A surprise landing Thursday 2nd November 2017

After a full on day with the Wednesday team, who by the way did a great job on the information shelter, THANK YOU it looked good this morning!, I returned at dusk to set up  for a Skylark ringing session this morning. whilst sorting the final net set, two Common Snipe landed in a net I had already set out, by the time I got to the net one had wriggled out but the other was lying quietly and was extracted easily, (for a change).

I took the nets down, just leaving a marker pole as a guide for this morning, so much easier to prep the night before, and set about the task of processing the bird.

Common Snipe Biometrics  Adult BTO code 4

                                         Wing  132mm

                                         Weight 91g

I returned hopeful this morning but ended up with very few birds, not a Skylark in sight, in perfect conditions, still I had nothing better to do at 05:30hrs.

Tomorrow's another day!

Nest boxes Tuesday 31st October 2017

After a quick trip to Pembrey to measure some fences, I collected more nest boxes for the project at Morfa Berwig.

I have placed 33 boxes in the wet woodland (carr) around the reserve at Morfa Berwig, another 11 to go up but the area I've selected looks a bit of a jungle challenge so I'll set some time aside to tackle them.

We had a good deal on the boxes, some of them are a bit fancy for the purposes of a survey but good quality and at a third of the retail price I can't complain.

Twelve of the boxes are supported by Bynea Primary School and have been individually marked with the names of the pupils who selected the random numbers; Isabel the county Biodiversity officer has set the pupils some challenges over the winter period all connected with the project, hopefully it will give them a fuller understanding of the natural process of life, and death.

No 19, Bynea Primary School 

The new "telescopic" ladder worked really well to place a box at height (hopefully for Spotted Flycatchers to use), the other boxes are at a workable height so negating the need to carry a ladder around when checking them in the spring.

I've doctored one box to try and encourage Willow Tits to use, these birds are very fussy and prefer to excavate their own nest hole in a rotten trunk, so I've covered the box in bark and filled it with sawdust and wood chips we know that there are Willow Tits on site as I caught one a few months ago.

Willow Tit box?

Beach walk, cattle round up and a list, Saturday 28th October 2017

This morning started with a Snipe count on the lower section of the marsh, still a bit low with only eight birds seen, a bit of cold weather is needed to move the birds around a bit.

I then walked the stretch of beach from the end of the grazing fields to the "Nose", sadly a lot of plastic litter has been dropped on the last few tides, as well as a few more Portuguese Man O' War.

A few Portuguese Man O' War still washing up

Storm Brian, left its mark with a lot of erosion of the dune face, the photograph shows an area we used as access to drive down on to the beach, its a long drop now!

The remains of a small shark, possibly Small Spotted Catshark, looked like discarded bycatch

Some prep' work for a ringing session on Monday morning, will hopefully make setting up easier!, a male Sparrowhawk checked out the ringing ride approvingly, just come back on Monday!!

Through the van window male Sparrowhawk

The grazier was taking the cattle off for routine TB testing, he asked if I could help for a few minutes, 2'5hrs later we all left.... herding cattle is a bit like herding cats, or frogs or any animal that decides it doesn't want to go through a gate and on to a lorry....

All I can say is ..Wednesday volunteers we have quite a few jobs to do, (there's a list) as a result of wayward cattle and cattle lorries!

Oh and I smell of silage and cattle cake?

Winter thrushes Friday 27th October 2017

A ringing session at Pembrey Burrows was definitely on the cards this morning, all looked great even when I could see the stars as the overnight cloud had disappeared.

With just 100ft of net set in some willow scrub and the reeds all was ready by 07:00hrs with the magical "Latvian Redwing" tape playing, I had heard one or two redwing calling in the dark as they flew over, so to find a sprinkling of them in the both nets was justification for the effort.

I caught 11, but as dawn broke it was clear there were 100's on the move one flock alone held c300 birds.

Redwing

The caught and ringed birds were a mix of juveniles and adults, with weights averaging at 61g. There were a few Song Thrush in the bushes but only one in the net, I guess they arrived with the Redwing. None of the thrushes were carrying much in the way of fat, probably having used it up on their journey from the north.

There was also an arrival of Goldcrests, although I only caught four, they were all juveniles with an average weight of 5g - there were many more calling.

The surprise of the session were two  Lesser Redpoll, not caught or knowingly recorded on the reserve previously, again they were both juveniles.

 Lesser Redpoll

[photo from Wikipedia, my camera batteries went flat!]

Nine Reed Buntings added to the total as did a male Blackcap.

Woodpigeons stole the show with several flocks making a total in excess of 1000 birds flying in off the sea and heading north west.

If anyone has empty "fat ball" or bird seed "tubs/buckets" I could do with 12 of them please leave a comment and I'll get back to you.

We are running out of the nature reserve leaflet so I've also been experimenting with QR codes, if you have a QR reader on your mobile you may be able to scan the code and follow the link.

Ynys Dawela Wednesday 25th October 2017

This week the LNR volunteers visited (we did some work) the Ynys Dawela Nature Park (reserve), a 15.8ha former farm,  then in the 1830's and 1840's mining area to exploit the rich mineral reserves of the area.

A failed bid to develop an opencast mine on the land resulted in the site being secured by the local authority and subsequently passing to Carmarthenshire County Council. It is now a real patchwork of meadows, deciduous woodland with the Amman river forming one boundary.

The site is home to a typical mix of woodland birds, yesterday Jays were very noticeable feeding on the abundant Acorn crop, its specialities though are probably the Whorled Caraway, the county flower, and the Marsh Fritillary, although present in low numbers habitat management is geared to conserving this now rare butterfly.

Marsh Fritillary habitat

The autumn colours are just coming out and with the great range of tree species,including Oak, Ash, Birch, Hazel and Holly, plus Field and Norway Maple it will be a blaze of colour in a week or two.

Brian arrives, Saturday 21st October 2017

I was duly awakened by the slashing rain sometime in the early hours, then the sound of neighbours hammering something or other in the dark got me out of bed for my planned visit to the reserve at Pembrey for high water.

I'm glad I made the effort, with the wind pushing the tide the marsh was completely flooded well before high water at 07:50hrs.

The drive along the edge of the reserve yielded my first REDWINGS of the year as well as SONG THRUSH and BLACKBIRD, all trying to keep low..

A good variety of birds on the marsh battled the wind with, TEAL (50), MALLARD (c25), WIGEON (2), REDSHANK (c25), CURLEW (2), SNIPE, as well as the usual assemblage of Lesser Black Backed, Black headed and Herring Gulls.

With gusts of over 60mph recorded at Pembrey Sands, it was no wonder the instruments on the shelter were rattling.

Tardy summer visitors? Friday 20th October 2017

With storm "Brian" on the way for Saturday I got out and about this morning and walked the beach, it was good to see very little storm damage from last weeks visitor, Ophelia.

Noticeable in the brief window of good weather was the movement of Skylarks heading SE across the reserve and out over the estuary, the Cormorant flock is building up at CE51 with c25 birds roosting this morning.

Heading back inland a late Northern Wheatear was nice to see, it may be the same one that Adam saw at the Pembrey Harbour end earlier today.

Northern Wheatear

A well earned rest in the shelter allowed me to notice the number of Goldcrests, and Robins flitting about. On the walk back along the gravel tack to the van there was lots of birds activity in the scrub and a few minutes of "pishing" soon had a couple of Blackcaps, a  male and a female type, investigating the noise; (pishing is a birding term for making a pish sound which some birds will come to investigate). A male Bullfinch "peeped" back and more Goldcrests were moving through looking for insects.

I plan to be on site for high water tomorrow around 07:45, despite the forecast 50mph winds, come and join me!!!