Paul's Blog - All comments and views are my own,

A stroll around the lake this afternoon looking for dragonflies!!!! The park is very popular with locals and this afternoon there was a sponsored walk and a bike ride so it was even busier than usual according to the locals. With being quite windy, again, it was hard to get near the damselflies and I only saw one species of dragonfly. Male Black-tailed Skimmer, Orthetrum cancellatum Blue-tailed Damselfly, Ischnura elegans, mating  mature male Blue-tailed Damselfly, the thorax stripes on the males change colour as they mature, young males have green stripes

The morning walk around the water park timed to coincide with a rising/high tide. The female Tufted Duck is down to five ducklings (was seven), there were 22 non breeding Tufted present. 10 Greylag Geese with the gull flock which had around 600+ Black Headed Gull and 15 Med' Gull. Three Sand Martin was the best I could get after over 300 a few days ago. Female Tufted duck and the now five young Whitford Burrows NNR is on the other side of the estuary one of the 15 Med' Gulls White-tailed bumblebee, Bombus lucorum, leaving Bindweed flower

At last its stopped raining!!! This morning I again walked the 100m to the lake and proceeded to do the morning circuit, over 100 Sand Martins were feeding low over the water, yesterday there were over 300 of them in what would have been perfect ringing conditions!!! A Tufted duck with 7 newly hatched young, two immature Great Crested Grebes and an adult and immature Little Grebe set the scene. The beauty of this location is that within  500m you are on the beach/estuary and this morning there were 6 Mediterranean Gulls and 4 Little Egrets. I have found a lovely wooded/scrub area for ringing and am in the process of obtaining permission to ring so fingers crossed. Cefn Padrig, looking West along the Loughor estuary  Open mown grass area interspersed with uncut patches Coed Padrig ( Patricks wood) looks set for mist netting  

This morning I found time to wonder around the lake just 100m from the house at Sandy Water Park, I am finding it hard to believe that I am so close to so much nat ure. This mornings counts of note were: 16 Swift, 5 Pochard, 53 Mute Swan, and a Ringlet butterfly. Sandy Water Park lake

New Home and Patch After several 300 mile round trips between Cirencester and our new home in Llanelli I finally managed to get out and do some birding. We are living in an area called Sandy Water Park, the house is 100m from a large lake and only 300m from the Loughor estuary. WWT have a centre about five miles away, so it was here I spent a few hours, I was surprised by the very warm and genuine welcome from the locals. Some dodgy photos to follow Med' Gull Spear Thistle Purple Loosestrife View from the "British Steel" hide, there are 20 adult Med' Gulls and 3 immature Med Gulls on the scrape.

MOTHS Last night I put the moth trap to use for the last time in the garden before I move back to South Wales, there was little return but a Poplar Hawk Moth was a nice find. Odd specimens included Brimstone Moth with several Burnished Brass moths along with Heart and Dart moths made up most of the small capture. Brimstone Moth Poplar Hawk Moth

News of a Pectoral Sandpiper at WWT Slimbridge yesterday was the decider in what to do this morning, especially with a dodgy weather forecast. This North American/North East Siberia breeding bird is one of the regular "American vagrants" to reach the UK although this is an unusual date. The bird was on the South Lake, there were a few birders in the hide when I arrived but the bird was out of sight, Martin the senior warden popped in to say that the bird was viewable from another hide which led to a mass exodus leaving just myself and two others watching from the South Lake hide. After about 10 mins sure enough the Pec' San' appeared giving great views. The photographs are with my mobile attached to my telescope and I am still trying to get the idea of the dark art of "digi-scoping", when the object is too far away its had to get really crisp photos... There were other birds present including Black tailed Godwits, Redshank, Lapwing, and Ruff. P