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

I gave an illustrated talk on Friday evening to the Wales Wildlife Watch group which seemed to go well to an attentive and inquisitive audience. Today in overcast and showery conditions saw the first guided event of the season, a beach walk on Cefn Sidan between CE51 and CE52, a group of 19 including 6 little ones was a good size. With so  much emphasis on the benefits to be gained from "getting outside" and enjoying the countryside and coast, some may be interested to know that todays walk of just over 2 miles (measured on a map), all the ups and downs of the dunes, contributed around 5000 steps to the daily target of 10000! The walk thorough the reserve revealed a few things but with the season seemingly a few weeks behind we didn't have more than a few flowering plants in bloom, a torpid SLOW WORM raised some interest. Once on the beach it was clear that the easterly wind of the last few days had covered the older tide lines with sand so we worked the

Met up with Simeon along with Sinead (Bumble Bee Conservation BBCT) at Sandy Water Park this morning as a follow up to a meeting a few months ago, looking at creating habitat for Bees and other inverts' along with some wild flowers in the swathe of grass that is Sandy Water Park. Looking West across the lake Before With limited funds BBCT have engaged a contractor to strip an area of turf and put down a limestone gravel substrate. Removing the turf and some topsoil will reduce the nutriments from the area making it better for naturally occurring flora to take hold, the gravel will help to replicate the lime conditions on the dunes and suppress the stronger ruderal flora from pushing through, possibly. A man and a machine duly appeared and got stuck in making the job look so easy!!!, while another man and a brand new £80000 JCB loader stood by ready to move the gravel. Doesn't take long Another example of partnership working for the benefit o

A "day off", a chance to do some admin! Well a busy week ahead including a talk on the Carmarthenshire Local Nature Reserves on Friday: 7pm. Felinfoel Community Resource Centre SA14 8BE, This is a WWW event see www.facebook.com/waleswildlifewatch for details, a small charge applies. Then the first guided event of the season with a Beach Walk/Safari on Saturday the 7th starting from the Pembrey Burrows Reserve entrance at 10am booking is essential for this (and all our events this year) No charge. Call me on 07984788218 A report this morning of a SHORT EARED OWL at the burrows around 08:30 - thanks Bernie, there has been a Merlin around in the last few days, and a Great Northern Diver off Old Pembrey Harbour. A Sea Potato, a burrowing Sea Urchin complete (unusually) with spines

LITTER, the bane of most sensible, responsible people. Today our little band picked litter and fly tip from the roadside boundary of the reserve and the "car park" at CE53, Two car tyres, five bags of litter and with not a little irony a pedal bin! We then picked the grass verge on either side of the main track through the reserve, amongst assorted cans and footballs, we collected 36 bags of dog shit! yes there you have it I've used the S word, because I'm seriously fed up with the lack of respect that the minority of the public, most of whom are "locals", have for our great open spaces. To me it's simple YOUR DOG - YOUR RESPONSIBILITY - CLEAN UP AND BIN THE DOG POO. I'm sure that t he council have no responsibility to provide facilities for dog walkers to dispose of Fido's waste, but they do with bins in as many practical places as possible, and frankly I'd rather see my council tax being spent on schools and social c

At last, today, after an icy start, felt like Spring! The Wednesday team returned to Morfa Berwig to finish off the task we started last week, (usually the Wednesday team only visit once a month), and did a MAMMOTH JOB which left us, well at least me knackered! THANKS. It was back to tidying up after the work carried out by contractors, on behalf of NRW, raking the banks of the ditch and clearing debris from the ditch, which is flowing nicely thanks to Brian's engineering works, there's a kid in all of us! Oh we had a little bonfire... We made neat piles of the brash which will rot away fairly quickly I hope. With increasing daylight, don't forget the clocks spring forward this weekend, the vegetation will soon take hold, a LITTLE EGRET couldn't wait to investigate our work but decided there was nothing to eat, the obvious birdlife today came in the form of a few pairs of MALLARD and a pair of GADWALL bombing about, a GREY HERON and best off all a GR

Today was the monthly water-bird survey or WeBS which I'm sharing with Simeon. In bitterly cold weather, with a stiff NE wind I was joined by Ed from WWT to survey the section of Cefn Sidan from CE59 to Tywyn Point. Despite the change in the weather there were a fair smattering of birds on the beach with total counts of the following: COMMON GULL c1000, OYSTERCATHER 1637. SANDERLING 792, KNOT 160, REDSHANK 12, CULREW 30, BAR-TAILED GODWIT 3, GREAT BLACK BACKED GULL 24, HERRING GULL 75, COMMON SCOTER 100'S, GANNET 1, SHELDUCK 18, CORMORANT 7. Sanderling, winter plumage (Colin Dalton) Knot winter plumage (Colin Dalton) There was also one Northern Wheatear, (a few reported in the county today), and a movement of Meadow Pipits to the south, (in response to the cold snap?) Northern Wheatear male

A pre-dawn set up at Morfa Berwig, in good conditions after last nights very heavy rain; produced just nine birds, not a great return for the effort, even the tits were absent. The star bird was the first CHIFFCHAFF of the season, to be expected really with c10 singing males across the road at WWT yesterday, hopefully the site will resound to their monotonous song soon. ChiffChaff The absolute wildlife sighting this morning was made by Ed, from WWT, when a TOAD walked across the path in front of us. Toad It is hard to believe that a "wetland" site such as Morfa Berwig appears to holds so few amphibians other than PALMATE NEWTS, but now with a clump of frog spawn last week and todays Toad sighting there's at least some evidence that they occur, (the same scenario occurs at WWT).