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

An early start to join the ringing group at WWT Llanelli for the CES session, it was good to actually ring some birds again after what seems such a long time. I had to leave before the session ended as I had a meeting with the conservation ranger to discuss ringing in the area, I'm happy to say the meeting went really well and I will start ringing in the next couple of weeks. The Tufted duck female still has one duckling, and the two immature Great Crested Grebes are doing well. Great-crested Grebe you can tell its a young bird by the stripy head markings and the other one!!!, notice they both have bits of weed around their necks

After lunch we drove around the coast to the other side of the Loughor estuary, calling at Penclawdd, famous for its cockles. Whilst sat eating chips (really good chips) this Med' Gull appeared on the side of the creek. Mediterranean Gull centre foreground black in the wing tips suggest a 2 year old bird bi-coloured bill and reddy/yellow?? legs

Guess what! its raining again, well ok its a light drizzle the forecast says its going to pass over and looking out of the study window it seems to be right. I walk around the lake at SWP, (sandy water park) in what was a flat calm morning with light drizzle was quiet, the only thing of note was the fact that the female tufted Duck is down to just one duckling, from seven a week ago!! I popped over to WWT Llanelli for an hour or so, in the rain, 24 Greenshank, 44 Redshank and 27 Lapwing made up the numbers. The most interesting bird I could muster was a very wet Common Whitethroat, carrying a spider to no doubt feed some waiting chicks. ( try clicking on the photo to make it larger, you can clearly see what looks like a Garden Spider ) Common Whitethroat, Sylvia commu

With the morning tide, a visit to WWT Llanelli was on the cards, its only 6 minutes away by car! so why not. 24 Greenshank, were the highlight. one of the 24 Greenshank at WWT Llanelli this morning

An overcast morning with an easterly breeze, 07:00hrs, Sandy Water Park. The female Tufted duck is down to only two ducklings, originally she had seven there was a significant flock of around 30 Swifts, at the Pwll end of the lake, these high fliers will soon be leaving us, I expect they will all be gone by around mid August. 58 Mute Swans, two Reed Buntings, a Chiffchaff and a Reed Warbler was the best I could muster. The Chiffchaff and Reed Warbler are more summer visitors to the UK, and by the end of October I suspect they may be well on the way to their wintering grounds, the Chiffchaff perhaps no further than the Mediterranean regions (although some do stay through the winter in the UK), whilst the Reed Warbler will venture as into Sub-Saharan Africa to winter in tropical Africa. (The pictures are not great, the light was awful, but if you click on the picture you maty get a better size image)  Reed Warbler, Acrocephalus scripaceus  Reed Bunting, Emberiza s

The forecast weather didn't materialise and instead we have had a really sunny day although a westerly breeze kept the temperature down. High tide tonight was due at 9:28pm, so I spent from 6pm - 7:30pm watching out over the estuary. The tide started to creep almost imperceptibly over the sand banks as it did so eleven Whimbrel were flushed and flew up river. Magical!!!!! The high tide, which is a 7.4m tide, will cover all the visible sand and mud tonight. Looking up river on the Loughor estuary/Burry inlet  the "same" view 30  minutes later 

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