WOW busy busy, Friday 26th January 2018

An early morning to see the contractors at Morfa Berwig, refurbishing the bridges on the main path. The first Primrose flowers, Cettis Warblers, Robins and Blackbirds singing in the morning sunshine,- the first dry day for what seems like ages.

A phone call from one of our regulars at Pembrey Burrows to alert me to the fact that there had been a breakout from F2, with three of the boys munching on the salt marsh!!.

Having found the breach in the fence and repaired it, I wandered over to see what could be done to get the boys back in the field.

They showed no interest in moving, and why would they, with all those lovely tasty salt marsh plants to graze.

They soon moved with some mechanical encouragement when the grazier turned up,  with a little effort we got the three across the marsh and into the field.

A flip side of rounding cattle was a count of 55 Snipe, oh then 54 as a male Peregrine took advantage of the situation....

Common Snipe, (Colin Dalton)

Meanwhile back at Morfa Berwig, the contractor found that the lorry was bogged down in the mud!!!!

Surprising what my little van is capable of.....problem solved

The first bridge is 90% refurbished  complete and safe to use.

Burry Port Woodlands Wednesday 24th January 2018

Today saw us with Simeon Jones, Conservation Officer, in Burry Port Woodlands, at the Western end of the Millennium Coast Park.

The woodlands are part of a four year Glastir scheme, (the Welsh Government scheme for sustainable land management) and are about 15 years old. Today was about selecting one in three trees, from an area not yet thinned, and marking them for felling as part of the cycle of thinning the woodland to ensure the habitat is in the best condition it can be.

See the  Welsh Government website for more details

http://gov.wales/topics/environmentcountryside/farmingandcountryside/farming/schemes

The woodland is mostly comprised of Grey Alder, Silver Birch, Willow sp, Corsican Pine, Whitebeam Sp, Blackthorn, Ash, Oak and a few Maple spp and Holly; we didn't see a great deal of Ash dieback but it is present, some of the Holly in the woodlands have a very symmetrical shape, which is probably indicative of the total lack of grazing.

Considering the proximity of the sea, less than 500m, there were very few wind affected trees with many of them having very straight trunks.

Simeon pointing out the Oak not to mark! (opps)

Luckily the worst of the weather had passed through by the time we started, the shocking thing for me was the amount of dog mess within the first two hundred metres of the car park, unbelievably disgusting, it was like "hopscotch" not to step in it, then the number of bags of dog poo hanging from the bushes beggars belief!

Veronica marking away

WEBS count Cefn Sidan/ Pembrey Coast SSSI Sunday 21st January 2018

Today was the WEBS count, so in appalling weather I met Edward the WWT Intern at high tide and we drove the five miles of the beach from Pembrey Country Park to Tywyn Point.

We got the timing perfect this morning and the poor weather mean't there were very few people on the beach

Section A was a bit quiet but we soon got into some decent birds and good numbers in section B; highlights included:

OYSTERCATCHER 7363, HERRING GULL 1021, SANDERLING 465, DUNLIN 353,                GREY PLOVER 40, GBB GULL 66, KNOT 189, & BAR TAILED GODWIT 25

Sanderling

The oddest discovery was a TAMWORTH PIG, although it would have taken a very good Vet to bring it back to life.....

Where the hell did this Tamworth come from?

Morfa Berwig Fungi Friday 19th January 2017

A couple of regular visitors to Morfa Berwig kindly let me know about an Earthstar fungus they had found growing on the edge of the main hard surfaced route through the reserve.

With great directions I found it without really looking to hard, I took a photo to help id it at home, yes it was obviously an Earthstar. despite some decay, it was in a remarkably good condition considering it would have been fruiting in the autumn.

It's species identification was determined by the ever helpful Dr Philip Jones, or local fungus guru, as being the Collared Earthstar, Geastrum triplex, one of the commoner species of Earthstar to be found.

Collared Earthstar at Morfa Berwig

A Wikipedia, free to use and share,

photo of "fresh" Collared Earthstar

On the bird front the Willow Tit has reappeared after being absent for a few days, I apologise that the public cannot see the feeders, its a matter of keeping them safe, they are part of a ringing project and they need to be as secure as possible, however if you want a chance of hearing/seeing the Willow Tit walk along the main paved route onto the rough gravel path and stop at the first wooden seat, and look/listen to the northwest of the river.
There are at least five Water Rails calling across the reserve.

Habitat management Wednesday 17th January 2018

We are so fortunate, along the Llanelli coast, to have so many great habitats to explore, and many of the best are protected one way or another, either through legislation and ownership or just the sheer logistics of getting to the site.

There are many plants which are generally scarce through the UK, and one with a tenuous grasp on Carmarthenshire is the Small Flowered Catchfly, Silene gallica, which occurs naturally in one location in the county and that is around the walls of Burry Port Harbour.

Follow the link for a more detailed appraisal of the plant

https://www.plantlife.org.uk/application/files/4114/7913/4089/Silene_gallica__dossier.pdf

Silene gallica, Small flowered Catchfly, look for the plant from May onwards

The habitat at Burry Port has not been as closely managed as it could have been, with invasion by Couch Grass, Gorse and Radish.

before, no substrate visible for any seed to set,

Hopefully the small amount of work we have done today will go some way to maintaining, and improving the population of this plant 

after,

after, more substrate exposed

This afternoon was spent carrying out a Knotweed and Rhododendron survey at the Pwll Lagoon LNR, sadly we found far too much of both, however subject to funding being available it's the sort of job that contractors can safely tackle.

Pwll Lagoon doesn't have particularly easy access, which is a good thing!!, but if you visit the habitat is one of woodland carr with lots of Birch as well as a fen type habitat, more information via the link below.

http://www.carmarthenshire.gov.wales/home/residents/your-community/biodiversity/nature-reserves/

WANT TO LEND A HAND? Tuesday 16th January 2018

LITTER, ESPECIALLY MARINE LITTER AND INPARTICULAR, PLASTIC, IS A HUGE PROBLEM AND HAS HIT THE HEADLINES ACROSS THE WORLD, DO YOU WANT TO DO YOUR BIT TO HELP LOCALLY...

There are a few opportunities coming up if anyone is keen to do some litter picking to impact on marine bourn litter.

The staff of  the councils Outdoor Recreation Team are giving their own time on Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st, meet at the Pembrey country Park main beach entrance at 10:30, stay for as long or as short a  time as you can, max 2 hours, equipment provided.

Then on Monday 19th February a beach clean on the western part of Cefn Sidan, contact me for more details.

Owl food Friday 12th January 2017

I have recently been notified of a ringing recovery, that is to say someone has sighted a bird ring that I have previously put onto a bird during a ringing session.

When birds are ringed there is always the hope that there will be subsequent encounters with the bird, either alive or, more usually dead; however no matter the circumstances it all adds to the science of bird ringing.

On the 2nd of October 2016 I was ringing at Pembrey Burrows in grazing field 2 and caught 28 birds of which 24 were Meadow Pipits, (Meapi)

One of those Meapi was ringed with Z544250 with the following biometrics recorded:

age       3 (hatched in 2016)

wing     82mm

weight 18.5g

time    08:30

the details were recorded by Veronica.

Meadow Pipit

On 31st December 2017 some Short-eared Owl pellets were found on Rhossili Down and the finder noticed a bird ring sticking out from one of the pellets, the finder sent the details off to the BTO who matched the ring with the one above...science.

The time between ringing and the ring being found was 455 days, the distance between  the original ringing site and the finding site was 10km in a southerly direction.

As many will know late winter 2017 had been very good for SEO at Pembrey, so did this Meapi meet its end at Pembrey and was carried in the stomach of the owl to Rhossili Down or, did the Meapi fly over to Rhossili and meet its end there.

Meadow Pipits are the prey of a wide range of birds of prey and of course the SEO, it is not an unusual sight to see acrobatics between a Merlin or Sparrowhawk and the Meadow Pipits at the reserve.

Short-eared Owl Pembrey LNR (Colin Dalton)

In the Mammal Society booklet, "The analysis of Owl Pellets" by D W Yalden it states that 

"....SEO and Long-eared Owls are known to be nomadic or migratory and may bring prey some distance..."

The recovered owl pellets and the ring, it is so useful to do as this finder has done and use a scale it makes identifying most things so much easier,

notice how tapered one end of each pellet is, this is a noted feature in the Mammal Society booklet

Another useful guide for owl pellets is the FSC, pamphlet "British Owls and Owl Pellets"