Marble Galls Morfa Berwig Friday 29th September 2017

Morfa Berwig was due a visit this morning, so I trundled along with the weather overcast but dry with some sunny spells.

The first thing I noticed as I approached the entrance were two new signs, it looks like the environmental enforcement team are getting as fed up with the fly tipping at the reserve as we are, well done..... We do have some Welsh Government signs to go up to reinforce the penalties of fly tipping.

A leisurely walk around the reserve accompanied by the sound of the birds in the trees and ditches, with Moorhen, Water Rail, a tit flock  and a new bird for the site a Green Woodpecker, one or two flowers are still out including Marsh Ragwort; butterflies were represented by Red Admiral and Speckled Wood.

There are one or two decent sized Oaks on the reserve and I was drawn to one particular tree which seemed to have more galls than acorns.

Oak Marble Galls

The galls,in this case Oak marble galls, are caused by a chemically induced distortion of leafbuds, caused by the gall wasp Andricus kollari . The wasp is not a native to the UK having been introduced from the Eastern Mediterranean in the 1800's for the tannin properties found in the gall.

Andricus kollari, 1.5 - 2 mm

The marble gall has alternating sexual and asexual generations, often taking two years to complete, especially in the north of Britain. The familiar summer gall develops from eggs laid by a sexual female in the developing buds of the two native oaks in May or June; the host trees often being immature or retarded, scrub-oak, specimens; they are rarer on older healthy trees.

The developing spherical galls are green at first, brown later, and mature in August. Each gall contains a central chamber, with a single female wasp larva of the asexual generation, which emerges through a 'woodworm-like' hole as an adult winged gall-wasp in September. These asexual (agamic) females lay unfertilized eggs in the embryonic bud leaves of the Turkey oak, with galls slowly developing during winter, and are visible in March and April as small oval structures between the bud scales, looking like ant's eggs or pupae. The emerging adult gall-wasps in spring are the sexual generation, producing both males and females, which fly to the common oaks to initiate the formation of the summer marble gall.
The abnormal buds develop during summer and the bud is wholly replaced by the gall growth. Marble galls may remain attached to the tree for several years. The level of attack by the insect varies greatly from year to year.  [source- Wikipedia]

exit hole....

Fascinating this nature stuff.

The recent rains have raised the levels of water across the site and its starting to take on its mantle as a wetland site, its worth a visit at anytime just to see how nature given time will heal the land.

Wednesday 27th September 2017

A completely different day, weather wise, to yesterday with a stiff breeze blowing and an outlook of rain to come.

The team took to the beach to collect up bags of litter already collected on previous litter picking days, someone had got there before us for one lot, but at the western end of Cefn Sidan the bags still waited to be collected.

Then a spot of lunch in the van whilst sat watching the seascape and putting the world to rights....

There were some decent numbers of birds on the beach with a nice range of species including, Oystercatchers, Dunlin, Sanderling, three Bar-tailed Godwits, c6 Sandwich Terns and a single Ruff,  as well as the usual array of gulls

Sandwich Tern

Back into Pembrey Country Park where we collected Willow and Birch branches for the local primary schools' "forest school".

A couple of Spindle shrubs were really showy with their fuchsia pink and deep orange seed heads, really brightening up the forest track.

Spindle

We dropped off the branches at the school where they were received with huge enthusiasm from the pupils and teaching staff.

Ouch.. Tuesday 26th September 2017

Ouch, I recently had an argument with a piece of wood, the wood won! Four broken ribs later and I can laugh about it just!!!

This morning looked like the last settled morning for a while so despite the ribs I set up for Skylarks on the reserve.

This mornings ringing site

An overcast almost windless morning, with just 140ft of net set it was great to find three Skylarks in the net in the first round, on wing length a male and two females, both adult and juvenile Skylarks undergo a complete moult in the summer so at this time of year its considered difficult to age them so they are lumped as BTO code 2.

Skylark

Diagnostic hind claw

The rest of the morning was fairly slow with good numbers of Goldfinch and Linnet flying around as well as at least two Sparrowhawks and a Merlin. Only a few birds were caught until I played the Meadow pipit call on the tape and the birds just flooded in to the area with 10 caught.

A Sparrowhawk got caught in the net but by the time I hobbled over it managed to wriggle free, next time!!!

Three fly over Canada Geese were new for the year.

rangernaturenotes, new name

The new name of the blog is rangernaturenotes.blogspot.com

seems more appropriate

Paul

Change of name Sunday 24th September 2017

I'm thinking of changing the blog name / address  native wildlife research was the name I used for an old website.
I'd like a simpler name ideas welcome

Sea watch event Saturday 23rd September 2017

The last of the programme of events for Spring/Summer 2017, saw a hardy few gather to stare out into Carmarthen Bay on an overcast damp morning with a steady south to south east wind blowing.

There was little variety but decent numbers of expected birds for the time of year, 

Gannets stole the show with well over 100 feeding off Burry Holm, accompanied by again over 100 Kittiwakes and at least two Arctic Skuas which could be seen harassing the gulls.

Arctic Skua

Kittiwake

Other species included, bar tailed Godwit, Dunlin, Sanderling, Oystercatchers, Common and Black headed Gull.

Bar tailed Godwit

Keep checking for details of any autumn/winter event, with autumn now officially here, it's certainly all change on the bird front, so expect to start seeing/hearing wintering duck; Teal, Wigeon, and Pintail on the marsh, along with Snipe and possibly Jack Snipe.

Strandline Beetle last survey of 2017 Thursday 21st September 2017

Well I'm planning that todays survey will be the last of 2017, but lets wait and see.

Only one section was left to do today, the eastern end of Cefn Sidan in the nature reserve, sadly not one beetle was found, given that there was very little surface debris I wasn't surprised still it was disappointing.

On a slightly brighter note there was hardly any plastic on that stretch of beach.

What was lacking in beetles was made up for by the large flocks of Goldfinches and Linnets, busily feeding on the fast seeding dune plants, as well as amongst the strandline.

A great afternoon to be out, even though it was supposed to be a "day off"!.

The survey area, divided by the red lines, green dots show best areas for Standline Beetle, full report will be in the annual review