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SEE BELOW FOR A WALK AT THE MORFA BERWIG LOCAL NATURE RESERVE BOOKING ESSENTIAL TAITH GERDDED - GWLYPTIROEDD YR HYDREF AUTUMNAL WETLANDS WALK Croeso i bawb / All welcome Ymunwch â ni am dro hydrefol o gwmpas Gwarchodfa Natur Leol Morfa Berwig a darganfod rhai o hud a lledrith y cynefin gwlyptir hwn. Darganfyddir y llygoden ddŵr prin ac byddai’r system gwlyptir hwn ar un adeg yn cael ei gweld yn y tir isel o Bynie i Llanelli. Mae’n addas ar gyfer pob oedran. Ffoniwch 07919 592 683 am fanylion pellach ac i archebu lle ar y daith gerdded. Join us for an autumnal walk around Morfa Berwig Local Nature Reserve and discover some of the magic of this wetland habitat. The reserve is home to the rare water vole and this wetland system would once have been widely found in the low lying land from Bynea to Llanelli. Suitable for all ages. Please call 07919 592 683 for further details and to book on to the walk. Gwarchodfa Natur Leol Morfa Berwig Dydd Iau 16 eg Mis Tachwedd 1

With the last day of settled weather forecast I headed to Morfa Berwig LNR and set just 140' of net, two with sound playing, and one without. As hoped for there was a smattering of Redwing in the first round with a couple of Song Thrush. It was clear that there were good number Redwings flying over, but not as many as the huge flock of Starlings I saw flying in the far distant, an estimate would put the flock size in the high thousands. A  couple of steady rounds and  then a hectic one saw a total of 49 birds processed, 43 new and 6 re-encounters, including a bird ringed by another ringer. The reason for the hectic round was a small influx of Goldcrests and the interception of what appeared to be a  mixed roving flock . Male Bullfinch, aged as a 3 as it still had a few retained greater coverts I am grateful for the assistance of Veronica who "scribed" for the session, taking the pressure off processing and writing. Scribing is one of the most impor

After a full on day with the Wednesday team, who by the way did a great job on the information shelter, THANK YOU it looked good this morning!, I returned at dusk to set up  for a Skylark ringing session this morning. whilst sorting the final net set, two Common Snipe landed in a net I had already set out, by the time I got to the net one had wriggled out but the other was lying quietly and was extracted easily, (for a change). I took the nets down, just leaving a marker pole as a guide for this morning, so much easier to prep the night before, and set about the task of processing the bird. Common Snipe Biometrics  Adult BTO code 4                                          Wing  132mm                                          Weight 91g I returned hopeful this morning but ended up with very few birds, not a Skylark in sight, in perfect conditions, still I had nothing better to do at 05:30hrs. Tomorrow's another day!

After a quick trip to Pembrey to measure some fences, I collected more nest boxes for the project at Morfa Berwig. I have placed 33 boxes in the wet woodland (carr) around the reserve at Morfa Berwig, another 11 to go up but the area I've selected looks a bit of a jungle challenge so I'll set some time aside to tackle them. We had a good deal on the boxes, some of them are a bit fancy for the purposes of a survey but good quality and at a third of the retail price I can't complain. Twelve of the boxes are supported by Bynea Primary School and have been individually marked with the names of the pupils who selected the random numbers; Isabel the county Biodiversity officer has set the pupils some challenges over the winter period all connected with the project, hopefully it will give them a fuller understanding of the natural process of life, and death. No 19, Bynea Primary School   The new "telescopic" ladder worked really well to place a box at

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