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

A couple of regular visitors to Morfa Berwig kindly let me know about an Earthstar fungus they had found growing on the edge of the main hard surfaced route through the reserve. With great directions I found it without really looking to hard, I took a photo to help id it at home, yes it was obviously an Earthstar. despite some decay, it was in a remarkably good condition considering it would have been fruiting in the autumn. It's species identification was determined by the ever helpful Dr Philip Jones, or local fungus guru, as being the Collared Earthstar, Geastrum triplex , one of the commoner species of Earthstar to be found. Collared Earthstar at Morfa Berwig A Wikipedia, free to use and share, photo of "fresh" Collared Earthstar On the bird front the Willow Tit has reappeared after being absent for a few days, I apologise that the public cannot see the feeders, its a matter of keeping them safe, they are part of a ringing project and they need to

We are so fortunate, along the Llanelli coast, to have so many great habitats to explore, and many of the best are protected one way or another, either through legislation and ownership or just the sheer logistics of getting to the site. There are many plants which are generally scarce through the UK, and one with a tenuous grasp on Carmarthenshire is the Small Flowered Catchfly, Silene gallica, which occurs naturally in one location in the county and that is around the walls of Burry Port Harbour. F ollow the link for a more detailed appraisal of the plant https://www.plantlife.org.uk/application/files/4114/7913/4089/Silene_gallica__dossier.pdf Silene gallica, Small flowered Catchfly, look for the plant from May onwards The habitat at Burry Port has not been as closely managed as it could have been, with invasion by Couch Grass, Gorse and Radish. before, no substrate visible for any seed to set, Hopefully the small amount of work we have done today will go

LITTER, ESPECIALLY MARINE LITTER AND INPARTICULAR, PLASTIC, IS A HUGE PROBLEM AND HAS HIT THE HEADLINES ACROSS THE WORLD, DO YOU WANT TO DO YOUR BIT TO HELP LOCALLY... There are a few opportunities coming up if anyone is keen to do some litter picking to impact on marine bourn litter. The staff of  the councils Outdoor Recreation Team are giving their own time on Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st, meet at the Pembrey country Park main beach entrance at 10:30, stay for as long or as short a  time as you can, max 2 hours, equipment provided. Then on Monday 19th February a beach clean on the western part of Cefn Sidan, contact me for more details.

I have recently been notified of a ringing recovery, that is to say someone has sighted a bird ring that I have previously put onto a bird during a ringing session. When birds are ringed there is always the hope that there will be subsequent encounters with the bird, either alive or, more usually dead; however no matter the circumstances it all adds to the science of bird ringing. On the 2nd of October 2016 I was ringing at Pembrey Burrows in grazing field 2 and caught 28 birds of which 24 were Meadow Pipits, (Meapi) One of those Meapi was ringed with Z544250 with the following biometrics recorded: age       3 (hatched in 2016) wing     82mm weight 18.5g time    08:30 the details were recorded by Veronica. Meadow Pipit On 31st December 2017 some Short-eared Owl pellets were found on Rhossili Down and the finder noticed a bird ring sticking out from one of the pellets, the finder sent the details off to the BTO who matched the ring with the one above.

PEMBREY BURROWS & SALTINGS LNR + PEMBREY COAST SSSI BIRD REPORT 2017 A full version paper copy is available, let me know if you want one Species accounts Mute Swan,                    Alarch Dof An occasional fly over visitor Whooper Swan             Alarch Y Gogledd Winter visitor to Carmarthenshire with birds wandering along the coast Canada Goose,           Gwydd Canada An occasional fly over visitor White-fronted Goose               Gwydd Dalcen-Wen A rare visitor, two were observed flying along the foreshore heading west on 17th March Greylag Goose                             Gwydd Wyllt Resident along the coast, occasional fly over visitors Brent Goose                                 Gwydd Ddu A winter visitor, occurring in comparatively small numbers , 11 on 3rd February Shelduck                           Hwyaden Yr Eithin Resident at Pembrey Burrows LNR for most of the year, a single,   failed breeding attempt was noted in