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

Ouch, I recently had an argument with a piece of wood, the wood won! Four broken ribs later and I can laugh about it just!!! This morning looked like the last settled morning for a while so despite the ribs I set up for Skylarks on the reserve. This mornings ringing site An overcast almost windless morning, with just 140ft of net set it was great to find three Skylarks in the net in the first round, on wing length a male and two females, both adult and juvenile Skylarks undergo a complete moult in the summer so at this time of year its considered difficult to age them so they are lumped as BTO code 2. Skylark Diagnostic hind claw The rest of the morning was fairly slow with good numbers of Goldfinch and Linnet flying around as well as at least two Sparrowhawks and a Merlin. Only a few birds were caught until I played the Meadow pipit call on the tape and the birds just flooded in to the area with 10 caught. A Sparrowhawk got caught in the net but by

The new name of the blog is rangernaturenotes.blogspot.com seems more appropriate Paul

I'm thinking of changing the blog name / address  native wildlife research was the name I used for an old website. I'd like a simpler name ideas welcome

The last of the programme of events for Spring/Summer 2017, saw a hardy few gather to stare out into Carmarthen Bay on an overcast damp morning with a steady south to south east wind blowing. There was little variety but decent numbers of expected birds for the time of year,  Gannets stole the show with well over 100 feeding off Burry Holm, accompanied by again over 100 Kittiwakes and at least two Arctic Skuas which could be seen harassing the gulls. Arctic Skua Kittiwake Other species included, bar tailed Godwit, Dunlin, Sanderling, Oystercatchers, Common and Black headed Gull. Bar tailed Godwit Keep checking for details of any autumn/winter event, with autumn now officially here, it's certainly all change on the bird front, so expect to start seeing/hearing wintering duck; Teal, Wigeon, and Pintail on the marsh, along with Snipe and possibly Jack Snipe.

Well I'm planning that todays survey will be the last of 2017, but lets wait and see. Only one section was left to do today, the eastern end of Cefn Sidan in the nature reserve, sadly not one beetle was found, given that there was very little surface debris I wasn't surprised still it was disappointing. On a slightly brighter note there was hardly any plastic on that stretch of beach. What was lacking in beetles was made up for by the large flocks of Goldfinches and Linnets, busily feeding on the fast seeding dune plants, as well as amongst the strandline. A great afternoon to be out, even though it was supposed to be a "day off"!. The survey area, divided by the red lines, green dots show best areas for Standline Beetle, full report will be in the annual review

In conjunction with Bumblebee Conservation our little team of volunteers the local BCT officer, Sinead, and Simeon our conservation officer, took part in a training session on Scything. A happy team I am a bit of a convert having seen Veronica swishing through our Snipe refuge area a few weeks ago. Paul Thornton from the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales facilitated in a simple straightforward way. Listen up! The scythes are all brand new from Scythe Cymru near Carmarthen and are nothing like the tool I first used over 30 years ago, which had a blade of bonded cast iron and was so heavy it put me off the utopic idea of "mowing a meadow". We covered the assembly, personalisation, honing (sharpening) and techniques involved before lunch then we got stuck in to some easy sward before tackling what Paul described as "not the best sward to learn on" but we soon developed a technique which worked and delivered results. The tough Sward

I dream't of perfect catching conditions today, overcast through the night, dry no wind and an over cast morning. instead clear skies overnight and this morning at least there was no breeze!! but it was cold with a heavy dew. Using just a few nets there were a few birds to ring, dominated by Blackcaps and Chiffchaff, plus a family party of  five Bullfinch, starring birds were a Cettis Warbler and an immature male Sparrowhawk. I have never caught a Sparrowhawk before and after much deliberation on my part eventually the bird was aged and sexed correctly, (should have taken the correct text book with me). Cettis Warbler Sparrowhawk The importance of the weather conditions cannot be underestimated, had it been overcast during the night or in the hours before dawn it is likely that night time migrants like Blackcaps would have been more inclined to slow down their migration, a clear night gives them perfect conditions to just keep going until first light.....