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

I'm taking a break, normal service will be resumed soon. P

Today was a guided event day, with the topic being flowers of the salt marsh led by Simeon the conservation officer. An overcast dawn turned into a warm sunny morning as we were joined by a small group, of mainly new people, to look at the specialists that inhabit the salt marsh at Pembrey Burrows LNR. No matter what the title of an event it's impossible to ignore anything of interest and we were soon looking at a mix of dune and  marsh plants; too many to list them all but the special ones included: Rock Sea Lavender, Sea Centuary, Sea Rush, Sea Aster, Sea Wormwood, Seablite, Common Lavender and Sea Purslane. Sea Aster Sea Centuary Just from the names a clear theme develops, the plants have a close association with the coast. Having just missed high water, we arrived at "the nose" while there were still good numbers of birds present including, Sandwich Tern (200+), Black headed Gull, Common Gull, Whimbrel, Mallard and Ringed Plo

Having held my C class ringing permit for several years, I've been thinking that I should get my backside in to gear and progress to the next level of an A class permit, my peers have been coaxing me for a while so I've finally given in. This morning, in seemingly good conditions I went through the assessment process, it was tough being under the spotlight but seemingly I am capable enough to have been supported in my application to upgrade, the only downside was the overall lack of numbers of birds, although with 12 species of birds the assessor was able to see me handle, age and assess a good range of birds, then rain stopped play! With Blackcap (11), plus numbers of Great Tits, Blue Tits, Coal Tits, Robins, Dunnocks, with Goldcrest, Treecreeper, Wren, Blackbird, Chiffchaff, and Willow Tit (1). Willow Tit The Willow Tit was the most interesting bird, as it was a "control",  having been ringed originally across the way at WWT Llanelli a few weeks ag

Quite often it is possible to confirm the presence of elusive creatures by the signs they leave behind. Today whilst doing a reptile survey I found some "scat" from a small mammal, can anyone identify it? small mammal scat (poo) Birds also leave behind evidence of their presence, I don't mean the splashes of poo on your clean car but signs in the form of "pellets", the undigested remains of their prey, any ideas which species of bird left this pellet?, clue its composed of beetle elytra, and seeds bird pellet Signs of the changing seasons are everywhere not least in the presence of migratory birds last seen on their spring arrival, Northern Wheatears were on the reserve this morning, this member of the Chat family is a summer visitor to our shores, nesting in a range of open habitats from offshore islands, dune systems (not Pembrey sadly) to mountain slopes, they have one of the longest migrations of any passerine with some birds passi

A morning session at the Morfa Berwig LNR, with fencing in and fencing out, gate posts out, moved  and in and just in,  a joy to drive right up to the work sites rather than having to carry all the tools and materials more than 50m, not being lazy just time and effort conscious. Veronica hard at work again, we actually do share the work I dug the hole Veronica filled it in!! Then it was off to Pembrey Burrows LNR to assist with the making of a well being video highlighting the health benefits of visiting the county Local Nature Reserves and natural spaces. Big skies, miles of deserted beach, the sound of larks and the breeze in your hair all good for your health and wellbeing, and for a change, free....

I keep finding deceased creatures, so today a little test of you knowledge, no prize though just the satisfaction of taking part, use the comment section at the end to submit your answer. What am I who does this belong to After washing my hands (I think I did anyway), I stopped at the new café off factory road Daisies Little Café, WOW a great little place, it was very busy and I had a bit of a wait but it was worth it, locally sourced ingredients made for a lovely medium sized breakfast, plus the young man, Geriant, who was running the show today knows how to look after customers...worth a visit.

Wednesday means only one thing, volunteer day... Today Veronica and Brian joined me at Pembrey Burrows for a morning of tasks and then a butterfly survey. The first job was to deal with an apparent escape plot by the cattle in F2 with the ring leader watching the gap in the fence, we soon had the upper hand, with a few staples and a piece of wire the gap was sealed for now!!! "... so that's how they fix it, I'll tell the others!" Brian joined us at 10am and we set off to create a refuge for the wintering Snipe should they be disturbed from their usual daytime roosts. Having been involved in some wader scrape management with the North Wilts Ringing Group I had a good idea of what I wanted to achieve, an open area of low vegetation in a secluded part of the reed bed, so it was with an area identified that we set Veronica loose with her scythe, and pretty impressive it was too, Brian and I could only look on in amazement at the way she swung the scythe liste