Clear night mothing Tuesday/Wednesday 14th June 2017

With the first reasonable weather for quite a while I put the moth trap out in the garden, it was a clear night with a heavy dew.

Getting up at 3:30am to "close" the trap and retiring to bed until 7:30am seemed a great idea!

Disappointedly when checking the trap the sum total was six moths of five species!

Here are the best..

Peppered Moth

Buff Tip, head on

Buff Tip, side on

Sunday 11th June 2017 Pt 2

Before the walk/event this morning, I went for a look around, it was great to see so many Southern Marsh Orchids and Pyramidal Orchids in flower, with many more flower spikes yet to open.  The yellow of the Biting Stonecrop is beginning to make a nice show on the dryer areas of the dunes.

Infloresence of Pyramidal Orchid

Biting Stonecrop

I also came across a Spider-hunting Wasp which may be Arachnospila anceps,(no common name), I've submitted the record for confirmation.

?

The high winds of the past week have damaged the bearings on the anemometer on the weather station, and now its not spinning just shaking....., I'm not surprised really as its been in use for about five years and experienced a few storms.. I'll have to get a ladder to check the damage properly.

Creepy Crawlies and Bug hunt event Sunday 11th June 2017

Another low turnout, but those that joined in had a good time, nothing like poking about in a pond or mashing up cow pats in your hands to get the proverbial naturalists juices flowing.

In blustery conditions, (the sun did make a brief appearance) we delved into the pond in F3, there have been no cattle in the field for a few months, so it seemed the right choice.

I am no expert on aquatic life so the identifications will be to a Genus, only, still very interesting.

The most surprising find was a Coot, which happens to be a new bird for the site and species 110 of the year. No one else saw it as it dived into some vegetation, swam underwater to the far end of the pond then sneeked out into a pile of logs.

More expected life included , Newt efts spp, (immature newts), Water Baotmen, Diving Beetle spp, Blood Worm, Pea Mussel spp, Great Pond Snail, along with Damselfly and Dragonfly nymphs.

Dragonfly nymph, either a "Chaser" or "Darter"

Damselfly nymph

Immature Newt, (Eft)

We then went and looked at a damp area which had both Lesser and Greater Spearwort in flower as well as Yellow Flag, a bit of vegetation beating with the butterfly net yielded what appears to be a Black Snipefly.

Black Snipefly?, very distinctive wing pattern

A quick look at some cowpats saw us looking at some fungi, (awaiting ID), beetle larvae as well as worms.

Yes that's Cow poo with a nice little fungus!

And its raining again....Saturday 10th June 2017

Wales Nature Week ends today, although there are a few events next week, including a local school visiting Morfa Berwig LNR for a pond dipping session. I went to the reserve this morning to check the dipping platform, as requested, and its ready for use.

I then went along to Pembrey Burrows LNR where I had noticed a 16m stretch of fencing blowing in the strong winds we had recently, it was swinging between  about 70 and 45 degrees so couldn't be left just in case the escape committee had spotted it......

No mistaking this fallen fence

Three posts, some banging and nine staples and one exhausted body later it was "fixed".

oh joy more fence post bashing...

On my way back to the maintenance yard I met a "blog follower", can I say again, thanks for the support...

Don't forget the Creepy Crawlies and Bug event tomorrow at Pembrey Burrows, with pond dipping, log turning and cattle dung prodding all on offer, oh and the sun may just appear.

Pine Weevil, we may found some tomorrow

June flames blown away, Tuesday 6th June 2017

I many respects we live in turbulent times, the weather is just one example.

Well forecast before the event the rain and wind of Monday 5th was expected, and whilst it's still blowing today its currently dry.

The Pembrey reserve will have benefited from the rainfall, although many of the breeding species will have struggled yesterday.

The weather station recorded 29.4mm of rain in the 24hrs from 09:00 Monday, (unfortunately currently the chart shows a cumulative figure so does not reflect the true picture)  and wind gusts of over 30mph.

Pressure chart, hence the strong winds as recorded below

The wind chart is in metres per hour, to convert to miles per hour divide by 0.0006214

Wind speed recorded at the information point at Pembrey in metres per hour the Green line shows the gusts.

Ringing demo and those cattle....

This morning I ran a ringing demo' for Carmarthenshire County Council biodiversity, at the Morfa Berwig LNR; as an event for Wales Nature Week, despite the rain we caught enough birds to show the two people who attended, I just don't understand why there is such a lack of interest in our local environment.

Thanks to Heather Coats, and Valerie Wilson of the Gower Ringing Group and to Veronica, a stalwart volunteer at the reserve for the help this morning.

There was some good news, with two "controlled" birds, (birds ringed elsewhere and re captured at Morfa Berwig) in the shape of a CETTIS WARBLER and a Wren. We know they were originally ringed at the nearby WWT Llanelli. The Wren was originally ringed as a 3J ( a young bird of the year) on 25th August 2016, whilst the Cettis was ringed as a 3J on 23rd July 2015.

Wren

Cettis Warbler

After an early start and back home by 10am I thought I would have a lie down, NOPE not a chance, a phone call from a Pembrey reserve regular to inform me that the cattle had knocked over one of the stiles!!!, with the risk of a mass escape I pottered along, made a very temporary repair, stuck some "do not use" signs on the stile and job done....

Lunch is approaching..............

Slithering and buzzing Saturday 3rd June 2017

With what seemed a reasonable early morning forecast I carried out a full survey of the reptile refugia at Pembrey LNR.

It was exciting to discover that this morning seven of the, now, 12 survey sites had reptiles with a total count of 12 Slow Worms, 6 Common Lizards, and a single NEW Grass Snake.

I say new as this individual was about a mile away from the records of last week!, the usual home range of an individual is between 0.18 - 9.41ha, although the average is around 3.56ha, todays individual was well outside the "usual" range.

Whilst checking the refugia I found another Bee Orchid plant and confirmed the mystery leaves from yesterday as Sea Bindweed.

an unusual "top down" view of a Bee Orchid flower

Bee Orchid