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

This morning I ran a ringing demo' for Carmarthenshire County Council biodiversity, at the Morfa Berwig LNR; as an event for Wales Nature Week, despite the rain we caught enough birds to show the two people who attended, I just don't understand why there is such a lack of interest in our local environment. Thanks to Heather Coats, and Valerie Wilson of the Gower Ringing Group and to Veronica, a stalwart volunteer at the reserve for the help this morning. There was some good news, with two "controlled" birds, (birds ringed elsewhere and re captured at Morfa Berwig) in the shape of a CETTIS WARBLER and a Wren. We know they were originally ringed at the nearby WWT Llanelli. The Wren was originally ringed as a 3J ( a young bird of the year) on 25th August 2016, whilst the Cettis was ringed as a 3J on 23rd July 2015. Wren Cettis Warbler After an early start and back home by 10am I thought I would have a lie down, NOPE not a chance, a phone call from

With what seemed a reasonable early morning forecast I carried out a full survey of the reptile refugia at Pembrey LNR. It was exciting to discover that this morning seven of the, now, 12 survey sites had reptiles with a total count of 12 Slow Worms, 6 Common Lizards, and a single NEW Grass Snake. I say new as this individual was about a mile away from the records of last week!, the usual home range of an individual is between 0.18 - 9.41ha, although the average is around 3.56ha, todays individual was well outside the "usual" range. Whilst checking the refugia I found another Bee Orchid plant and confirmed the mystery leaves from yesterday as Sea Bindweed. an unusual "top down" view of a Bee Orchid flower Bee Orchid

Despite the damp and drizzly conditions I carried on with surveying for the Strandline Beetle on Cefn Sidan, this time between CE52 and CE51, I found another two individuals, brining the total so far to at least 12 individuals at fourteen grid references. On the walk back though the dunes at CE51 I stopped to photograph some leaves which may or may not belong to the rare Round-leaved Wintergreen, or Sea Bindweed (awaiting confirmation) as I took photographs I spotted two familiar orchid spikes of the- BEE ORCHID Ophrys apifera, Bee Orchid spike, note the twist in the stem Although not in flower yet they are easy to identify, interestingly they are on ground which was "disturbed" by the winter Sea Buckthorn clearance. I'll post more photos if they make it to flowering.....

A few hours checking around the reserve at Morfa Berwig was well spent, the orchids are looking great, mostly Southern Marsh but possibly Early Marsh also, checking it out There is a wealth of flowers on show at the moment with Ragged Robin and Ox-eye Daisy standing out. Ox-eye Daisy Southern Marsh Orchid Ragged Robin A few Common Blue damselflies were on the wing, but the only big "dragonfly" was a Four-spot Chaser ♂, near a fast disappearing ephemeral pool. Four spot Chaser (cropped image) The rogue horses seem to have disappeared and there's no obvious mess left behind.

Whitsun bank holiday Monday, great weather, overcast breezy with drizzle !! With a high tide around 09:00 it seemed a good idea to make more of an effort to survey for Strandline Beetle, It was well worth the effort with EIGHT found today, under a mixture of natural debris, drift wood, pallet and planks and a couple under old tyres and plastic lids, and yes, a beetle was under one of the new refugia.. Strandline Beetle A learning I think is that generally if the object cannot be moved with one hand because its buried in the sand then its unlikely there will be Strandline Beetles there either. With the high tide the birds were concentrated with c2500 Oystercatchers, c300 Sanderling, many in summer plumage, and c10 Dunlin, all in summer plumage; at the eastern end of the beach. Sanderling I also found another DUNE TIGER BEETLE,  and a PAINTED LADY butterfly, as well as the spider, Arctosa perita a cute little thing complete with egg sac in a burrow under a p

I didn't visit the reserve until this afternoon, and the car parks were quite full with an attendant amount of litter.... whilst picking, litter along the track to the beach at CE53 I couldn't help  but notice that the sign installed a few months ago with an assortment of information including "NO FIRES" had disappeared. It didn't take long to find the remains of the wooden post and boards in a recently extinguished, large fire!!! oh well making a new one will give me something(else) to do this week. On a brighter note a walk along the beach near CE51 revealed THREE more Eurynebria complanata, the Strandline Beetle, two were under an old car tyre and one was wedged in a crevice in a log, very encouraging.... A 9.0m tide driven by south easterly winds flooded almost all of the marsh

Well no one can say the weather forecasters didn't say it may be thundery, but WOW what a storm in the early hours of this morning, practically unbroken lightening for nearly two hours, and the rain, 18mm recorded by the weather station on the information shelter. Temperature 29th April - 27th May (only 24th -27th applies to Pembrey) Wind records 29th April- 27th May (only 24th - 27th applies to Pembrey) So in sharp contrast to yesterday, the weather is overcast, breezy and damp but not as humid as it was last night. Well with a 9.0m tide, and no jet skiers this morning the marsh looked ad sounded great, with a nice selection of birds, Shelduck, Black-headed Gull, Herring Gull, Mallard, Greenshank, and Redshank. And the downside, well another member of the herd in F2 decided to go walkabout.... with some information from "Brian the fence" I located the escape point, the sand has built up along the barbed wire with only the top strand showing and a