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

Unfortunately I have had to cancel the guided event on Sunday 16th September; I am planning on rearranging the event to a date in October. P

September is a great month, autumn in its many guises is getting underway as nature begins to wind down for the approaching winter. Most of the flowers along the coast are now setting seed, the shrubs and trees are fruiting, many with an opportunity to provide us with delicious food such as Blackberries for a pie, Hips and Sloes to add to alcohol, Elder berries to make that wine [get a good reference book and get making]; remember to leave enough for the wild creatures that will rely on this bounty to see them through the winter. Elder Berries Sloes (the fruit of Blackthorn) Birds have long been on the move especially the summer visitors such as Swallows, and Sand Martins. some birds will be arriving from the north to winter with us especially the wading birds such as Sanderling or even the scarce Curlew Sandpiper. Sanderling Curlew Sandpiper A walk across the dunes at Pembrey Burrows LNR could turn up any odd birds such as Whinchat departing for Africa or a

Well, I'm not looking for sympathy but what a long tiring but great fun and great teamwork the weekend has been... Tour of Britain Grand Depart from Pembrey Country Park, a wheelie great success (get it). G   (photo Pembrey Country Park FB page) My small part was to set up the nature table in the marquee, and to lead two guided walks, a beach safari and a woodland walk. Nature table, the large item on the left is an un identified whale skull It was great to have an interesting mix of people join me for both walks, the strandline safari was tough with little of interest on the beach, just as well I did a recce in the morning, but plenty to see on the way to the beach (it took 30mins to walk from the visitor centre to the beach!!) I tried to get the message across that the county has so much countryside and coast to explore, with the park being a unique blend of natural and manmade habitats, mentioning the now considered misguided approach of stabilising the dune

The natural world does not follow the same calendar of time as we humans do, nature has it's own intricate calendar and now at the end of August the "natural autumn" is well underway. The meteorological autumn starts on Saturday 1st September, whilst the astronomical autumn will start on 21st/22nd September. This is easily evidenced by looking at the increasing numbers of birds which come to Carmarthen Bay, and specifically Cefn Sidan and Pembrey Burrows, to spend the winter. The gull numbers are building up with good numbers of COMMON GULL, BLACK HEADED GULL and HERRING GULL using the fields in the country park at high tide; the SANDWICH TERN roost at Old Pembrey Harbour reached 171 birds yesterday evening, (before being disturbed by a big green canoe). Along the beach SANDERLING, RINGED PLOVER, DUNLIN and TURNSTONE are to be found chasing the tide. A juvenile MARSH HARRIER was recorded by Bernie Beck this week- thanks Bernie. More significant, although harder to s

A spell of rather wet weather early on this morning, whilst fixing a broken stile, left me needing to change trousers and put on some waterproofs, I'm not a keen wearer of waterproof trousers but we were about to enter the fresh water reed bed for a spot of ringing ride management. I haven't had time to do any ringing of my own for months so preparing the rides for a spot of Swallow roost action should spur me on. Thanks to Brian and Veronica for their hard and sweaty graft. After lunch we wandered down to CE51 to try and survey for Strandline Beetles, despite a good search none were found, this is likely to be my last opportunity this season to search for this rare beetle. Brian found a beetle of interest which I'm waiting for an ID on;[now updated] I found an Ichneumon Wasp, seemingly out of context on the beach!, I've tentatively identified it as Ophion obscuratus,  Phaleria cadaverina , one of the "darkling" beetles a p

Today the Wednesday gang headed to Ynys Dawela Nature Park near Brynamman in the north east of the county. The weather was less than conducive for the task in hand, searching for the larval food webs of the rare Marsh Fritillary butterfly. This stunning butterfly needs "scabious" plants on which to lay its eggs and then for the caterpillars to feed. Areas of the site have been managed by the cutting and collecting of vegetation from four meadow areas, Marsh Fritillary does live in the area but is a fickle creature. The search involves delving into the bases of the scabious plants looking for the tell tale signs of the caterpillar, disappointedly none were found today. larval food web ( Wikipedia ) I did however find several stunningly coloured Four-spot Orb wed spiders, quite fearsome looking beasts in shades of orange and yellow. Four-spot Orb web spider

The older toilet blocks at the country park are a real magnet for the hundreds of species of moths found on the site. This mornings collection included a Lime-speck Pug and a Sharp-angled Peacock moth, both quite stunning looking moths. Lime-speck Pug Sharp-angled Peacock Moth Accompanying the moths were a number of Toad-lets, which I liberated back into the wild, they must have had quite  a journey as the nearest pond is at least 2km away. Yesterday evening the Carmarthenshire Bird Club held its annual Tern Watch event at Old Pembrey Harbour on the eastern boundary of the reserve, a good turnout of around 20 people saw a good range of birds, as detailed below, Turnstone and Mute Swan were new for the reserve list which now stands at 104 species for 2018. SANDWICH TERN 70, MED' GULL 44, WIMBREL 7, KNOT (in summer plumage 2),   TURNSTONE 1plus REDSHANK, RINGED PLOVER, DUNLIN, HERRING GULL GBB GULL, LBB GULL, BH GULL, CORMORANT, and CURLEW. Sandwich Tern R