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

Prynhawn da pawb, I thought I would try and summarise what has been going on in the last few months. The biggest development has to be the work we are conducting at our Ynysdawela Local Nature Reserve in Upper Brynamman. middle path above the river  This 16ha woodland site sits on the north side of the valley   and consists of former coal workings and farmland. Much   of the site is now secondary woodland with a small area of   Ancient Semi Natural Woodland, some marshy grassland   meadows, ponds and of course the River Amman on its   southern boundary. Meadow recovery in progress Work has concentrated on removing old infrastructure, improving the path network and managing the meadows more appropriately. Notable species are Hazel Dormouse and Marsh Fritillary butterfly, although work by Liam Olds and Christian Owen has identified a wealth of invertebrate life, but I'll leave that for another time. Access to the site is not straightforward but a few cars can park on Llandeilo Rd and

  Hi, after a long hiatus I'm going to give the Blog another life. I've moved on since the last blog and now work as the conservation Coordinator for Carmarthenshire County Council's Outdoor Recreation Service with six local Nature Reserves (LNR) to manage along with providing advice to our estates and operations teams. Despite last nights light snowfall we are well on our way into spring with recent days bringing in a lot of Chiffchaffs and Willow Warblers, Blackcaps have been recorded in smaller numbers. My first Northern Wheatear was a week or so ago a nice fresh male. I need to remember h ow this blog thing works so bear with me; if the technology works here is a short drone video of our two new nesting rafts, one at Sandy Water Park and the other at Ffynnon Helyg, thanks to ranger Oliver for the video .

  Well its ages since I've found time to write a blog post apologies for that but here we go with some interesting facts and personal thoughts about Carmarthenshire wildlife, and a bit further afield. Did you know: That we have a County plant, Whorled Caraway, Carum verticullatum ; found in typical Rhos pasture a feature of the Carmarthenshire landscape though often under threat from changes in agricultural practices Did you Know: That there are 311 species of birds recorded as being seen in the county, a respectable figure by an measure, amongst the rarities are Blue-winged Teal, a species from North America, Black Stork an European species which itself has a limited range. Having a decent stretch of well watched coastline the county is well placed for observers to document the seasonal arrival and departures of migrating birds such as Northern Wheatear, Swift, Willow Warbler, the Carmarthenshire Bird Club is a very welcoming bunch of like minded individuals and its well worth joi

I have recently been asked  to look at  a number of litter issues along the coast, it's always disappointing to see litter washed up anywhere but especially on "our" coastline. As regular readers will know I have blogged about this world wide problem often, but only when you look closely do you see the impacts made by marine bourn litter, especially of course, plastic in it's many guises. Over, probably thousands of years man has dumped unwanted materials, of course it wasn't always plastic, but no matter what was dumped much is now incorporated into the geomorphology of the landscape, especially beaches, dunes and saltmarshes. Driftwood is a natural stabiliser of the beaches and dunes, trapping, holding and allowing sand to form embryonic dunes quickly colonised by a range of "pioneer" plants, you only need to look at the recently exposed dune faces to see how man made items have also been doing the job of natural materials, making removing them very da

  A perfect morning with the right conditions, overcast not a breath of wind and importantly no rain, for a brief ringing session at Pembrey Country Park, in fact apart from two Swallows this is the first session for me since 17th December 2019, a combination of weather, Covid-19 and enthusiasm. I've managed to find another very suitable location for woodland ringing, and despite the likelihood of a "Tit fest"  (ringers know what I mean) there is potential for it to be quite productive. The best of the morning were three Coal Tits, all hatched this year, a Great Spotted Woodpecker again a bird of the year, a Blackcap and two Nuthatches ( BTO code-Nutha), I've not seen a Nuthatch at the Country Park in the five years I've been involved with the team so to capture two a male and a female has been a success. I have a purpose designed nest box which I received as a gift some years ago which has been out of action since moving back to Wales so it will be put to good us

  A taste of Autumn indeed, with gusts over 50mph recorded at the Met office weather station - Pembrey Sands, it was no surprise to discover that there has been more erosion of the dunes along Cefn Sidan, no doubt the missing sand will reappear somewhere else along the coast. A couple of decomposing Common striped Dolphins were not, I feel, connected with the storm, the Ravens were not shy in tucking into them. On the bird front a quick visit to Old Pembrey Harbour yesterday afternoon was good with four Knot, in excess of 50 Ringed Plover, a few Sandwich Terns and Mediterranean Gulls with 800 Oystercatchers. Today a check of the beach at high tide revealed plenty of common Scoter riding out the rough seas off shore and a STORM PETREL, very close to the beach. Not regularly recorded in Carmarthenshire Storm Petrels are summer visitors and breed on the Pembrokeshire Islands so this could have been one blown of course in the storm, a very characteristic bird with an almost dainty flight a

The natural world doesn't follow the calendar as we do, it moves to it's own rhythm and can be evidenced by the birds we consider to be passage migrants, that's to say some arrive for the summer and some arrive for the winter. I see from the Carmarthenshire Bird Club sightings page that Ospreys have been seen today, origin will be unknown but their destination is likely to be West Africa, probably in the Senegal/Gambia regions were large numbers of them spend the winter and for this years youngsters they will probably spend a few summers there also. Osprey Migration   Northern Wheatears are another passage migrant that has appeared along the Carmarthenshire coast this week, this bird has one of the longest migrations for a passerine (perching bird), with individuals travelling as far as the Arctic to breed. Northern Wheatear migration Sanderling are another bird which travels long distances between its breeding and wintering grounds, of course not all of the birds travel al