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

Autumn fruit and nuts...... A trip to the Elan Valley in mid-Wales showed once again that autumn is well and truly under way in the natural world. After several days of above average temperatures it was pleasant enough in the hills. The area is truly a marvellous place for both scenery and wildlife, vast man made reservoirs seem to just "fit in" to the landscape and the surrounding mix of deciduous and conifer plantations as well as some outstanding moorland blend so well. Caban Goch It was the variety of berries on show as well as a few nuts and fungi that highlighted the beauty of this time of year. I'll let the photos speak for themselves....... Scots Pine Pinus sylvestris Rowan, (Mountain Ash) Sorbus aucuparia Birch Betula spp Sessile Oak, Quercus petraea Sweet Chestnut, Castanea sativa Boletus spp??

A surprise in the net.... Having recovered from the trauma of the return trip from Majorca, this morning looked perfect for a ringing session, so to wake at 05:15 to the sound of rain drops did not bide well. I set off anyway and the rain held off, despite near perfect conditions, no wind and overcast, there were few birds on the ground.. There looked to have been a decent sized Swallow roost last night as at first light there were 10's of Swallows low over the reeds, but as the morning wore on the flock grew to the high hundreds, or low thousand. Reed Warbler The first round contained Sedge and Reed Warblers and a Garden Warbler, later a few Robins put in an appearance and a lone Blackcap. Blackcap juvenille ♂ Then the Swallows were tempted by the tape lure and fourteen were extracted before the heavens opened and I closed the nets for the morning. The last bird processed turned out to be a "control" Swallow, one that had been ringed

On the beach.... This holiday was a last minute decision before some upcoming hospitalisation, so was never going to be one of my "wildlife" holidays. Still even from the luxury of a sun lounger the wildlife came to me. The "lounger list" includes flybys of Osprey, Marsh harrier, Hoopoe, Grey Heron, and of course Audouins Gull. Hotel wildlife has consisted of a Gecko sp, to be identified later. Gecko sp The weather has been consistently in the low thirties during the day and mid twenties in the evenings and nights, too warm for me... Having not visited Majorca for over 20 years I had forgotten what a nice place it is, something I noticed, and to be honest anyone from the UK should notice, there is no litter and very little dog poo lying around, just compare this to my home patch, which frankly is disgusting. Flight home is on Sunday morning, usual Blog will resume next week.

Early start... After a very hot and humid night I took myself off for an early morning walk to the Punta d'Amer nature reserve, about 3km away from the hotel. A very distant cruise ship at first light Dawn was at around 07:30 so it was still quite dark when I set off, the Blackbirds were taking advantage of the irrigated grassy areas along the se front, 11 in total. The reserve is typical marquis country with pine forest and a rocky shore line, the bird list got a bit longer this morning, with typical Majorcan species added, my bridge camera really does not handle low light conditions so photo's are few. The list consisted of Woodpigeon,100's, Goldfinch 100's Spotted Flycatcher 10's Greenfinch, Linnet, Cirl Bunting 10's, Goldcrest, Blackbird Nightingale, Sardinian Warbler, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Stonechat, Grey Heron 2,  Falcon spp, (either a Hobby or Eleonoras but it was over the horizon before I saw it) Hoopoe and a Lark?, (I'm going to t

Hot hot hot..... Today was forecast to be 36'c, it didn't feel that hot but now at 21:30 its very warm and humid.. Needless to say I've not done a great deal apart from sit in the shade, so this evening I went for a walk along the sea front and found some decent wildlife in  the form of a relatively rare gull.. Audouins Gull, so finding four together was a nice surprise. This gull is rarely found away from the coast, preferring rocky areas and spending long periods at sea a real pelagic species. adult Audouins Gull Apart from the gull the bird list is poor, (not a lot to see from the sun lounger). with Turtle Dove, Woodpigeon, Yellow legged Gull, Red Legged Partridge and Western Orphean Warbler the only other species seen. Badly lit Yellow-legged Gull Tomorrow morning will hopefully see me exploring  a nearby nature reserve called     Punta de n'Amer, which is a scrubby coastal area.

I will be on a short break on the island of Majorca, from 3rd to 11th September Blog will be internet dependent while away....

Bees.................... Last week we discovered that Honey Bees had moved in on the Barn Owl box in Pembrey Forest, given that both Barn Owls and Honey Bees are in need of a helping hand a small dilemma loomed, what to do? The answer was quite easy the bees possibly came from one of the many hives in the forest and should be moved on to make way for any prospective Barn Owl. As chance would have it I ended up talking to a visitor who turned out to be one of the local bee keepers and put him in touch with Simeon to make further arrangements. This found us in the forest admiring the skills of John, the bee keeper, as he put in place the steps to encourage the bees to move from the nest box into a temporary hive for onward travel to pastures new, they will need to be ,moved about 3 miles to stop them coming back to the nest box. Opps that's a lot of Honey Bees It was very interesting to hear about the lives of the Honey Bee directly from someone who clearly