Last fortnight

Sunset over the Burry Inlet.

The birding has been pretty slow over the last couple of weeks. I'd have thought that with all the strong winds coming up the estuary, we might have had a phalarope or two on the saline lagoon. Or with all the time I've been spending doing work around woodland, and being in almost constant presence of tit flocks I might have been lucky enough to find a yellow-browed warbler. But no, not even a firecrest!


Peak wader and wildfowl counts over the last two weeks have included 661 Black-tailed Godwit, 415 Curlew, 258 Knot, five Spotted Redshank, 351 Redshank, 29 Greenshank, 106 Lapwing, 19 Dunlin, two Grey Plover, five Snipe, 126 Wigeon, 104 Teal, 42 Tufted Duck, 53 Shoveler, 55 Pintail, 141 Gadwall, two Pochard, six Little Grebe and a Mediterranean Gull.

Over the last few weeks we've been doing a lot of work strimming and clearing away scrub from the path verges to increase the plant diversity and to prevent encroachment of bramble. I'm looking forward to the various orchids that we'll be seeing in the spring. We've put the cut vegetation to good use by using it to make reptile and amphibian habitats around the site. These include a base layer of logs to provide cavities for grass snakes to lay their eggs in, and a thick layer of the cut vegetation to provide insulation. We've also placed rubber mats and sheets of corrugated iron nearby for snakes to warm themselves, and logs have been leant up against the sides of the structure to give lizards a place to sun themselves.

Another job carried out earlier in the week was the clearance of a 60 metre long channel in front of the Peter Scott hide. This involved wearing chest waders and immersing ourselves up to our waists in thick silt and a tangle of reedmace roots, the reedmace being the main plant that we were pulling up.

Once the trees are cut down on this island it should look a lot better and perhaps attract a bittern in - I've got my fingers crossed!

I'll finish this post off with this lovely drinker moth catapillar that I found on Wednesday sunning itself on a leaf. This is a species of moth that overwinters as a larvae before pupating in the spring. I'm not sure if this one has come out of hibernation to feed, or whether it hasn't actually gone into hibernation yet, perhaps not surprising given the warm end to the year? Also in the area were three Chiffchaff; a good number for this time of year.

Drinker moth caterpillar