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

A pre breakfast potter revealed four LITTLE CRAKES, 2 ♂ and 2 ♀, and a SPOTTED CRAKE, plus a smart LITTLE BITTERN ♂. A nice start to the day. After breakfast we set out to the aptly named Kalloni Raptor Watch Point, where we picked up GOSHAWK, SPARROWHAWK, SHORT-TOED EAGLE, COMMON BUZZARD BLACK STORK AND RAVEN. A short drive saw us at Kavaki where RUPPELLS WARBLER, SUBALPINE WARBLER, and TURTLE DOVES gave really good views. Turtle Dove a very distant Rupells Warbler ♂ We called in to the reservoir at Persama gave us an out of place WOOD SANDPIPER, and 2 RUDDY SHELDUCK. A superb lunch at Molivos Castle, with everyone replete saw us head back south to Achladeri, where KRUPERS NUTHATCH were feeding young at an accessible nest site. Everyone had great views and we left happy. The next bird was surprisingly a "WOOD" NUTHATCH, but not Short-toed Treecreeper. Classic Pine forest habitat for Krupers Nuthatch Back to the Salt pans where a female type MONTAGU

Ah, the smell of the Mediterranean, oh no that will be ANTIFREEZE!!! Another reciting day in the field, 10.5 hours including 40 minutes waiting for a replacement car. Highlights today included,    COLLARED FLYCATCHER, EASTERN ORPHEAN WARBLER, ALPINE SWIFT, TEMMINCKS STINT, MARSH SANDPIPER, WHITE-WINGED BLACK TERN, WHISKERED TERN, CUCKOO (2), BLACK REDSTART, MARSH HARRIER, LESSER KESTREL, LONG-LEGGED BUZZARD, SHORT-TOED EAGLE, CINEREOUS BUNTING, CRETZCHMARS BUNTING, ISABELLINE WHEATEAR, WESTERN ROCK NUTHATCH. Plus a good fall of Whinchat and Black-eared Wheatear. The quality of the day was a SEMI-COLLARED FLYCATCHER AT Meladia Valley. Temminicks Stint Rock Nuthatch nest and chick (VH) Starred Agama (VH)

The intrepid party of five set off from Llanelli on Monday 24th at 15:00, we arrived at the Hotel Pela at 08:01 on 25th WOW, seemed like a long time but the journey was uneventful and easy thanks to Airport Flyer of Llanelli and Aegean and Olympic Airlines. To summarize the first day we had 73 full species plus a sub , I insist on counting all the Wagtails as they are my favourites. Bernie managed at least 2.5 ticks, with With Ruddy Shelduck, Masked Shrike and the half was Greater Flamingo, those that know him will have to ask. Nick has been before but Veronica and Cris were blown away (I think, we were all pretty tired). The highlights included, MARSH SANDPIPER, GARGANEY, SHORT-TOED SNAKE EAGLE, LONG-LEGGED BUZZARD, WOODCHAT SHRIKE, WHISKERED TERN, BEE-EATER, BLACK STORK,  SPANISH SPARROW and of course WOOD SANDPIPER. Some dodgy photos from the "bridge camera" Woodchat Shrike Spanish Sparrow European Bee-Eater

A bright morning with a chilly E-NE breeze but still pleasant to be out. The Green-winged Orchids are spectacular at the moment with a good showing across the reserve. The theme of today's event was "signs of Spring" and we had plenty to see. A heads up from Bernie about a fall off Wheatears in Sandy Water Park a few miles east of the reserve. At Pembrey it was soon apparent there was a movement of birds and very quickly the numbers started to mount up, there were at least 20 birds on site with the majority being females, only three males were noted. Staying with birds three Whimbrel which were quite approachable seemed to be newly arrived, a few Swallows passing through plus the mix of resident birds such as Stonechat, Meadow Pipit and Skylark made for a decent morning. Whimbrel The highlight though came in the form of the GREEN HAIRSTREAK butterfly, with four seen on the food plant, Gorse,a stunningly colourful butterfly; a couple of Speckl

With a perfect forecast for this morning, overcast and little or no wind, I was on site at Pembrey by 05:30hrs for a ringing session. I set up in the recently created reed bed ride, deeper into the reeds, and with a bit of bush craft and luck soon had a GRASSHOPPER WARBLER, (Grawa) in the net, another trans-Saharan migrant with the unmistakable "reeling" song. The tail of this bird shows "growth bars" which may indicate poor feeding in the wintering grounds. I also caught seven SEDGE WARBLERS, (Sedwa) including a bird already carrying a ring, it's always interesting to find a ringed bird in the net, although usually they are birds that have been ringed in the area on previous occasions---- not today though this Sedwa was wearing a FRENCH ringing scheme ring, my first control of a bird ringed outside of the UK. The information has been sent to the BTO who will forward the ring number to the French scheme and in the future

I was joined, again, today by Simon Jones on work placement, with another pair of willing hands we tackled the rather unsightly entrance fence at Pembrey LNR, what started as a simple job took 2.5 hours of huffing and puffing trying to remove a few posts. We actually gave in trying to remove two of them leaving one and cutting one off below ground level, the wire used on the fence was designed for Rhino control. Interestingly whilst attempting to dig out one post we discovered four Slow Worms some 20cm below ground I managed to move three to a safe location whilst the fourth disappeared even deeper, hence why we cut the post off. We then tackled some of the Sea Buckthorn that the machinery couldn't reach back in the winter its easy to make an impact with a pair of loppers and a saw... Enough hard labour, we set off to do some monitoring of Shelduck drawing a blank we then tripped over some MOONWORT or rather 20 spikes of this unique looking fern with a liking for ca

Most naturalists, especially birders seem to start looking for signs of spring in darkest February, and of course nature is thinking about the rising temperatures, and longer hours of daylight, but it's still winter, then the first green shoots appear maybe the first Brimstone, Sand Martin and is that Chiffchaff "new in" or a wintering bird.... Well the past ten days have seen a surge in the appearance of the real spring with decent arrivals of Swallows, my first House Martin, Sedge Warbler, Grasshopper Warbler and a few Sandwich Terns. The Common Shelduck have been displaying all week the males play a "king of the castle" routine with head bobbing and calling. Whilst I haven't seen a Brimstone "on patch" I have seen Holly Blue, Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock and Speckled Wood. On the flora front, from one spike of Green-winged Orchid there are now hundreds in flower in F3 alone, as well as Wild Pansy, and Heath Dog Violet.