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

I was joined by Wednesday gang members, Veronica and Neil for what turned out to be an interesting day. We started by cutting reeds for Pembrey Primary forest school, they have a structure they wish to thatch. (There were no signs of any bird activity in the small area we cut) to be honest we've left it a bit late it has not been possible to get into the reedbed to do any cutting due to the high water levels as such the quality of the reed has deteriorated during the winter, I'm sure the pupils won't mind. Cut reed, ready for thatching! A wander over the dunes looking at the Green-winged Orchids and finding Moonwort on the way took us to the beach where we then did a recce of the eastern end of the beach around "the nose" prior to a planned litter pick on Monday 14th May, today the beach and "the nose" were very litter free but still enough work to keep a few people occupied on the day. Moonwort Unusally litter free (ish) As we w

Nothing to report for last week, all very quiet really, the weather has played its part in holding back the slow progress that is Spring 2018. New bird for the year list were Manx Shearwaters reported by Bernie, (thanks again). Today saw some interesting activity with a Royal Navy destroyer anchored off shore as part of the military activity taking place over five days, soldiers landing by hovercraft on the reserve section of Cefn Sidan and then a group of them working their way in full battle dress, guns and all, across the reserve!! No more to be said really

My blogging has been rather intermittent of late so a roundup of the past week seems appropriate. I have had a couple attempts at ringing in the last week, they have been rather dismal to say the least with only two birds, a Reed Bunting and a Dunnock, caught. Spring can be difficult especially at such an exposed site as Pembrey Burrows. Despite the lack of ringing success there have been  migrant birds arriving and passing through, with Arctic Tern (thanks to Bernie for the record), Sedge, Grasshopper, Willow and  Whitethroat warblers all recorded. A high flying Marsh Harrier heading south towards the Gower was a latecomer to the year list which now stands at 97 Arctic Tern On the butterfly front there's not a lot to be said, I held a "training session" for three willing butterfly surveyors on Thursday  which turned into a lovely walk but nothing to record, well not anything that was close enough to identify. There's time yet..... Floristically, there

Ah Wednesday, so the gang headed off to the Ynys Dawela Nature Park. It was damp and overcast early on but soon the weather changed into as day of warm sunshine AT LAST! The cold and wet winter has certainly delayed the full onset of spring but today we were being serenaded by a number of summer migrants, with Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff and Blackcap belting out their heart warming song. A good number of unidentified tadpoles in the pond were good to see even if they seem a few weeks behind in their development. Today we continued with the removal of an old wooden structure which was past it's sell by date, as we;; as some redundant fence removal.

Well, I really thought I had done this blog... apologies for falling behind. This Wednesday the usual gang were joined by the WWT reserve volunteers as well as the reserve wardens and Edward this years intern; who were having an away day!. The Wednesday gang and most of the gang from WWT We split into two parties, one doing a Water Vole survey Led by Simeon and Neil and the other unlucky group were with me - the self appointed slash and burn gang. All of the trash is now on the far bank leaving a wide area for natural regeneration In decent weather we managed to tackle a host of tasks which was rewarding for everyone, the Water Vole surveyors found plenty evidence of the elusive creatures across the reserve. We are very grateful for the help from the gang at WWT they were great company and hard workers THANK YOU.

An early start to set up the ringing nets at Morfa Berwig, disappointedly only one person had booked in but as I was going to be at the reserve anyway there was no point in cancelling it. - the four talks/events so far this year have connected with 52 people. Anyway one more person educated about the mystery that is bird ringing is always beneficial. In the short time only eight birds were caught however with five being newly arrived Blackcaps it was very worthwhile. They were carrying various amounts of fat with scores around 5 or 6 showing they had refuelled at some point on their northward journey and probably only arrived on the reserve overnight. Female Blackcap A phone call around 9:30am from a regular at Pembrey did not bring good news, t would seem that about 30m of barbed wire fence had been pushed or pulled over and the cattle were missing!! Another call from the admin office told me that the 16 cattle had wandered off the reserve, over the saltmarsh and had be

Another change in the weather, with Monday being shirt sleeve order and today back to the fleece. I met up with Simeon and the guys from mencap Cymru at North Dock LNR this morning to install the new boundary sign. Easy digging, avoiding the copious amounts of dog mess soon had the sign in place. It was then off to Sandy Water Park to put some interpretation in place for the Bee/Pollinator project we started last week. A quick trip to Pembrey and some public engagement - I always enjoy talking to people who want to know more about the work we do - and my morning was complete. Don't forget the bird ringing demonstration at MORFA BERWIG on Thursday 8am - 10am please call to book a place 07984788218