One Swallow...Saturday 4th April 2020

Living so close to Sandy Water Park makes for an easy "permitted exercise" walk.
This morning in cool overcast conditions I walked the mile or so around the lake with less than a dozen people seen let alone passed.

Waterfowl are making their way back north to breed so it is this that may have increased the count of Tufted Duck up to 13 from 8 yesterday and Pochard, a duck in decline, up from one to two this morning. 

Small numbers but when logic is applied to what is going on in the natural world it makes sense to notice the small things.

Just as I approached the end of the walk a small flock of Sand Martins arrived, careful viewing located a lone Swallow always a pleasure to see the first one, I expect that with the wind turning more southerly this will provide a boost to arriving migrants.

Swallows have been the source of some odd myths one from the 16th century tries to explain where they disappear too each autumn. Archbishop Olaus Magnus of Uppsala theorised that they spent the winter at the bottom of lakes and ponds as depicted in this wood block carving.

Fortunately we now know so much more about these trans-Saharan migrants

Going Cuckoo Tuesday 2nd April 2020

Well some of you probably think I'm "cuckoo" anyway, but here I'm looking at another cuckoo, in fact a wonderful spring flower which goes by several names. It's common names  Cuckooflower, Lady's Smock, Milkmaids, and Fairy flower with it's scientific name Cardamine pratensis

A plant of early spring in damp grassland, damp meadows, the banks of streams and also on road verges as a result of compaction of the soil making a more moisture retentive medium.

The young leaves can be eaten instead of say, Cress as they have a peppery taste, it is the county flower of Breckonshire and Cheshire where it is known as Milkmaids



Lady's Smock grows reasonable commonly in the county.

There is a particular butterfly associated with the plant that is the Orange Tip, with freshly emerged adults on the wing from April through to mid June, after spending the winter as pupae. Only the male has "orange tips" to its wings but the underside pattern is distinctive in bothe sexes

Orange Tip on Lady's Smock

Opportunities, Sunday 29th March 2020

So the clocks have gone forward, and the weather is more like a winters day, cold dry and clear with a biting wind. Nonetheless if you are able to take some exercise, in line with the guidance and instructions we are living to, even just in the garden,then the chances are you will bump into nature.

I appreciate many of you are unable to get out and take some exercise, but living about 300m from Sandy Water Park gives me an opportunity to walk around the lake, on alternate days, which is about 1 mile, a slight detour gives me views out over the Burry inlet and Carmarthen Bay.

Yesterday it was on my walk, with only a handful of others around, I stopped to check the sea for anything of interest, a dark blob just offshore turned into a dark coloured duck, looking a little chunky then it dived, when it surfaced it took flight and the dark blob showed a lot of white in the "secondaries" of its wing feathers, it took a few seconds to eliminate what it wasn't, and come to the conclusion it was a Velvet Scoter, "a scarce but regular winter visitor amongst the Common Scoters in Carmarthen Bay" (Carmarthenshire Bird Report 2018)

The Velvet Scoter breeds in Scandinavia on remote tundra, wintering as far south as the Mediterranean. Whilst the numbers of wintering Common Scoter in Carmarthen Bay are well documented the scarcity of the Velvet Scoter results in less records.

As an example,see the very obvious white secondaries in the lead bird

(photo from google)

There were clearly lots more Chiffchaffs singing in the woodland than a week ago showing that whilst humans are in "lockdown" nature is carrying on.

As if to reinforce that message, I was sat in the garden a little while after returning from my walk to receive a call from Bernie a local birder who had just seen an Osprey fly in from the South and was heading my way, looking up all I could see was a circling Buzzard but then the local gulls got very noisy and were not happy that an Osprey was heading through their territory. (The Buzzard wasn't too pleased either)

Osprey

(Wikimedia free to use and share)

So it proves just go out into your garden and look up, as I also had a Red Kite fly over.

Lots of Hoverflies on the wing at the moment and a few butterflies keep a look out especially if the weather gets warmer.

In the meantime stay safe.

Northern Drab, Thursday 26th March 2020

The rangers and I had planned several night-time nature walks in the country parks this coming season, obviously due to the current situation all events are off until we return to normality. One event was going to be a look at moths in Pembrey Country Park using a light trap set out overnight.


Fortunately before we made the difficult decision to close our Country Parks, I had left a moth trap working overnight and caught a few moths as luck would have it one of the moths turned out to be particularly uncommon on the coast of Carmarthenshire, the Northern Drab moth is well named as it’s not very colourful, a first record for the Country Park and local experts were very interested in this find.

Northern drab

Why not look for moths in your garden, already the spectacular Hummingbird Hawk Moth, a daytime flying moth which migrates from warmer climes was seen in a Burry Port garden feeding on Primroses. I suspect the moth was helped along by the flow of south easterly winds, how it will cope with the forecast northerlies I wonder

can you spot it, (bottom LH side)

You could also just leave your outside light on and see what comes to investigate, overcast milder nights are best but if you don't try....

Bats are now on the wing with Pipestrelles perhaps the most likely over your gardens.

Keep Safe everyone....

Moths and a monumentally sad day Sunday 22nd March 2020

I risked putting a moth trap out last night, in the hope of capturing my first moths of the year.

I set the trap on the edge of the woodland and caught six moths, more than I expected given how cold it was last night. 

Oak Beauty, "A" Drab, Hebrew Character and Chestnut made up the catch.

Oak Beauty

"A" Drab to be identified

A stunning day followed, attracting many visitors to the Country Park despite all the sensible advice from the Government and the scientists. In a responsible move to help limit the impact of Covid-19 all of Carmarthenshire County Council managed parks and green spaces will be closed to the public until further notice.

Difficult times so keep safe.

Summer migrants arriving Thursday 19th March 2020

I've been working from home for a few days and have managed to get out and about in Sandy Water Park.

Very few waterfowl about with only five Mute Swans this morning, a few Gadwall and Mallard. Pochard are down to a single male. 
Two Cormorants were on the "island" both just getting into breeding plumage, note the white neck and thigh patches.

Yesterday a distant flock of eight Sand Martins, my first summer migrant, this morning well over 50 were feeding low over the lake despite the chilly breeze, a single Chiffchaff was calling from the woods.

Sand Martins are colonial hole nesters and have nested in the pulverised ash cliffs around Burry Port for many years, a good place to see them, if you find thye are nesting then let me know

Gulls were present with c100 Black-headed, a pair of Lesser black backed and around 10 Herring Gulls, a confiding Grey Heron near the pub and a Little Grebe.

Please note, during this time of uncertainty, whilst the Country Parks remain open all facilities are closed until the end of May, keep up to date on our website, www.pembreycountrypark.wales

In other news I am on TV tonight, ITV Wales, Coast & Country at 8:30pm? the time keeps changing.

Early Butterflies Monday 16th March 2020

Despite the still very changeable weather butterflies are already making an appearance, a little bit of warmth in the sunny spells is encouraging them to emerge either from hibernation as in the case of Small Tortoiseshell and Brimstone while others will have overwintered as pupae either on the ground or attached to plants tucked away from the prying eyes of hungry birds and rodents.

Small Tortoiseshell

Brimstone

On Friday whilst working with a group of volunteers at the entrance to Pembrey Country Park I happened to glance down and saw the unmistakable outline of a "blue" butterfly.
closer examination revealed that it was a freshly emerged Holly Blue. At the time I just took a photo and warned everyone to watch out for the butterfly, which once shown where it was sitting everyone did.

Freshly emerged female Holly Blue

Thinking it may be too early for the Holly Blue to put in an appearance I did some checking, the records show that it usually emerges in the first week of April!!! so this one is at least two weeks earlier than the average.

An interesting butterfly which has two broods each year the first in spring and the second in summer. The primary foodplants for the larvae (caterpillars) include, unsurprisingly, Holly, Ivy, Brambles, Spindle, Dogwood and Gorse, all of these plants are occur along the Llanelli coastline with the first four in abundance at Pembrey Country Park.

Holly Blue

For those interested in learning more about UK butterflies this is a very useful website,

https://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/index.php