Morfa Berwig Ringing Tuesday 19th September 2017

I dream't of perfect catching conditions today, overcast through the night, dry no wind and an over cast morning. instead clear skies overnight and this morning at least there was no breeze!! but it was cold with a heavy dew.

Using just a few nets there were a few birds to ring, dominated by Blackcaps and Chiffchaff, plus a family party of  five Bullfinch, starring birds were a Cettis Warbler and an immature male Sparrowhawk.

I have never caught a Sparrowhawk before and after much deliberation on my part eventually the bird was aged and sexed correctly, (should have taken the correct text book with me).

Cettis Warbler

Sparrowhawk

The importance of the weather conditions cannot be underestimated, had it been overcast during the night or in the hours before dawn it is likely that night time migrants like Blackcaps would have been more inclined to slow down their migration, a clear night gives them perfect conditions to just keep going until first light.....

Monday 18th September 2017

The on going management of the Sea Buckthorn stepped up a pace today, with commencement of the autumn spraying programme.

The areas cut late last winter, (2kms) have some regrowth as expected and this is the right time to spray a glysophate weedkiller, as the plant begins to shut down for the winter drawing its energy back into the root system; thus absorbing the chemical much more efficiently. 

The team will probably be on site for about three weeks depending on the weather, you can't spray when its windy!

We were joined this morning by a group of housing officers who had taken up the invite from the councils wellbeing team to get outside in the fresh air and contribute to improving our public spaces....this inevitably means a litter pick which everyone got stuck into.

There wasn't a great deal of plastic today, mostly fishing ropes and cockle bags. We managed a to collect about eight bags sadly all for landfill, no Strandline Beetles were disturbed during the litter pick, I kept a very close eye on proceedings.

Another day of big skies over Carmarthen bay with Saundersfoot glinting in the distance, opps no photo!

Feel like autumn, Sunday 17th September 2017

After a forced, (ill health), absence of 10 days it was good to be back at Pembrey Burrows on a crisp clear morning.

Even in such a short period of time the season has moved on with many flowers now well past their best, and a change over in the birds; noticeable today was the steady stream of Swallows, Sand Martins, and House Martins moving along the coast, and the increase in vocal Skylarks.

With many plants setting seeds a flock of around 25 Linnets were making the most of the glut of seeds on the marsh, although the sight of a Greater Spotted Woodpecker over the marsh was unusual.

Linnet

With vandalism of the fences in the past few weeks, and following several escapes, the cattle are a little mixed up, trying to get a proper count was nigh on impossible today, I'll try again tomorrow.

Veronica and daughter were doing the final butterfly survey of the season, I joined them for a little while before leaving them to finish off, butterflies were a bit thin on the ground but I had earlier seen a Silver Y moth on the marsh.

Silver Y

A period of better weather and some big tides should be interesting in what they bring to the reserve.

Next Event is Saturday 23rd September at 8am, a sea watch!

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I'm a little bit under the weather this week, hopefully normal service will resume in a few days, in the meantime get out and enjoy the autumn, looks like lots of birds are passing  through the area

Strandline Beetle Survey Wednesday 6th September 2017

Back in the swing....

After fixing a stile, and crecoting (the new safer version of creosote) the door to the shelter Veronica and I had lunch on the beach, after what seemed a never ending drive though soft sand!

I wanted to start the September round of Strandline Beetle surveys so we walked the most productive stretch of beach between CE51 and the end of grazing field 2.

We found five beetles along this stretch which I was pleased about as in August I hadn't recorded any along the beach in the survey area, (Barry Stewart during the survey for Natural Resources Wales in 2016 felt that they disappear at that time of year).

The Strandline Beetle

All five beetles we found were under plastic of one sort or another, despite there being some "ideal looking" pieces of driftwood lying on the beach. One beetle was found under a plastic barrel at the foot of a near vertical dune cliff, not apparently having read the literature which indicates they don't like that habitat.

Hopefully the beetles found will go on to breed in the next few weeks thus sustaining an already fragile population.

There's still another stretch of beach to survey which proved productive early in the season.

I'm back, Tuesday 5th September 2017

I'm back from a well earned break on the Spanish island of Majorca, it was unashamedly a "beach and chilling" holiday, although I did see a few nice birds, including, Eleonoras Falcon, Peregrine Falcon (with one of the hotels feral pigeons and I don't think they were off to the beach!!!) Audouins Gull, Cattle Egrets and Sardinian Warbler.

I also saw what is apparently the most expensive sailing yacht in the world built at a cost of-300 million euros!

Made of steel, 468ft long with the masts almost 300ft high!

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I'm taking a break,
normal service will be resumed soon.

P