End of Season Round up

 Bore da pawb

Just a very quick reflection on the work that has happened during the summer season. It may turn into a bit of a list though.

Lets look at the volunteers first, so since May until the end of September there have been 1472 hours volunteered across the sites managed by the Outdoor Recreation Service. WOW, and amazing number and from a wide range of individuals and organisations including the banking and retail sector, local schools, local litter groups and of course our own ViP's conservation team.

At our Ynysdawela Nature Reserve we have delivered either ourselves or through amazing third party  companies Junior Ranger club, forest school, campfire, dance and writing sessions, river life surveys, beetle and bat surveys with around 120 school  pupil engagements alone.

Our ViP conservation team, have hacked, knocked, dug, counted, painted and made countless other important contributions to the management of our nature reserves.

Personally I managed to dent my new truck ! all fixed now.

We lost and found a river ..... long story but its fixed!

Grass Snakes have done really well at Pembrey Country Park, even taking advantage of the shower facilities!

Swallows and Sand Martins have been caught under licence and ringed what more will be learn of theses long distance travellers?

It's been a tough season for many invertebrates especially the insects, there seemed to be a last minute resurgence towards mid September, will it be enough?

So much going on and so many people to thank.

No Blog for a week or so I'm having a rest.

Equinox tides and Bats

 Croeso pawb,

Another week has drawn to a close although this particular week sees us enter into astronomical autumn, which happened at 1:45pm today Sunday 22nd September 24, of course as I've said previously the natural cycle of life has seen autumn underway since at least mid-July.

As expected with the time of year, there were some big tides this past week and I spent an hour or so early on Friday morning with the rising tide at Old Pembrey Harbour which is part of the WeBS monitoring project, where there was a great mix of birds on show.  

The best of the birds were Arctic, Common and Sandwich Terns, Kittiwake, the first Pintail and Wigeon on the marsh and close to 4000 Oystercatchers squeezing onto the tiny areas of remaining sand.

A busy week of meetings and surveys drew to a close when I led a Bat walk at our Ynysdawela Nature Reserve on Saturday evening, we avoided the thunder storms , we were treated with head height Soprano and Common Pipistrelles, a high Noctule and elusive but recognisable Brown Long-eared Bats; a distant calling Tawny Owl pleased those attending.

Autumn is a favourite time of year for many people, including myself, a change of species as wintering birds arrive and a transition from times of abundance to tougher times for our wildlife, I'm sure there will be surprises to be discovered if you get out and about.

New pond

 Bore da Pawb,

Its certainly had a feel of proper autumn with chilly mornings and warm afternoons.

Its been such a full on week I couldn't think what to write about, but weighing up the days its the new pond at Pembrey Burrows LNR that is probably the highlight, well there was a river that disappeared but maybe I'll save that for another post

After far too long a wait, we have finally managed to dig a new pond in the most recent area to be fenced off, now that in itself is all relative as the fence was put in at least two winters ago!

Contractors including a UXO specialist arrived on site at 9:30am, we hit water at around 11:00am after excavating to around 1.7m. We didn't hit anything else either.

If I'm honest I think this will be a seasonal pond but as its primary purpose is to provide drinking water for cattle that's not an issue, the sides of the pond will certainly provide nice sandy habitat for invertebrates, as will the now landscaped area where the arisings from the pond were placed

Since the perimeter fence has been vandalised the contractors will return in the coming weeks to install extra gates and secure the field ready for cattle, at the same time they will replace around 100 fence posts on other fields

As the winter water levels rise the pond will fill and hold water to allow winter grazing.

The arisings have been landscaped and will provide additional pen sand habitat for invertebrates

What's happening and busy times

 Croeso pawb,

Last week was full of meetings, though thankfully  most were outdoors, generally avoiding the rain except on Thursday when I spent the day with a mix of senior managers from both Natural Resources Wales and Welsh Government when we all ended up getting very wet indeed. It was worth it to showcase the work achieved by the Sands of Life Project at Pembrey Burrows and the Nature Network fund used in Pembrey Forest.

With the days marching towards winter, now is the time when most of the heavy practical work will be carried out across  our sites, especially the Local Nature Reserves.

The planning has happened so now contractors will be starting work with Invasive Non Native Species eradication underway at North Dock LNR and at Pwll Lagoon LNR with Sea Buckthorn, Japanese Rose and rhododendron  being the targets.

At Ynysdawela more meadow management including removing swathes of brambles and coppicing are the order of the day

Look out for work being carried out by Bumblebee Conservation's "Connecting the Carmarthenshire Coast" project soon to start in the Millennium Coast Park.

While I was out on Thursday I was explaining why unregulated litter picking is driving the Strandline Beetle hurtling towards extinction from the UK, as luck would have it we came across litter that had, with the best intentions, been picked and left in pile to be collected at some point. Out of curiosity I picked up one of the bags and there were two Strandline Beetles just sitting there - I searched the litter but could not find any more, it does go to show that there is a huge need to be be cautious when litter picking so that the Strandline Beetle isn't accidently carried away.

Pesky invaders - 2nd September 2024

 Croeso pawb - welcome

One of the very well established "invaders" or invasive species is the Eastern Grey Squirrel from North America, another Victorian mistake, when in 1876 they were released into Henbury park in Cheshire. There is no clear consensus why they were introduced, maybe just to add a touch of exotic to Henbury Park?

Grey Squirrels are ubiquitous across the UK, and are accused of many environmental crimes including out-competing our native Red Squirrel and spreading the killer Squirrel pox.

My concerns lie with their habitat of stripping bark from deciduous trees especially the young of the year, usually before there are other foods such as acorns or hazel nuts about.

Where they strip one side of a branch is bad enough  but at least the vascular system of  the tree can still keep working, however stripping both sides or "ring barking a limb or sometimes the whole trunk is a death sentence.

This year at our Ynysdawela reserve young Oaks have come under attack as well as the Norway Maple at the reserve hub, so annoying to consider the eventual outcome for the Norway Maple as well as the Oaks.

There is research into a contraceptive for the pesky critters which is under going trials

UKSA-APHA_grey_squirrel_fertility_control_research_update_2023.06.pdf (britishredsquirrel.org)

Whilst the Grey is very much part of the landscape, until natural predation through predators such as the Pine Marten and Goshawk is at an equilibrium, they will continue to have an impact on our natural environment.

Migration in full Swing 24th August 2024

 Prynhawn da Pawb - good afternoon.

I have missed a lot of field work this year, bizarrely I have less time to be out and about now that its my job; than I had when I was a volunteer which now seems like years ago.

This morning I managed to catch the 8.5m tide at Old Pembrey Harbour, in quite nice conditions the heavy rain passing over Gower, did you know its wrong to call it "The" Gower.

A good number of birds species were present with, the usual Oystercatchers, Sanderling, Ringed Plover, a few Turnstones, Black-headed, Herring and Greater Black -backed Gull, Sandwich and Common Terns. it was nice that a couple of local birders were able to show some non-birders the range of birds on show and explain about the transient nature of the tern species.

The birds became quite restless and after a few minutes they all took flight, looking up the reason was very apparent an Osprey was circling overhead, what a sight.

The tides are dropping now but it will still be worth calling down to this easy vantage point to see what's hanging around.

Last week I led a beach safari at Pendine beach, at first looks it was pretty poor, but the 37 people that turned up! soon started to find the common stuff. As the session was winding down one of the youngsters said "what's this?" well that turned into a new species for me, she had found an empty Tusk Shell, Antalis vulgaris. 

Wikipedia says....

Antalis vulgaris, commonly known as the common tusk shell, is a species of scaphopods mainly encountered on sandy bottoms from 5 to 1000 meters depth

Antalis vulgaris is a small mollusc of 3 to 6 cm length with a characteristic elephant tusk shape. Its shell is opaque white and displays closely spaced longitudinal striations on the posterior portion. The anterior aperture (thinnest end) is circular and is occluded by a septum with a central pipe bearing a circular orifice.

That's all folks.

Ffynnon Helyg near Pwll

 Bore da pawb,

I thought I would provide a focus on one of our sites, well a site within a site, Ffynnon Helyg, also known as Pwll fishing lake; following a failed attempt at creating a coarse fishery many years ago.

The site, a lake surrounded by Phragmite reedbed, some fen and wet woodland, lies within the Millennium Coast Park just east of the Pwll Pavillion cafe.

The lake is subject to large fluctuations in depth following heavy rain and high tides, when the raft was put in, see later, the 5m long anchor ropes were not long enough due not only to the depth of the water but also the softness of the lake bottom we added another 5m of rope to each anchor point which did the trick, it does mean though that the raft wanders around a bit!

The 9.2ha site shaded pink

Until recently the only work carried out here has been the occasional cutting back of the footpath edges.

Following funding from Welsh Governments Local places for Nature scheme we have been able to invest in improving the habitats and provide some interpretation and  opportunities to view the lake.

In late winter of 23/24 a floating tern raft was installed and a small gravel island created at the end of the peninsula of land jutting out into the mid point of the lake.

Both the raft and island immediately attracted the attention of the local bird life, and although the raft wasn't used this year for nesting the gravel island  as previously mentioned had pairs of Lesser Black backed Gull and Black Headed Gull both raising young.

As reported recently, casual observations by one of the team have discovered some nice quality plants, including Strawberry Clover, Parsley Water Dropwort, not Tubular as first thought and Marsh Mallow.

A search for Water Voles drew a blank for now we'll try again next year,  signs of Otters were found in the usual places.

The brackish nature of the lake, a result of tidal incursions under the railway line means that the aquatic life is varied and includes juvenile Sea Bass, Dicentrarchus labrax,  I'm sure a decent time pond dipping here will reveal a wide range of  species.

A selection of the summer bird species alone makes this a site to visit, Cetti's,* Reed* and  Sedge* Warblers, Stonechat*, Whitethroat* Lesser Whitethroat, Sand Martin, Swallow, Mute Swan*, Tufted Duck*, Gadwall*, Mallard*, Little Grebe* to name a few

* - denotes breeding in 2024.

Parking at the Pwll Pavillion Cafe, and a chance for great refreshments is convenient or walk from either Sandy Water Park or Burry Port Woodlands car parks.