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

We are well into lockdown, as a team we are either working from home, on an emergency rota ensuring the  Country Parks that have open access are safe, clean and secure or redeployed within the authority. It seems that the vast majority of people are heeding the advice and instructions to stay at home except for the permitted activities, I have been taking my daily exercise hour walking around one of our green spaces, Sandy Water Park, as it is only 300m from my front door, I can honestly say that I am seeing fewer and fewer people out and about which is a good sign, I vary the time of day I go out and again can say I've not seen any obvious infringements of the social distancing advice. (well one which was being dealt with by the Police) The Gorsedd Stones,  looking over the lake at Sandy Water Park It seem the majority of people appreciate the ability to be able to enjoy some wonderful countryside and amazing views on their door step, which brings me to some observation

Living so close to Sandy Water Park makes for an easy "permitted exercise" walk. This morning in cool overcast conditions I walked the mile or so around the lake with less than a dozen people seen let alone passed. Waterfowl are making their way back north to breed so it is this that may have increased the count of Tufted Duck up to 13 from 8 yesterday and Pochard, a duck in decline, up from one to two this morning.  Small numbers but when logic is applied to what is going on in the natural world it makes sense to notice the small things. Just as I approached the end of the walk a small flock of Sand Martins arrived, careful viewing located a lone Swallow always a pleasure to see the first one, I expect that with the wind turning more southerly this will provide a boost to arriving migrants. Swallows have been the source of some odd myths one from the 16th century tries to explain where they disappear too each autumn. Archbishop Olaus Magnus of Uppsala theorised that

Well some of you probably think I'm "cuckoo" anyway, but here I'm looking at another cuckoo, in fact a wonderful spring flower which goes by several names. It's common names  Cuckooflower, Lady's Smock, Milkmaids, and Fairy flower with it's scientific name Cardamine pratensis A plant of early spring in damp grassland, damp meadows, the banks of streams and also on road verges as a result of compaction of the soil making a more moisture retentive medium. The young leaves can be eaten instead of say, Cress as they have a peppery taste, it is the county flower of Breckonshire and Cheshire where it is known as Milkmaids Lady's Smock grows reasonable commonly in the county. There is a particular butterfly associated with the plant that is the Orange Tip, with freshly emerged adults on the wing from April through to mid June, after spending the winter as pupae. Only the male has "orange tips" to its wings but the underside pattern is

So the clocks have gone forward, and the weather is more like a winters day, cold dry and clear with a biting wind. Nonetheless if you are able to take some exercise, in line with the guidance and instructions we are living to, even just in the garden,then the chances are you will bump into nature. I appreciate many of you are unable to get out and take some exercise, but living about 300m from Sandy Water Park gives me an opportunity to walk around the lake, on alternate days, which is about 1 mile, a slight detour gives me views out over the Burry inlet and Carmarthen Bay. Yesterday it was on my walk, with only a handful of others around, I stopped to check the sea for anything of interest, a dark blob just offshore turned into a dark coloured duck, looking a little chunky then it dived, when it surfaced it took flight and the dark blob showed a lot of white in the "secondaries" of its wing feathers, it took a few seconds to eliminate what it wasn't, and come to the

The rangers and I had planned several night-time nature walks in the country parks this coming season, obviously due to the current situation all events are off until we return to normality. One event was going to be a look at moths in Pembrey Country Park using a light trap set out overnight. Fortunately before we made the difficult decision to close our Country Parks, I had left a moth trap working overnight and caught a few moths as luck would have it one of the moths turned out to be particularly uncommon on the coast of Carmarthenshire, the Northern Drab moth is well named as it’s not very colourful, a first record for the Country Park and local experts were very interested in this find. Northern drab Why not look for moths in your garden, already the spectacular Hummingbird Hawk Moth, a daytime flying moth which migrates from warmer climes was seen in a Burry Port garden feeding on Primroses. I suspect the moth was helped along by the flow of south easterly winds

I risked putting a moth trap out last night, in the hope of capturing my first moths of the year. I set the trap on the edge of the woodland and caught six moths, more than I expected given how cold it was last night.  Oak Beauty, "A" Drab, Hebrew Character and Chestnut made up the catch. Oak Beauty "A" Drab to be identified A stunning day followed, attracting many visitors to the Country Park despite all the sensible advice from the Government and the scientists. In a responsible move to help limit the impact of Covid-19 all of Carmarthenshire County Council managed parks and green spaces will be closed to the public until further notice. Difficult times so keep safe.

I've been working from home for a few days and have managed to get out and about in Sandy Water Park. Very few waterfowl about with only five Mute Swans this morning, a few Gadwall and Mallard. Pochard are down to a single male.  Two Cormorants were on the "island" both just getting into breeding plumage, note the white neck and thigh patches. Yesterday a distant flock of eight Sand Martins, my first summer migrant, this morning well over 50 were feeding low over the lake despite the chilly breeze, a single Chiffchaff was calling from the woods. Sand Martins are colonial hole nesters and have nested in the pulverised ash cliffs around Burry Port for many years, a good place to see them, if you find thye are nesting then let me know Gulls were present with c100 Black-headed, a pair of Lesser black backed and around 10 Herring Gulls, a confiding Grey Heron near the pub and a Little Grebe. Please note, during this time of uncertainty, wh