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

This morning started with a Snipe count on the lower section of the marsh, still a bit low with only eight birds seen, a bit of cold weather is needed to move the birds around a bit. I then walked the stretch of beach from the end of the grazing fields to the "Nose", sadly a lot of plastic litter has been dropped on the last few tides, as well as a few more Portuguese Man O' War. A few Portuguese Man O' War still washing up Storm Brian, left its mark with a lot of erosion of the dune face, the photograph shows an area we used as access to drive down on to the beach, its a long drop now! The remains of a small shark, possibly Small Spotted Catshark, looked like discarded bycatch Some prep' work for a ringing session on Monday morning, will hopefully make setting up easier!, a male Sparrowhawk checked out the ringing ride approvingly, just come back on Monday!! Through the van window male Sparrowhawk The grazier w

A ringing session at Pembrey Burrows was definitely on the cards this morning, all looked great even when I could see the stars as the overnight cloud had disappeared. With just 100ft of net set in some willow scrub and the reeds all was ready by 07:00hrs with the magical "Latvian Redwing" tape playing, I had heard one or two redwing calling in the dark as they flew over, so to find a sprinkling of them in the both nets was justification for the effort. I caught 11, but as dawn broke it was clear there were 100's on the move one flock alone held c300 birds. Redwing The caught and ringed birds were a mix of juveniles and adults, with weights averaging at 61g. There were a few Song Thrush in the bushes but only one in the net, I guess they arrived with the Redwing. None of the thrushes were carrying much in the way of fat, probably having used it up on their journey from the north. There was also an arrival of Goldcrests, although I only caught four, t

This week the LNR volunteers visited (we did some work) the Ynys Dawela Nature Park (reserve), a 15.8ha former farm,  then in the 1830's and 1840's mining area to exploit the rich mineral reserves of the area. A failed bid to develop an opencast mine on the land resulted in the site being secured by the local authority and subsequently passing to Carmarthenshire County Council. It is now a real patchwork of meadows, deciduous woodland with the Amman river forming one boundary. The site is home to a typical mix of woodland birds, yesterday Jays were very noticeable feeding on the abundant Acorn crop, its specialities though are probably the Whorled Caraway, the county flower, and the Marsh Fritillary, although present in low numbers habitat management is geared to conserving this now rare butterfly. Marsh Fritillary habitat The autumn colours are just coming out and with the great range of tree species,including Oak, Ash, Birch, Hazel and Holly, plus Fi

I was duly awakened by the slashing rain sometime in the early hours, then the sound of neighbours hammering something or other in the dark got me out of bed for my planned visit to the reserve at Pembrey for high water. I'm glad I made the effort, with the wind pushing the tide the marsh was completely flooded well before high water at 07:50hrs. The drive along the edge of the reserve yielded my first REDWINGS of the year as well as SONG THRUSH and BLACKBIRD, all trying to keep low.. A good variety of birds on the marsh battled the wind with, TEAL (50), MALLARD (c25), WIGEON (2), REDSHANK (c25), CURLEW (2), SNIPE, as well as the usual assemblage of Lesser Black Backed, Black headed and Herring Gulls. With gusts of over 60mph recorded at Pembrey Sands, it was no wonder the instruments on the shelter were rattling.

With storm "Brian" on the way for Saturday I got out and about this morning and walked the beach, it was good to see very little storm damage from last weeks visitor, Ophelia. Noticeable in the brief window of good weather was the movement of Skylarks heading SE across the reserve and out over the estuary, the Cormorant flock is building up at CE51 with c25 birds roosting this morning. Heading back inland a late Northern Wheatear was nice to see, it may be the same one that Adam saw at the Pembrey Harbour end earlier today. Northern Wheatear A well earned rest in the shelter allowed me to notice the number of Goldcrests, and Robins flitting about. On the walk back along the gravel tack to the van there was lots of birds activity in the scrub and a few minutes of "pishing" soon had a couple of Blackcaps, a  male and a female type, investigating the noise; (pishing is a birding term for making a pish sound which some birds will come to investigate).

This morning was my first chance to return to Pembrey and check what, if any, damage had been caused by ex-hurricane Ophelia. It appears that the only problem was the instruments on the weather station were facing the wrong way!, (well with gusts of 75mph recorded it wasn't surprising), that was soon rectified and now everything is facing in the right direction. I did a Snipe count on the upper marsh and found 17 Common Snipe and one Jack Snipe, perhaps numbers are on the low side but there was two thirds of the marsh not counted! Common Snipe Three fly over Ravens, and a single Red Kite added some interest. Another storm is forecast for Saturday with a tide at 07:50hrs of 8.7m the marsh will hopefully be flooded and may bring in a few windswept goodies.

Ex-hurricane Ophelia started to make itself felt this morning with the most eerie of skies and a blood red sun, a consequence of the volumes of Saharan dust picked up by the high winds, typically I didn't mange a photo but there have been plenty on the news and social media. The MENCAP stalwarts turned out and helped repair the enclosure in F2 which will assist the grazier in gathering the cattle when needed. The cattle are so inquisitive they just stood around watching and at the rattle of the tool box were straight in looking for food, I felt a little mean as when we arrived they were all in the enclosure and to move them into the field I pretended to have food, so they would follow me!! That's not straight.... The full force of this ex-hurricane built up during the afternoon and this evening the sea off Burry Port was very turbulent, there were lots of people watching the waves and braving the wind, I guess there's something captivating about weather wa