Lesvos day 2 26th April 2017

Ah, the smell of the Mediterranean, oh no that will be ANTIFREEZE!!!

Another reciting day in the field, 10.5 hours including 40 minutes waiting for a replacement car.

Highlights today included,  COLLARED FLYCATCHER, EASTERN ORPHEAN WARBLER, ALPINE SWIFT, TEMMINCKS STINT, MARSH SANDPIPER, WHITE-WINGED BLACK TERN, WHISKERED TERN, CUCKOO (2), BLACK REDSTART, MARSH HARRIER, LESSER KESTREL, LONG-LEGGED BUZZARD, SHORT-TOED EAGLE, CINEREOUS BUNTING, CRETZCHMARS BUNTING, ISABELLINE WHEATEAR, WESTERN ROCK NUTHATCH. Plus a good fall of Whinchat and Black-eared Wheatear.

The quality of the day was a SEMI-COLLARED FLYCATCHER AT Meladia Valley.

Temminicks Stint

Rock Nuthatch nest and chick (VH)

Starred Agama (VH)

Lesvos 2017 day one or was it two!

The intrepid party of five set off from Llanelli on Monday 24th at 15:00, we arrived at the Hotel Pela at 08:01 on 25th WOW, seemed like a long time but the journey was uneventful and easy thanks to Airport Flyer of Llanelli and Aegean and Olympic Airlines.

To summarize the first day we had 73 full species plus a sub , I insist on counting all the Wagtails as they are my favourites.

Bernie managed at least 2.5 ticks, with With Ruddy Shelduck, Masked Shrike and the half was Greater Flamingo, those that know him will have to ask.

Nick has been before but Veronica and Cris were blown away (I think, we were all pretty tired).

The highlights included, MARSH SANDPIPER, GARGANEY, SHORT-TOED SNAKE EAGLE, LONG-LEGGED BUZZARD, WOODCHAT SHRIKE, WHISKERED TERN, BEE-EATER, BLACK STORK,  SPANISH SPARROW and of course WOOD SANDPIPER.

Some dodgy photos from the "bridge camera"

Woodchat Shrike

Spanish Sparrow

European Bee-Eater

Beach walk and signs of Spring event, Saturday 22nd April 2017

A bright morning with a chilly E-NE breeze but still pleasant to be out.

The Green-winged Orchids are spectacular at the moment with a good showing across the reserve.

The theme of today's event was "signs of Spring" and we had plenty to see.

A heads up from Bernie about a fall off Wheatears in Sandy Water Park a few miles east of the reserve. At Pembrey it was soon apparent there was a movement of birds and very quickly the numbers started to mount up, there were at least 20 birds on site with the majority being females, only three males were noted.

Staying with birds three Whimbrel which were quite approachable seemed to be newly arrived, a few Swallows passing through plus the mix of resident birds such as Stonechat, Meadow Pipit and Skylark made for a decent morning.

Whimbrel

The highlight though came in the form of the GREEN HAIRSTREAK butterfly, with four seen on the food plant, Gorse,a stunningly colourful butterfly; a couple of Speckled Woods and Small Whites were also noted.

Green Hairstreak

There wasn't much of a strandline on the beach so we didn't linger, but made our way back to the entrance, counting Wheatear on the way.

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)