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

A belated, Dydd Gwyl Dewi Hapus, Happy Saint David's Day. Yesterday was the start of meteorlogical spring, personally I'll wait for the Spring Equinox on 20th March before I get excited. Although nature is showing signs of the changing seasons that's more to do with day length rather than having hit a date in the calendar. So what have Daffodils to do with Wales,  In Wales, the daffodil is a symbol of our patron saint, David, (Dewi Sant in Welsh ) and of rebirth and faithfulness because they bloom every year even after the harshest winters. Daffodil in Welsh is Cenhinen Pedr - which literally translates as Pedr's (or Peter's) leek. The true Welsh daffodil is the Tenby daffodil, Narcissus pseudonarcissus ssp. obvallaris , a sub-species of the wild variety. Although it is likely this was originally a cultivated flower it now grows wild across south-west Wales. Tenby Daffodil (Dr Stuart Blackmore) It is planned to plant 500 each of both Nat

Records for rainfall are being broken all over Wales judging by the levels of standing water across Pembrey Country Park and the Nature Reserve we have had our fair share, of course without the devastating impact that other areas have suffered. As reported in previous blogs the most dramatic impacts we have seen are along the coast with our nationally important sand dunes bearing the brunt. A feature which has come to light with the erosion is the way in which the dunes have formed over recent times, by this I mean that you should look closely at the newly exposed faces of the dunes (keep a safe distance) and see for yourselves the interwoven driftwood, plastic and other manmade objects embedded in layers into the dunes. For the geology students among you the image is one of sedimentary deposition as the different layers are very clear. The dunes are usually formed when grains of sand collect against a fixed object, such as driftwood; this catches and holds the sand al

The effect of two storms in less than a week are now being seen along the coast. Monday saw what appears to be a Short-beaked Common Dolphin, recently dead, washed up on the beach, [any marine mammal experts out there let me know if my ID is wrong] and nearby a Guillemot, this weekend one of our rangers, Oliver, will be carrying out the annual winter Beached-Bird Survey, if there is more to report I'll post in a blog. Short Beaked Common Dolphin? The occasional storm casualty is to be expected even amongst those animals designed for a life in the ocean as such death is part of the natural cycle of things. Today however was a sight that I have not witnessed before, probably 100's of thousands of the Common Otter Shell,  Lutraria lutraria, either dead or dying washed up along Cefn Sidan. The empty shells of this large, up to 15cm long, marine bivalve (bivalve= a mollusc having a hinged double shell) are a common feature of the beach so where have all these fresh intact i

It occurs to me when I write the blog that perhaps many of the readers don't really know who I work for, all comments and opinions are my own of course, so as the title suggests todays blog is written to bring clarity and hopefully understanding to some of the previous blogs., I will look at Pembrey and Llyn Llech Owain Country Parks' Our readily identifiable logo can be seen across all of the sites we manage I work as the co-ordinator for volunteers & education for Carmarthenshire County Councils' Outdoor Recreation Service, part of Leisure Services within the Directorate for Communities. The service is responsible for the County owned and managed Country Parks, Green Spaces, Local Nature Reserves and the Pendine Outdoor Education Centre; my remit covers the Country Parks and Green Spaces. The Country Parks are Pembrey, (PCP) and Llyn Llech Owain,(LLO) whilst the Green Spaces include Mynydd Mawr Woodland Park,(MW)  the Millennium Coastal Park (MCP) and Bu

Many followers will know that Wednesday has become our traditional volunteering day, so today I was joined by one of our VIP's, (volunteer in parks) another Paul. The volunteers have a project to refurbish the entrance to Pembrey Country Park complimenting the soon to be installed new entrance sign, and in doing so improve the ground flora to benefit pollinators. The area either side of the barrier has looked neglected for sometime so it was with some determination that the two of us set about tackling the "easy" right hand side. The idea is to open up the approaching vista, get more light to the ground under the mature trees and generally just make the entrance more welcoming.  Armed with our new tools funded by Welsh Government via the Local Nature Partnership we set about making light work of the task !!!! Before VIP Paul in action We soon discovered that the majority of the saplings were already dead, with the remainder suffering from

Memorable for all the wrong reasons storm Ciara slammed into the UK over the weekend, with coastal communities along the West coast being battered with high winds and rain. Image from Met Eireann At Pembrey the storm has left an interesting trail of damage, with the RAF Pembrey Sands weather station recording sustained wind speeds of 45mph and gusts of around 62mph. Combined with the tide at the peak of the monthly cycle with high tides of 9.0m there were bound to be consequences. The line of dunes from Tywyn Point at the Western edge of Cefn Sidan  to The Nose at the Eastern edge has borne the brunt of both wind and tide with tonnes of sand being eroded from the dunes leaving high flat dune faces, which has resulted in advice not to access the beach from either CE54 or CE 55. With plenty of winter weather still to go it is likely that there will be further erosion of the dunes. The benches at the main beach entrance! (photo L Walters) Dramatic dunes and seascape (L

Wearing a different hat, as the regional representative for the BTO, I am putting out a plea for volunteers to carry out Breeding Bird Surveys (BBS) and/or Heronry surveys. Having contacted registered BTO members across the county I have had a very positive response to the email I sent, with possibly two new heronries identified already. Just to whet peoples appetite here is a list of the known heronries in Carmarthenshire, if anyone wants to express interest in visiting and confirming breeding this year please get in touch, also see links to the BTO Heronries and BBS pages. https://www.bto.org/our-science/projects/heronries-census https://www.bto.org/our-science/projects/bbs HERONRIES, (some duplicates) CARM SN794126 Ystradgynlais, Giedd Forest SN7912 CARM SN778112 Upper Cwm-twrch (Palleg) (Brynhenllys) SN7711 CARM SN753309 Allt Cwar Mawr, Llandovery (or Allt Trefenty, Llwyn y wermwd Park) (GR=SN773322?