An evening walk at Crymlyn Burrows, Swansea Bay

Sanderling on Swansea Bay

Date:  24 July 2017

Location:  Crymlyn Burrows, Swansea

The weather has been really weird the last few days, so when the sun decided to shine at 6 o'clock we made our way to one of our favourite nature havens: Crymlyn Burrows, Swansea Bay.

I have written a few blogs on this special place and every time I visit I always discover something new. Now owned by Swansea University, this  SSSI designated area has an array of different habitats: salt marsh, woodland and sand dunes. We were only there for a hour and this is what we discovered...

Dragonfly - needs IDing

Evening Primrose flowers

The sandy dunes to the beach

When we got to the beach we noticed lots of jellyfish were being washed up on the beach (we counted over 20 ranging from small to gigantic ones). I think they are barrel jellyfish, but not 100% sure - be great if someone could confirm that they are.

Apart from the jellyfish there was a lovely group of sanderlings near the shoreline. I love the way the run away when the waves come in, then follow it back out...lovely little birds and a new spotting for #My200BirdYear (I am now on 124).

Sanderling

Sanderlings near the waves

Sanderlings with Mumbles in the background

On the way back to the car we spotted more interesting things such as a flock of linnets, a 11 spotted ladybird and a pellet. Crymlyn Burrows is one of my favourite places in the world, a great place to explore...

A flock of linnets

=

A ladybird

Some sort of bird pellet

Crymlyn Burrows SSSi, Neath Port Talbot - 12/3/2016

Saturday 3rd March was a bit of a dull, cloudy and chilly day, but we decided to get up early and go out exploring anyway. We visited one of our favourite nature spots Crymlyn Burrows to see what we could see.

Crymlyn Burrows is a SSSI area and lies between Neath Port Talbot and Swansea - There is a salt marsh, sand dunes, woodland and access to Swansea Bay - it is an awesome place to spot wildlife and this is what we discovered on that day...

The tide was in, which pretty much covers most of the reserve. In the distance is Baglan Energy Park  and the hills behind are Margam.

The first bird we saw was a little egret stalking the water's edge for food. I have never seen one in Crymlyn Burrows before, a very beautiful bird. (Photo credit: @Danturner23)

Seeing the tide was in we were unable to walk through the reserve. Instead, we followed the path than runs around the outside of the burrows where we started spotting plenty of birds:

Jay (you can just about make it out, sorry about the bad photo)

Blue Tit

Carrion Crow preening each other on nearby lampost

A pair of greylag geese in the distance.

There were lots of buzzards around and we found this pellet on the ground, full of small bones and fur.

One of the beautiful buzzards circling above.

There was plenty of fungi and plants around too, including this old turkey tail fungi...

...and this earth star fungi that was hidden in rotting wood.

Lots of gorse was flowering, brightening a rather grey day.

Continuing on the path we realised they were felling quite a few trees near the cycle track. I have tried to find out what is happening, so if you know I would be interested if you got in touch. There are lots of birds around this area...

Goldfinch

Dunnock

Good to see these new additions to the reserve, bins for litter and dog mess.

We made our way pass the new university and headed towards the dunes.

Another new addition were the signs to show the area is a SSSI with a few rules about protecting the habitat and vegetation...

...and warning sign to say 'Do not disturb the birds' - lets hope people read and respect these signs. We also noticed a new boardwalk had been laid to give people better access to the beach.

On the beach I couldn't see any birds to start, then I saw a small movement in the pebbles. There were infact lots of ringed plovers and sandlings(?)

Near the shoreline were oystercatchers.

Ringed plovers and sandlings(?)

Also lots of black headed gulls.

Lots of flotsam and jetsam washed up the beach, including this life ring...

...and creepy dolls head!

There were lots of mermaid purses on the beach. They are egg sacks, but not sure if it's from a ray, shark or skate?

We also found this huge bone, any ideas what it is? 

After walking awhile along the beach we made our way back over the dunes and into the burrows.

Here we start seeing more birds including a male stonechat...

...and here's the female stonechat looking rather plump!

A skylark in the long grass

A rook stalks the dunes.

Skylarks forage in the seaweed left from the water from high tide.

Some pretty, colourful turkey tail fungi on a nearby log.

The male stonechat is joined by a male reed bunting.

Crossing a very muddy river (there are car wheels in the water, acting like stepping stones...but it still gets very muddy)

A black headed gull on the mud. It's loosing its winter black head and will be left with a small black splash on it's head in the summer.

Close up of the male reed bunting - a very striking looking bird.

The burrows looked a lot different from when we came in the morning, the tide was now low and this revealed more plants and wildlife on the reserve.

A redshank wades in the water.

A flock of rock pipits were in the tree.

Back at the car we realised there was a lot of litter thrown in the trees, luckily we had our litter picking stuff in the car...

...so three bags later, it looked alot better :)

Crymlyn Burrows is one of my favourite places to visit, you are guaranteed to see lots of wildlife any time of year and whatever the weather is. It's important we protect such a valuable habitat and hopefully the new Swansea University will too.

Click here to check out my other blog from 

Crymlyn Burrows last year.