Management student on a work placement module.

With another pair of willing hands quite a few jobs have been tackled, nothing onerous just jobs that needed doing.

With the school break in full swing, Monday found me dousing down a fire where guests had been making marshmallow smorfs? luckily the fire didn't spread into nearby Gorse, but the buggers had taken a wooden batten off the shelter, and off a nearby reptile refugia as fuel!!!.

Tuesday started with a briefing for Simon then a guided walk with Carmarthenshire Wildlife Walks, a total of twelve adults and two children in perfect weather.
The route enabled me to show off some early signs of spring in the shape of Green winged Orchid, Cowslip, Morels ( we found a few more and I continue to find them scattered widely), the beach held its usual array of shells and crab carapaces with examples of Velvet Swimming Crab and of course the curious looking Masked Crab.  The best find of the morning though was the nationally scarce Dune Tiger Beetle.
I particularly like this group as they usually finish with a cup of tea and a cake.

Dune Tiger Beetle, a nationally scarce beetle.

Simon and I then went and "painted" the inside of the shelter, it hadn't been painted before and its made a real difference. This was followed by some Education, Engagement and sadly some Enforcement, dogs, dog mess and another fire.

Wednesday saw the usual gang of VCR's out and at last those Dormouse boxes are in position at another reserve ready for occupation, the Pwll Lagoon and Ashpits LNR is another gem in Carmarthenshires crown of "wild" places.

At last, Dormouse box in situ, just need some residents to move in..

The afternoon gave us time to repair, yet again, a short stretch of grazing field fence at Pembrey.

Thursday, more work on the shelter, including some refreshed interpretation posters.

A full check of the now 10/11 reptile refugia revealed 11 Slow Worms and three Common Lizards. A female Garganey on one of the ponds was a good find, ( same pond as last autumns bird?). We rounded off the day with the creation of a couple of new ringing rides in the reed bed, but not before Simon witnessed the harder side of visitor engagement, when every breath is seemingly wasted on visitors who have "...been coming here for sixty years.. " (and I'll do what I want).

Garganey, ♀

(I don't have any female pictures

of my own so I've borrowed this one,

key identification features  are the head markings)

Morals and Morels, Sunday 9th April 2017

I sometimes get the expected reaction from visitors wrong, (to be fair though not often), so today when I went to speak to a visitor with two dogs, which on a previous occasion had run all over the space I was working in, I didn't expect  a good outcome.. how wrong I was the chap was really engaged with the work we are doing and how our interaction with visitors is having a positive effect. There's a moral there somewhere.

Now for those Morels, to be precise one Morel, Morchella esculenta , I hadn't seen a Morel for over 25years so when local fungi legend Dr Philip Jones directed me to a specimen he had located on the reserve I was off to find it.

The Morel is actually a "cap" fungi, just like a toadstool however the spores are carried in the brain like structures on the upper surface, as the latin name suggests they can make good eating, if you can get there before the snails and slug and all manner of other invertebrate, plus of course they tend to be full of sand.

On the beach I found a beetle which I need confirmation of, however I think it may be one of the three species of Platydracus , which don't seem to have a "common name", when I find out what it is actually I'll post an update.

Platydracus spp?

Whilst on the beach I also found a whole "Sea Potato" still covered in spines.

Sunshine brings allsorts out, Saturday 8th April 2017

What a stunningly beautiful day, the Pembrey reserve looked at it's best for early spring.

Of course not every day is straight forward, and today started off with a complaint from a horse rider that a dog had chased her and her daughters ponies down the beach.....

Then, although nothing to do with the reserve, the local RNLI Lifeboat was called out to assist a yacht in the estuary, a few hours later and the Coastguard helicopter did a round of the bay, the sunshine brings them out.....

Back to the reserve Wildlife was very evident with a pair if Pied Wagtails investigating the information shelter, a wandering Slow Worm, a couple of Field Voles and perhaps best of all a territorial male Lapwing, I wonder what he was up too?

Slow Worm

♂ Lapwing

A telephone call from local birder Adam informed me that he had found a female

BLACK REDSTART,  a first for the site, disappointedly I couldn't relocate it. Bird species 90 of 2017.

♀ Black Redstart (Photo Adam Dare)

♀ Black Redstart (Photo Adam Dare)

A different route to the main parking area, it's not actually meant to be a car park, and what a pile of rubbish, three quarters of a black bag from less than a sq metre; why can't people just take their litter home.

Site fidelity Friday 7th April 2017

With a perfect forecast I was up before the larks this morning and on site at Pembrey Burrows  by 05:45, with a few nets set by 06:15.

The clear skies clouded over to total cover by 06:30 and the slight breeze dropped away, disappointedly the clear skies overnight did not drop any obvious migrants into the reed bed area.

However I did catch a couple of Willow Warblers (Wilwa), the first was very bright and crisp looking and was an unringed bird.

The second bird was already carrying a ring, and upon closer inspection it was one of mine, the bird in question HLH257 was ringed originally in July of 2016 in the same net set as it was retrapped.

When originally ringed it had a wing length of 69mm,, with no recorded weight (the batteries  in the scales had run flat) today it had the same wing length and weighed 8.8g, I think what is remarkable is that this tiny bird left Pembrey last autumn to spend its winter south of the Sahel in tropical Africa, and then journey back again to Pembrey.... truly amazing.

Willow Warbler, HLH257

Its song is something to listen for as a herald of spring and warmer days