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

When I arrived on site this morning I  noticed a red Land-rover Defender which I had not seen before and thought mmmm! A well intended member of the public stopped me about an hour later and told me that they had seen two men in camouflage jackets, with two Lurchers and two terriers, acting suspiciously. Sure enough after a bit of searching I could see the Lurchers hunting around the dunes and the two men. Although I never saw them actually chase any Rabbit or Hare I had seen enough to think they were up to no good. I drove over to them and sat in the van waiting for them to walk to me which they did, I've heard all the excuses before but they were reasonable guys and when told to put all the dogs on leads they did. They were not happy being "hassled" but didn't argue, I always try and engage people first let them know why the conversation is taking place, then if appropriate educate them, so the education this morning was "its a nature reserve,

With Spring around the corner, (that's proper Spring) it seemed like a good idea to "refresh" the information in the shelter.  The entrance noticeboard will be "made over" next week. With a bit of handiwork, and crafting the result is fresher, the photo's may not do it justice. Simeon and I have completed the programme of guided events for April - September 2017 and I've detailed them below, I hope to see some of you on the events. The last winter event is on Sunday 19th March at 10:00 April 11th, Carmarthenshire Wildlife Walks, Marsh, Beach & Dunes Joint walk 10:00am** April 22nd, Beach walk and spring migration 10:00am** May 20th, Ramble with a ranger 10:00am** June 11th, Creepy crawlies and bug hunt   10:00am** June 24th Summer flowers 10:00am** July 6th Bat walk Sandy Water Park , meet at 9:15pm in the main car park, bring a torch. [please note this e

I spent a few hours at the Morfa Berwig LNR this morning, with blue skies and sunshine, and a bit of a breeze. The flower buds on this Willow were just pushing out and blowing in the breeze After the recent rains the site is wetter than usual, with all of the ponds looking in great condition. With a couple of conservation grazing ponies on site I enjoyed checking out the ponds, disappointingly though no sign of any frog or toad activity. There were a good variety of birds around with 17 species seen or heard, the best of which were Kingfisher, Water Rail and Cettis Warbler. European Kingfisher Signs of mammal activity were confined to a Short-tailed Field Vole under one of the refugia, and signs of a Rabbit nest having been dug out and the occupant eaten. M ore interestingly was it eaten by a Fox or an Otter? Rabbit nest dug out by a predator

With a 9.0m tide at around 08:00hrs there was only one place to be this morning, stood on top of a sand dune looking out onto Carmarthen Bay. After a stormy day yesterday, this morning was much calmer and despite there not being a huge movement of birds, Three Red-throated Diver a few hundred Common Scoter and flocks of Golden Plover, Dunlin, Sanderling and Ringed Plover made for a decent sea watch. A quick dash around to the information shelter with the marsh in full flood gave up Teal c50, Wigeon c10, Mallard c15, Shelduck 13 Curlew c6 plus Snipe, Redshank and distant Oystercatchers and a lone male Pintail. Idyllic Then it was off to do a radio interview for BBC Radio Wales, on the Strandline Beetle, and clean beaches. The broadcast was only about 30 seconds long and they edited out the important bit about leaving driftwood on the beach, but they did emphasise the importance of leaving large pieces of plastic/old tyres on the beach as habitat for the beetl

Well Storm Doris has left us relatively unscathed, there has been no damage caused on the reserve, in fact she has done some good with a lot of drift wood now exposed on the beach as well as a few new inundations of sand into the embryo dunes, all making more habitat available to The Strandline Beetle when they emerge from hibernation. Top, a new area of sand blow inundation Below,  a lot of drift wood has appeared after the storm As well as relying on nature I have posted the Welsh Governments advice notice regarding the beetle and driftwood on our beaches; it's worth remembering of course that Cefn Sidan Beach has the full protection as a Site of Special Scientific Interest. We can but try! With a huge improvement in the weather today I saw or rather heard my first queen Bumblebee, (she flew into the side window of the van). It was probably a White-tailed Bumblebee Bombus  lucorum , (thanks Barry) First Bumblebee of the year, The White-ta

What a better way to spend my birthday than being out in the damp drizzle that was Pembrey Burrows LNR. Wednesday = volunteer day, the day when our little team meet to spend the day being useful, doing all those conservation management jobs that just would probably not get done, most days I am on my own so having other like-minded folk to talk too makes a change, cattle are not great conversationalists!!!!! My previous posts have highlighted the plight of "The Strandline Beetle", today we made great progress in the mitigation plan to attempt to slow their decline. The idea is to place 1m long logs with chainsaw cuts made along the length to provide a safe cwtch for the beetle to hide in. First cut down your tree and cut it to length Gather your logs Cut the cwtch The finished logs, waiting to be positioned in the spring Its too soon to put the logs on the beach/embryo dunes but when we do I'll post an update.

Work has started on the completion of the fence around grazing field 1, the guys doing the work make it look so easy, well easier than when we have to keep repairing sections by hand. The right tools make for light work! The machine has switched from banging posts in to straining the wire! so much easier than the "by hand" method.... but eh we love it !! I walked the eastern end of the reserve on what was a very spring like morning with Skylarks in song and a noticeable presence of Meadow Pipits and Linnets, there haven't been many birds around lately. Another sign of spring is the presence of Common Shelduck, they really should be one of our breeding species but there was no evidence last season that they bred, maybe this year? A good sized flock of Ringed Plover (76) and a huge flock of Oystercatchers, around 4250 including a rather poorly bird which had only one foot, it flew off ok but was decidedly lop-sided. A 1st winter Yellow Legged Gull was