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

After the strong WSW winds and the accompanying rain the Cefn Sidan beach looks remarkably clean with little exposed rubbish. Not sure where the Strandline Beetles are at the moment as "refuges" on the beach are very few and far between. A clean  Cefn Sidan I found another dead Gannet plus quite a few Barrel Jellyfish, I'm often asked "what happens to them?" well from what I saw today a lot of them provide a huge meal for the various invertebrates on the beach such as sandhoppers, there were thousands of sandhoppers on the open beach this morning many of them apparently feeding on the jellyfish The dune flora is, now, perhaps past its best although there are some interesting plants to be found including this thistle, which even when fresh looks dead, its the Carline Thistle. Carline Thistle In the brief morning sunshine I did see a Painted Lady butterfly , h opefully a spell of settled weather will arrive soon, then it w

The weather is stuck in a bit of a rut with a run of low pressures rolling in off the Atlantic, bringing wind and rain, this autumnal feeling weather fitted well with the obvious movement of waders on Cefn Sidan today. Several species of waders, with c300 Sanderling, 100+ Dunlin, good numbers of Ringed Plover and two Turnstone were present with the Sanderling and Dunlin in a mix of summer and autumn/winter plumages while the Turnstone were looking bright in their colourful tones. Turnstone, turning seaweed! We drove most of the beach looking for reported bird corpses, as it was we only found two Gannet, one Great Black-backed Gull and an unidentified gull corpses, we checked for rings but none were found. Gannet A new sign at the entrance of the Pembrey reserve should make for easier reading.... and we also looked at the nest boxes for Morfa Berwig reserve so that they are fit for purpose.

An early morning phone call from a visitor reporting something not right in one of the grazing fields. When I arrived I was told my another visitor of a dead Grey Seal on the beach, I put that one on hold, it was dead and not going anywhere - hold that thought. Arriving at Field 1 I could see 14 cattle should be 16, at the same time the 15 cattle in Field 2 were being a bit boisterous and bellowing.... I climbed the gate (at the hinge end) to count the herd in F1 properly 16 plus a new born calf!!!! that shouldn't have happened, but yes there he was, a lovely Welsh Black calf, suckling from his mum. After informing the grazier who was totally shocked I went off to investigate the dead seal, arriving on the beach at CE53 to see one of the park rangers trundling down the beach in a tractor  with the seal in the front loader to be buried out of sight, so I didn't get to see, measure or photograph it.

July and a wet day, still a few jobs to do including checking the 44 bird nest boxes purchased from CJ Wildlife for a nest box project at Morfa Berwig LNR, the access to ring the pulli is a snug fit on some so a bit of sanding will be needed, plenty of time for that job as they are not going out until the end of autumn. The Barn Owl box which last year had Honey Bees in residence needed a visit to check for occupancy, no owls but a squatter in the form of a Grey Squirrel had moved in, you had to be there to appreciate the funny side of events which went a bit like this: Simeon went up the ladder to have a look for occupants, as there were no signs of Barn Owls he opened the access door, "is that a squirrel nest" I asked, "yes", came the reply, "anyone in" "yes its looking at me...." Anyone in? The next thing there's a bit of scratching and banging as the squirrel jumps over Simeon's shoulder, does a somersault and sc

All effort has been directed at preparing for the official launch of the Morfa Berwig Local Nature Reserve. And so it was on what will probably be the wettest day of the summer 27 hardy souls gathered to hear short speeches and genuine thanks before a bit of pond dipping and a walk around the reserve. The walk was quite interesting as two Water Shrews  (dead) and a Common Shrew (dead) were found and proved interesting to the young folk. Water Shrew Common Shrew in reality its half the size of the Water Shrew

After an evening of bird ringing, I set the moth trap and the trail camera, well the trail camera revealed nothing but the moth trap came up with some goodies. Some nice moths and a couple of beetles. Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing Pebble Prominent Ruby Tiger Ear moth species, will need dissecting to identify correctly Common Dor Beetle (awaiting confirmation as its a "local" species Nicrophorus vestigator, a "local" Sexton Beetle species

I visited Morfa Berwig LNR yesterday to see how the work was going, its amazing what an experienced "digger" driver can achieve in a short space of time. The old bridges that were to be replaced with culverts and hard surface have all been completed, a bit of raking will see them finished off, all of the hard-core used was sourced on site from existing mounds and bunds, which themselves have been remoulded into softer shapes. I think the photos speak for themselves! Today was "ramble with a ranger", it was pouring down, thankfully no one was daft enough to venture out in the rain, so a slightly soggy "ranger rambled home", I'm still not sure how I got so wet I hardly left the van. I stopped off to count the gulls at the high tide roost in Sandy Water Park, they seemed to be enjoying the rain with 845 Black Headed Gulls (yes I counted everyone I could see), 26 Lesser black backed Gulls, 10+ Herring Gulls, 10+ Common Gulls and 28