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

The first day I have ventured out since Monday, this man-flu thing just got the better of me. Today felt like a perfect Autumn morning, cool windless and sunny. There wasn't a great deal happening on the lake, about 20 Tufted and seven Pochard and one Gadwall. However the light was great and the autumn fruits are starting to shine through, there's quite a lot of mature Rosa rugosa around the area a stuuningly pretty and prickly variety of the native Dog rose, Rosa canina. looking south east across the lake Rosa rugosa fruit (hip) There was a very confiding Grey Heron at the Pwll end of the lake, the light was a bit too harsh for my camera to cope with this morning but you get the idea.             

I'm limited to what I can do at the moment due to dose of "man flu", but I'm solidering on, In our garden in Cirencester a bird feeder of sunflower seeds would last maybe two days, here in windy SW Wales the same feeder has lasted 27 days. After catching a herring Gull by accident I've decided to make a more specific trap, this time a "drop trap" it will need some refining but well, I'll let you know if I have any success. 2m x 2m square of netting Needs to have some weight at the dropping end, rear base hinged with "U" pegs

This morning was spectacular, not only was the temperature down to 5'C the moon was full and blue. I joined the team at Oxwich National Nature Reserve,  a wonderful place for nature and people and somewhere I spent may days as a child. The ringing site, a mixture of reed bed and scrub produced 160 birds, with over 20 Greenfinches - mostly juveniles a Kingfisher and a breeding couple of  Redpoll sp All in all a brilliant morning, and when I managed to take off my woolly hat the sun was wonderful, if a little to bright for continued catching. juvenile Kingfisher Highland cattle, being used for conservation grazing of the marsh    Male and Female  Redpoll sp Ringing team in action, being supervised by "Ellie" the West Highland Terrier The ringing area (foreground not the hill)

This morning was forecast to be a lot calmer and dryer than of late and so it was. It was CES session 9 at WWT Llanelli so I joined the Gower Ringing Group there at 05:30hrs, to set the nets on what was quite a chilly morning for July. A total of 33 birds including retraps was respectable for the site, other wildlife on show included ,  the dragonflies Southern Hawker and Common Darter and also the Hornet Hoverfly, Volucella zonaria.  Chiffchaff Hornet Hoverfly 

Started ringing in the garden yesterday afternoon, using just one 40' net. Yesterdays tally was 2 Jackdaws and a House Sparrow, so feeling inspired I set the same net again this morning at 6am and caught two Jackdaws and a HERRING GULL!!, she was not happy and I have the scars to prove it..... Herring Gull female

No internet for the past two days, but its all fixed, keep checking back for updates!!!!!!!!!

After visiting SWP, I drove to Kidwelly Quay the tide was out and the birding was great. The highlights were Four Common Sandpipers, 300+ Redshank, 28 Dunlin, one Knot, one Sanderling, eight Shelduck, 100's of Curlew and at least 3 Whimbrel. In the river there was a shoal of Mullet splashing about.  Common Sandpiper, see how the white underside goes up to the shoulder, a good ID feature     After moving the furniture in the next task on my mind was the garden, and especially a pond, well here is the almost finished pond , planted with native pond plants, such as Yellow fringed Water Lily, and Branched Bur Reed there have already been damselflies visiting!!!  Due to the make-up of the ground I could only dig down 15cm, so the pond is a raised pond, 180cm X 90cm the twig bottom right hand, is a perch for dragonflies.