Ducks Waders and the Bird Report Thursday 4th January 2018

We are lucky along the Llanelli coast to have a decent amount of wader suitable habitat, the world renowned Burry Inlet, an SPA for a range of water-birds, The Wetland and Wildfowl Trust centre at Penclacwydd, North Dock, and the Lliedi saltmarsh Llanelli Beach, Cefn Padrig, Old Pembrey harbour and of course Cefn Sidan, although the conservation protection designation is Pembrey Coast, undoubtedly many other areas such as Machynys have lost some of their attraction due to development, so much of the area has some form of designation, in fact if you plot all of the Pembrey Burrows & Saltings designations onto an ordnance survey map it's impossible to read the thing, ask if you want to try it!

This brings me to the point of the blog, it's noticeable from records of 2017 that numbers of some duck species are down, with Pintail and Wigeon being very noticeable, not only are birders telling me this but I speak to quite a lot of wildfowlers, (no matter your personal view these people are not all bad) who are noticing fewer duck numbers; I think the data provided to the Carmarthenshire bird report will prove useful in tracking this perception. What is the view out there?

Pintail

Ok that was a bit gloomy lets talk waders, in 2017 21 species of wading birds were recorded at Pembrey LNR, not bad if I tried harder we may have added a couple more, of course the beach helped. Here are a selection of photos, courtesy of Colin Dalton, Thanks Colin.

We have produced the first ever PEMBREY BURROWS & SALTINGS LNR BIRD REPORT, for 2017, I will publish on the blog? and it will be available as a hard copy if anyone wants one. It's not a fancy one but I'm often asked for a list of the birds we see so it seemed like a good idea.

Storm Eleanor,Wednesday 3rd January

Wednesday = volunteer day,(that's to say I get backup today to do more than one man jobs) and so it was no storm was going to stop us getting stuck in to some fencing repairs, it's a bit like painting the Forth Bridge just when you think you've done its time to start again.

It was certainly gusty at times but nothing to really affect us working, however the effect on the dunes is very evident, we have lost a fair bit of dune frontage at the eastern end of the reserve, what is eroding is being blown back over the top and drowning the cattle fence.

The blighters could step over this as it is

Repairs made (it's not pretty even by our standards) but for how long....

Now try it.. or rather don't ...

The cattle, a mixture of heifers and bullocks, mostly Hereford types but some mixed parentage; are looking well and are certainly tough enough for the coastal conditions, they showed great interest in the vehicles as we drove through the field today, something we rarely bother to do, the bullock which is un-polled looked pretty determined to stop me in my tracks, you know like the David Attenborough films of Rhinos eyeing up the trucks.......(he's not in this photo)

A look for Owls didn't pay off today perhaps a combination of huge tides and the strong winds has moved them to dryer parts of the reserve.

Colder, dryer weather forecast could be great for Owls and Harriers, so come and visit and please report your sightings.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, Carmarthenshire Local Nature Reserves

Hello 2018, Pembrey LNR was very busy yesterday, certainly for the short time I was there, I couldn't wait to get away, but I'll come back to that.

Disappointedly the New Year started with reports of poachers on the reserve, they were duly intercepted and the error of their ways pointed out to them, to be fair they were both very reasonable guys and I had a good chat with them about the reserve the issues we face and the wider countryside in general.

All the cattle looked well and were in the right places, but I've spotted a couple of potential problems which will hopefully be resolved tomorrow.

After  being growled at by a rather unruly dog and its companions running loose AGAIN! I thought it time to go for lunch, great idea I had not taken into account the total arrogance of a particular visitor who had blocked the barrier (appropriately the owner of said dogs!), with the help of more considerate visitors I managed to weave my way passed, but of course the Toyota pickup, an ambulance or coastguard vehicle would not have managed.

Well that was yesterday, so today it was Morfa Berwig reserve and a spell of road sweeping and ditch clearing... don't worry Wednesday gang there's still plenty to do.

I did not see a soul but found time to watch, a WILLOW TIT, and GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER as well as the usual assemblage of birds along the Afon Goch.

Great Spotted woodpecker

End of the year 31st December 2017

Another year draws to a close, it's worrying how quickly the years seem to pass when you reach a certain point in life, that's why you need to make the most of every day.

After a wild night (weather wise of course) it was Morfa Berwig this morning, to be greeted with a late Christmas present in the form of an old fridge!

THANKS !!

Still a walk around the reserve soon cheered me up with good numbers of birds present in the mild conditions:
WATER RAIL, MOORHEN, MALLARD, WILLOW TIT, BLUE & GREAT TITS, LONG-TAILED TITS, SONG THRUSH, JAY, BLACKBIRD, LITTLE EGRET, and fly over HERRING GULLS

Along the tarmac track there's an Ivy plant growing over some trees with the most incredible colours, very festive....

Ivy, spp

Well until 2018 take care everyone and God bless.

Frosty Thursday PART TWO

My plan was to "go for the owls" again this afternoon, so at I rocked up to the info' hut to find a small crowd of five people looking for the Short-eared Owls great, NO SIGN of them so far apparently.

Well one duly appeared and soon there were three hunting the dunes and marsh, the photographers , Ray and a mate of his, clicked away and I'm sure they had some decent shots, myself well nothing I would put on the blog!

Ray and his mate left and I sat in the van drinking coffee from my new flask (which I've already dropped!)

As I sat catching up on my "tweets" out of the corner of my eye no more than 50feet away a SHORT EARED OWL perched on a fence post. what a bit of luck, shame it was behind a branch which the camera kept focussing on... still here is a video or two and a photo of my own. In the second video you can make out the "ears" which are modified feathers., it was watching an approaching dog.

Frosty Thursday 28th December 2017

Quite a decent frost this morning, saw me at the Morfa Berwig reserve to retrieve the trail camera which I set yesterday evening......

Two very regular visitors to the reserve reported seeing an OTTER in the Afon Goch, we know Otters visit the reserve but to have a sighting is great. I have been talking about putting the camera out as there have been signs of Otters for a few weeks with the information received it seemed like a good idea.

Disappointedly there were no otters caught on camera, in fact nothing stirred during the night to set the camera off, this morning I had to break the ice from the post the camera was on to get it out of the river which was frozen with a decent layer of ice. So all I've got are the sounds of the birds flying over!

Ignore the time, it was actually 15:35

Frosty Camera!

As I was leaving the reserve I stopped to make a phone call and noticed the lightening blue of a KINGFISHER perched over one of the ditches, I took a record shot through the misty windscreen before attempting to open the van door which was just as well as the bird immediately took flight.

through the window Kingfisher

WATER RAILS were evident near the ringing rides as was a single WILLOW TIT 

Two more sleeps, Saturday 23rd December 2017

A damp mizzly sort of morning, but with the right clothing nothing to stop a decent walk around the Pembrey Reserve.

Nothing of note just good numbers of the common birds, with BULLFINCH, ROBIN, SONG THRUSH, FIELDFARE, BALCKBIRD SKYLARK AND STONECHAT all present.

A GREAT CRESTED GREBE off shore and 21 CORMORANTS, 29 RINGED PLOVER, 8 SANDERLING and c2000 OYSTERCATCHERS around CE51.

Clearly the excitement was yesterday when Jean Dovey was on site, armed with her camera she managed to capture some lovely shots of two SHORT-EARED OWLS, in what were clearly poor light conditions.

Its great to see that the owls have stayed around the area, although catching up with them is a bit of trial and error.

SEASONS GREETING TO ALL BLOG READERS.....