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

Early start pays off..... Well it wasn't that early really, on site for 06:00 and just two nets set in the Sea Buckthorn/Gorse scrub near the information shelter., with a distinct nip in the air and a real autumnal feeling. A steady run of birds including, Willow Warbler, Dunnock, Blackcap and Whitethroat, with the star bird of the session being a Pied Flycatcher, not only the first ringed at Pembrey Burrows, but the first I have ever ringed. Common Whitethroat Pied Flycatcher, aged on a combination of features but middle tertial clinched the age as a 3, hatched t his year (hard to see in the photo's) This bird was different to the bird I saw on Wednesday, which after discussing the photo with a friend was most likely and adult bird, while today's was definitely a bird of the year BTO code 3. Pied Flycatcher With Wednesday's bird being the first for the site and then today a second I wonder how many of this under recorded, (aw

You just never know what will turn up..... I was just pottering along in the van this morning thinking about the day ahead when it occurred to me that there were quite a few birds in the scrub along the track to the information shelter..... Then a bird flitted into view and landed in front of the van  and flew straight back up into the bushes, it took a few seconds for it to register that the bird was in fact a Pied Flycatcher, a ♀ type and a cracking record for the reserve. Pied Flycatcher, record shot The rest of the day was spent with the "Wednesday Crew" doing a range of tasks that seemed to involve a fair bit of dog poo!!!!, as well as rummaging through refuse skips for useful objects like an old bath.... (water trough for cattle). On the wildlife front a Barn Owl box with a Honey Bees colony in residence was a startling sight, just as well we didn't have a ladder to check the box. The sight of two quad bikes emerging over the top of the

A taste of autumn .... The past few days have seen a real good mix of weather, culminating in a day and night of gales with wind speeds at Pembrey of 63mph, and yes its still August. The Carmarthenshire Bird Club event on Thursday saw 21 members enjoy a mixed bag of waders and gulls but only low numbers of terns, Sandwich Terns being the only species seen Amongst the waders the surprise was 6 or 8 Bar-tailed Godwits, also present were over 4000 Oystercatchers, 84 Ringed Plover, a handful of Dunlin and Knot. A Common Sandpiper was new for the reserve 2016 bird list. Gulls were present in good numbers with Black-headed the most abundant, Herring, Lesser and Greater Black-backed, Common and Mediterranean all in reasonable numbers, A couple of Gannets offshore, and a Fulmar which came in very close off the estuary completed the seabirds. Black-headed Gull Land birds included  2 Northern Wheatear, Linnets, Stonechat, Rock Pipits and Pied Wagtails, and an adult and

On the beach..... I had been asked to help with a one off walk with Carmarthenshire Wildlife Walks, who laid on an event for the Llanelli "pups" a summer school organisation, the plan was to take the kids (am I allowed to say kids?) onto the beach for a bit of a strandline safari. As these thing can turnout there were more adults (11 I think) than kids (5 I think) I wasn't leading so I didn't need to account for them! The morning was warm bright and a bit breezy with an easterly edge to the wind, luckily the strandline was on the damper part of the beach so not too much flying sand. Art in sand.... a photo from the Spring Whilst there was much to entertain everyone I was a little disappointed by the lack of "things" to find, the recent weather has resulted in much of the debris on the beach being covered by sand. In a little over an hour. everyone's collecting trays ( ex takeaway containers) were overflowing with specimens.

Guided Walk No 13 ... Today was our thirteenth guided walk of the season, a Strandline Safari. We started by taking a look at a plant I happened to notice as I approached the entrance to the reserve, Twiggy Mullein, a plant which has been noted in the county since the 1970's but not on a regular basis. Twiggy Mullein Nature has a way of doing what she wants and today most of the strandline was covered by sand with nothing out of the ordinary washed up, nevertheless we had an enjoyable stroll along the beach looking for the elusive "Beachcomber or Strandline" beetle, no we didn't find any but its pretty rare so..... What we encountered were more signs of the onset of Autumn in the natural world, with good numbers of migratory birds on the beach, with 405 (and counting) Sanderling 44+ Common Ringed Plover and a handful of Dunlin. Distant, Sanderling with the odd Dunlin We made our way off the beach and over the dunes taking a d

Work rest and play..... Wednesday is volunteer day at Pembrey or Morfa Berwig LNR's, today we were at Pembrey. Myself Veronica and Neil enjoyed a mixed bag of a day, with a bit of bird ringing, some vegetation clearing, some plant finding and hole digging. The bird ringing came about as we were positioning the ringing poles in the main track ready for a ringing session, but since the nets were out we left them set for about an hour itwas late in the morning and the only birds caught were a Robin and a Chiffchaff. After a spot of lunch in the warm sun we cleared a couple of ringing rides in the Sea Buckthorn before venturing out onto the marsh to look at some of the flowering plants, with Neil's help we sorted Sea Wormwood, Sea Aster, Sea Plantain and Cordgrass. Again today, there were lots of Bumble bees on the marsh plants especially Red-tailed Bumblebee. We kept putting off the main task of the day with diversions to look at Greater Spearwort a member of

Pembrey Burrows ringing.... I had another session at the Swallows last evening, just doing a pre roost rather than a proper roost session, there's a lot of work for one person doing a full roost especially if you get overrun with birds at sunset. In the end I caught just 12 Barn Swallows, but to add interest I caught the first Stonechat for the site, there are at least six breeding pairs on the reserve and they have had a particularly good year judging by the number of young around. This was an adult male undergoing its "post breeding moult" this involves a complete change of all the feathers making this individual look rather unkempt. Adult ♂ Stonechat It is clear to see in the wing the difference between the faded un-moulted primaries and the fresher new primaries. Stonechat wing, new and un-moulted primaries clearly shown This morning I returned for another session, with the nets set and ready by 05:15hrs, a steady few hours with a t