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

Today I took a short break from the office to patrol the beach with Ranger-Scott, as usual Cefn Sidan was just magical with big skies, a receeding tide and rough sea it was a pleasure to be out, there were a few hardy souls on the beach but with 8 miles of open space we could have been just anywhere. With the Air Weapons Range closed for the weekend we managed to get to Tywyn Point and a look at perhaps the best known wreck on the beach, the SV PAUL although I doubt many day visitors make it that far! SV Paul (Wikipedia) "In 1925 the PAUL crossed the Atlantic from Cadiz to St. John, Newfoundland and loaded 2,000 tons of timber at Halifax for Dublin. On 30 October she ran into severe gales, losing many sails and her anchors; eventually grounding on the Cefn Sidan sands as without any auxiliary motive power she was unable to make an escape. On this occasion she had a crew of twelve, with a cook, the master and a teenage stewardess   Another reference cites her ground

The second cohort of learners from a local primary arrived promptly for their Life on the Beach session at Pembrey Country Park. They were very excited having been spurned on by tales of yesterdays adventures from their school friends.. a hard act to follow then! After the usual briefing of; don't go in the sea, don't throw sand around, and don't pick up glass or metal, we set off, in colder and gloomy conditions than yesterday Yesterday we headed West along the beach, today we headed East. Very similar finds to yesterday with the added bonus of a football sized clump of Common Whelk eggs, all unhatched, a lot more Edible Crab shells, Sea Potato casts and large pieces of Furbelows Seaweed , a really odd looking seaweed so odd in fact I didn't take a photo... Furbelows Seaweed , copyright Science photo library The freshly dead and headless body of a Great Northern Diver was an interesting if a little sad find; it did however give an opportunity to discuss an

Before Christmas, a local primary school had booked school visits to Pembrey Country Park for today and tomorrow- a beach visit in the middle of January, the prevailing weather I had no idea what the day would bring; well despite being overcast the day was dry, mild and no breeze. So it was 55 learners, the head of school with teachers and teaching assistants arrived for a morning on the beach. With a falling tide there was much to explore and it wasn't long before everyone started turning up some great finds, the recent bad weather across the Atlantic was reflected with the wide range of seaweeds including some kelp types which we rarely see on Cefn Sidan. G ood numbers of "mermaids purses" which many of the youngsters knew were Shark and Ray egg cases with Small Spotted Cat Shark, Blond Ray and Nurse-hound in quantity. Other great finds included the first living Prickly Cockles and Acetone(a marine snail), inside an empty Otter Shell was an Anenome, possibly a

At last a "nice day", cool with light breeze. A bird count on Cefn Sidan at not the best  state of tide but still decent numbers of waders with the following between C56, the beach entrance at the Country Park, and the AWR tower.  Knot c1500, Sanderling c1000, Bar Tailed Godwit 2, Scoter c1000 offshore and a Red Throated Diver , (not as I mistakenly posted as a Black Throated Diver on Carmarthenshire Birds) Red-Throated Diver  © solopursiuts Sanderling © (C Dalton) I ventured to look for the reported Great Northern Diver(s) off Old Pembrey Harbour but not seen. The team have spent a few hours over the past few days removing large quantities of plastic which appeared on yesterdays tide from Cefn Sidan, and it was nice to see families doing their bit today picking up some of the smaller pieces of plastic, THANKS In the park itself the best to report was a pair of Gadwall on the main pond, although the feeding station had a good range of woodland spec

The winter equinox will occur at something like 04:19hrs on the morning of Sunday 22nd December, and astronomical winter will begin, ending on 20th March 2020; now that's the way I remember winter being none of this winter starting on 1st December, which is just to make the statistics work! Maybe now that winter is "official" we will get some winter weather..... The wintering flocks have arrived in force with well over 3000 Knot on the beach and at the least the same figure of Golden Plover high over Kidwelly Marsh, four Bar-tailed Godwits were in amongst the Knot flock, there were good numbers of Sanderling and Oystercatcher with very good numbers of Common Scoter flying East offshore Knot (photo Colin Dalton) Sanderling (photo Colin Dalton) I had hoped for some raptors on the beach or even some nice passerines, in fact both were absent. Also absent today were the "white buckets" that have been washing up along the coast as a result of being lost

Its been a while! With 19 day still to run of 2019 I hope its not too early to post a round up of how the year has been for me. There have been personal highlights, a few wildlife highlights as well as the humdrum that is daily life. The death this week of the larger than life Dr David Bellamy has made me reflect on where my passion for the natural world started to blossom into life. I remember many of his TV shows and perhaps more importantly his passion for botany. I also remember the ITV? children's programme "Magpie" from the 70's which spurned me on to join the Young Ornithologists Club, even forming a local group based at the Afan Argoed Country Park, I was only 15 at the time. There is no doubt that the influence of both my parents and their love of the countryside played in big part in my learning, I remember my bedroom decorated not with "pop star" posters but with collages of leaves and twigs from the local forest, things in jars, and dis

Today saw an "introduction to bird watching" event run at Pembrey Country Park. Five adults and seven 11 and under, hopefully, enjoyed the 3.5hour session. Starting off with the basics in the conference room we wasted no time in getting outside into a perfect autumn morning of cool but rising temperatures and clear blue skies. A total of around 20 species was enough to ensure everyone learned something from the morning. Spotted Flycatcher Highlights were firstly a single Spotted Flycatcher then THREE of them together in a classic open piece of pine forest with good understorey structure; they were constantly "fly catching" no doubt piling on the grams before their epic journey south. Britain's smallest bird, the Goldcrest put in an appearance as did a male Sparrowhawk and a distant Peregrine Falcon. Other sightings included good numbers of Red Admiral butterflies feeding on Ivy flowers, with singles of Painted Lady, Ringlet, Speckled Wood Comma and