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

LESBOS Spring 2016 After quite an eventful coach journey to London Gatwick which took the best part of 11hrs this mornings flight went off without a hitch. and we arrived on Lesbos a full 50mins earlier than scheduled. After the customary scramble to collect the bags, the car hirte took a bit of a while quite a queue. We arrived in the hotel around 3pm exhausted. So a proper blog tomorrow......

Oxwich Marsh.. This morning I was out with the Gower Ringing group, 5:45am at Oxwich the morning was cool with a hint of frost and about 2/8ths overcast the breeze came and went a bit at first but by 11am was noticeably billowing the nets. A slow start gave way to a steady couple of rounds with a decent variety of birds including the first Blackcap and Grasshopper Warbler of the season. As I'm off to Lesbos ringing & birding on Friday I won't be up to too much this week but I've put a few "taster" photo's on todays blog. Black Stork Scops Owl Starred Agama Serapia spp

Spring... its arrived..... Today I was at one of our other nature reserves today, Morfa Berwig, a reclaimed brown field site which itself was once coastal marshland. Five horses are on site as part of a conservation grazing regime. Two of the five grazers With a warm day, we touched 18'c and the wildlife enjoyed it with 35 species of birds recorded as well as Small tortoiseshell, Peacock, Comma, Speckled Wood and Orange Tip butterflies. The best of the birds included at least 10 Blackcaps, mostly males, Willow Warblers, Chiffchaff, at least five singing Cettis Warbler a few Sedge Warblers and two Reed Warblers. Five Gadwall suggests possible breeding. Female and Male Gadwall Flowers are still few and far between, but Primroses put on a show with Barren Strawberry and Coltsfoot, as well as Dandelions but with over 200 micro species I'll just call them Dandelions. Primrose Despite Mink track , the Water Voles seem to be quite active, with track

Fog.......... Fog is not conducive to good ringing conditions, and this morning the fog proved to be particularly wet!! Still it was worth the effort of trying the new net set in the reed bed as the only bird caught happened to be a Sedge Warbler, the first of the year and the first of many I hope. Sedge Warbler When the sun did break through the morning was warm and some of the dune plants are starting to flower, including this Wild Pansy, Viola ticilor , a stunning little plant the Dune Pansy a sub species of the Wild Pansy also occurs but is yellow in colour. Wild Pansy

First blooms..... After yesterdays wind and gales this morning was much calmer and a tad milder.... I started off by replacing some of the "dogs on leads" signs which have been damaged by the recent bad weather and in the process it became apparent that there had been a bit of a "fall" of Northern Wheatears with two lots of two at either end of the reserve, and reports from local birders of birds to the East and West of the reserve. Northern Wheatear Northern Wheatear Its amazing how coincidently thing happen, I stopped to scan the ground ahead for more Wheatear, and happened to look to my feet and there was my first Green-winged Orchid,  Anacamptis moria   , the photo is overexposed a little as the colour was a deep purple. Green-winged Orchid , Anacamptis moria A small flock of Barn Swallows along the fore dunes is making it feel more like SPRING

A bit of Winter and a bit more of Spring..... A calmer day than of late and the Gower Ringing Group were at Oxwich  NNR. The morning started off with little cloud cover but soon clouded over and out of any sun it felt cool, in the sun it was lovely. We had quite a lot of net set, over 500ft, but had little to show for our efforts in terms of quantity but the quality was great. The fist Willow Warbler of the year caused some raised eyebrows as it was a very grey bird, but with a definite supercilium and its primaries were emarginated to P5, P6 was not emarginated no matter how hard I looked, after processing and releasing the bird we all felt that perhaps we should have taken a few different biometrics, especially when we caught a "classic" spring bird a few net rounds later. Willow Warbler This time of year is always great to see the resident birds getting ready for breeding and we processed a female Dunnock carrying eggs. Two Long-tailed Tits (Lotti

Preparation..... A blustery cool morning saw me preparing a few ringing rides in the Willow/Reed area of the upper marsh, in preparation for the warbler season. The Phragmities has not started to grow more than a few centimetres so I will have to clear the rides again as the reed grows, I only need a width of a metre just to set the net and walk along without dragging the net when extracting birds. When the reeds start to grow it will be easier to clear and be more defined, there's a Wiltshire "dog-leg" at the front The flock of Common Shelduck remains at around 22 individuals plus there are at least, what appears to be, three pairs, hopefully they may get their act together and nest? A bit over exposed! but you get the idea