The MAGTER diaries continued Thursday 8th March 2018

Well the video diaries continue with the MAGpies and the otTER both trying to put on a show.  get it MAGTER!!

Firstly, during the cold and snowy weather the Magpies ceased work on the nest, staying alive probably took priority. Over the past two days though they have been hard at work.

The male was particularly keen to select and place a piece of poplar that he had broken off, it must have been 75cm long at least. he did manage it eventually.

Meanwhile at Morfa Berwig I left the trail camera out for two nights in a slightly different position to the first attempt, I think I've worked out what the Otter is doing despite another poor clip of - her?snaffling about the camera.

Another try tonight...

Fences, cattle, Ashpits LNR and Litter Pick guide Wednesday 7th March 2018

Today was an opportunity to check the fences at Pembrey again, GF3 was an "easy" fix just making sure the top strand is tight, GF2 is another matter and it looks like the cattle will need to be moved to GF1 which hasn't been grazed this winter and the fence is new.

Then it was off to Ashpits LNR to put in a new boundary sign, easy digging soon as the sign in, looking good.

The fields along factory Road, leading to the reserve/country park held c300 redwings and a few Fieldfare, whilst the football field held c50 Fieldfare and a few Redwing!

We are really grateful for the help from so many local people who give up their time to clear litter from MCP and our beaches, to make the effort more focussed and beneficial we are producing a "Litter Picking Guide", the council has a legal obligation under The Environment (Wales) 2016 Act to ensure their actions do not negatively affect bio-diversity unnecessarily so the guide will direct peoples enthusiasm and protect the wildlife. I will publish it on the blog in due course.

Quiet stroll you must be joking Monday 5th March 2018

Overcast, rain, cold, perfect for a quiet stroll around Pembrey Burrows and look at the wildlife, and so it was, down to CE51 along the beach to the end of GF2 and back via the shelter, well that was the plan.

As I was watching some Great Crested Grebes, offshore and a few Common Scoter the mobile began to ring, by the way my mobile had a wobbly over the weekend and I've lost some telephone numbers!

It was regular dog walker Brian who was actually within shouting distance, to tell me there was a problem with the fence in GF2.

Wednesday team - this was the problem AGAIN.

the fence must be six foot high now!

Sand build up due to the strong easterlies meaning the cattle could just walk over the top strand of barbed wire, oh wonderful.

Luckily it's Monday which means that the great volunteers from mencap Cymru are usually on site for a litter pick or a task, well here was a task.

Needless to say after two hours in the pouring rain another line of barbed wire is in place, totalling 100m?, its not the neatest of jobs but it should hold them a while.

Long term the line of the fence will need to moved well inland as the accretion of sand continues, which in itself is not a bad thing......

A HUGE thanks to the guys from mencap Cymru who were all thoroughly soaked through after two hours in the rain.

Still hundreds of LAPWING on the reserve, a few corpses that have been scavenged.

The big thaw? Sunday 4th March 2018

Well that was it, the thaw has set in. Just as well as in such a short time the wildlife has started to suffer, as I mentioned in previous blogs there are a lot of displaced birds all along the coast.

This morning was still cold but with heavy rain and an easterly the snow has disappeared quite quickly, although it is still lying on parts of Cefn Sidan.

A 9.2m tide got me out of bed, I was shocked to find the road to the reserve along the marsh flooded,  I'm glad, I did there were hundreds of birds around, however before I got to enjoy them I noticed two black shapes in the wrong place AGAIN.

Access road flooded

Yes two Welsh Blacks had made a run for it from GF3 HOW?, we had checked the fencing on Wednesday and Thursday, then I saw that the top and middle strands on the fence along the marsh for about 15m were down in the water, (of course the area was under water due to the high tide).

Unbelievable the fence is down again

With my cowboy skills now honed I soon had the two wanderers back in the field and moved all of them further up the field.

I went and did some monitoring before putting on my leaky wellingtons to fix the fence.

On the bird front, 

PINTAIL 9, TEAL 100+, WIGEON 10, MALLARD 4, SHELDUCK 5, REDSHANK 80+, GREENSHANK 1, LAPWING 120, GOLDEN PLOVER 100+, REDWING 300+, FIELDFARE 50+ CURLEW 1, OYSTERCATCHER 2000+ DUNLIN 9; all in all not bad

SNOW days 2nd March 2018

Well the snow set in here around 3pm, as forecast really fine dry stuff.
It's amazing how quickly the wildlife seems to have been affected by this cold snap, it's been building up for a few day with easterly winds however the snow made an immediate impact with quite big cold weather movements observed, and especially this morning.

I went to check the cattle, (well that was my excuse) which were all fine, but the numbers of REDWING, FIELDFARE, BLACKBIRD, SONG THRUSH, LAPWING and GOLDEN PLOVER on the reserve was interesting.

Probably 500-1000 Redwing, 50+ Fieldfare small flocks of Blackbirds and Song Thrush,  with around 100 each of Lapwing and Golden Plover.

Hopefully a thaw will set in soon which will give the birds time to recover.

St Davids Day 1st March 2018

I don't hold with the "meteorological" spring starting today, for me it's still winter and judging by the weather I'm not wrong.

At Morfa Berwig all of the water courses are frozen over and the ground is like steel, great for the contractors on site carrying out Water Vole habitat management and some ditch clearance.

Along the Afon Goch, over shadowing Willows coppiced

The ditch along the A484 boundary

I filled the feeders with plenty of birds hanging around, I'll try and get there tomorrow to fill them up again.

It was off to Pembrey to check the condition of the ponds, which are the only source of drinking water for our conservation grazing cattle. With the stiff wind both ponds have open water, although one pond is frozen enough to walk on the ice, I know because I tried. The cattle are hardy breeds and looked fine this morning. The "swan Drain" has piles of ice on the banks

Field 2 pond now only a small area of open water, but the cattle can still drink

There were small groups of Lapwing hunkered down in the dunes, with the ground frozen ( it was -2'c at 11am ) they will struggle unless they move further afield.

Knobbling Wednesday 28th february 2018

Brrrrrr..., a bit nippy even when you dress for it .

However being the hardy souls that we are on a Wednesday we set out to fix yet another part of the fence in GF3, carefully watched by the five boys, 406 is the brave one quite nosey really.


After banging in four new posts we set off to check another length of fence, apart from a few staples needed it was secure enough.

A couple of Golden Plover flew in low and landed on the marsh, an unusual sight for us, they usually fly straight through, some Lapwings and a few flocks of Skylarks hinted at a cold weather movement.

We left Pembrey for the Millennium Coastal Park, more specifically the PWLL Lagoon LNR where we put in a new boundary sign, in "easy" digging it was soon in, and looking good.

Easy digging

Is it deep enough?

It is level!!!!!!!

Well I did dig most of the LH hole